A thread at the Backpacking.net forums wonders why so many backpackers tend to be predominantly white folks (and predominantly white guys, at that).
GoBlog brought this up a few weeks back in a post skewering the lily-whiteness of Outside magazine and its Patagonia-clad readers.
I don’t see minority groups being excluded from the backcountry, and I don’t see how their cultural preferences against camping out in the woods are hurting them socially or economically, so I’m not investing a anxiety over the issue of diversity on the trails. Would it be better if more people of varying ethnicities appreciated a vigorous walk in the country? Sure, if they pick up after themselves.
I just thought of a great Far Side cartoon: Picture two bears in a campsite, with an overline that says “Diversity in the deep woods.” One bear is saying to the other: “You know, people really are all the same on the inside.”
I’ve seen Asian day-hikers, but I haven’t seen any other Asian backpackers so far in the States. Since I am from Taiwan, I can’t help but put a lot of thoughts into it.
The initial cost of backpacking is actually high, For my generation, it’s not too big a problem, but to my parents’ generation, they never had the luxury to think about this. Right now in China and in Taiwan, backpacking is a rising activity, so in another decade or so, I believe there will be more Asians on the trails.
This is a topic that has interested me for some time. There are a number of interesting social, cultural, and economic issues at work here, and I do not think they are unimportant.
But right now I’m at work and don’t have time for a long post. (We’re all lucky sometimes, right? 😉
However, it depends partly on where you hike. For example, the crowd I see on the trails south of San Jose (Almaden Quicksilver, Calero, Santa Teresa, etc.) seems to correspond with that “predominantly white folks” description.
On the other hand, take a hike up Mission Peak some weekend morning and experience a trail with a wonderful and happy diversity of hikers!
Dan
Mission Peak is precisely why I feel it all comes down to people’s personal preferences, because there’s no dominant ethnicity there.
GoBlog’s point about a white-dominated outdoor industry being doomed by changing demographics is a valid one, but 100 years of successful advertising & marketing campaigns convince me that as soon as the outdoor world discovers money to be tapped in non-white audience, they’ll have their Come-to-Jesus moment on diversity.
I (white boy) was a minority for a year when I lived in Chimayo in New Mexico. I trained in the Sangre de Christo mountains around Truchas Peak that year, and I was always amazed when I would return to a snowy trail two weeks after hiking, and mine would still be the only tracks. I ended up concluding that hiking, at least in that area in the winter, was not a valued recreation of the old Spanish and Native American inhabitants of the area.