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Re: [maldaly] First African American to climb Denali?:
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JoyTrip
Feb 26, 2012, 11:53 PM
Views: 11978
Registered: Feb 26, 2012
Posts: 10
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First I want to thank Malcolm Daly for asking this question on my behalf. I'm pleased and surprised to see that it prompted such a vigorous discussion. So I'd also like to express my appreciation for those of you who have participated and shared your comments. To help you all understand where I'm coming from you need to k now that I am part of a group of climbers who aim to put the first African-American team on the summit of Denali in 2013. I'm a freelance journalist who's written and continues to write several stories on the issue of diversity in outdoor recreation in general and climbing in particular. I had posed the question of the first black person to climb Denali in the hopes putting our efforts into historical context. FYI it was Charlie Crenchaw a member of the Seattle Mountaineers who was part of the 1964 McKinley Expedition.
As to why it matters it's important for us to realize in that same year millions of African-Americans couldn't even vote in this country and less than a decade earlier several National Parks were racially segregated. At a time when people of color in the U.S. seldom ventured out into wilderness areas for fear racially motivated violence few could have dreamed of ever scaling to the highest summit in North America. Crenchaw's climb marked a seminal point history when for the first time a black person in this country had the leisure time, financial resources, the social connections, skills and the inclination to exercise the right many of us take for granted today, the right to do what ever the hell we want to.
As for the present a community of climbers and outdoor enthusiasts that represents the depth and breath of our very diverse population is critical to the preservation of the wild and scenic places we love. As we begin to see a shift in our demographics to favor a non-white majority, as predicted to occur in 2042, what do suppose will happen if most of the people in our country have no interest in protecting wilderness? There will simply be no political will imposed to allocate federal funds or enact legislation to maintain those areas many of you in this forum love most.
There is great strength in diversity. Just as an ecosystem demonstrates its environmental strength by being able to maintain a variety of different species, a social moment, in this case mountaineering, shows it's strength by making itself attractive and relevant to as many different types of people as possible. So for our purposes the members of this climbing team aim to show that despite limited representation in the media and popular culture, black people do climb, we are environmentalists and we're prepared to make all those who hope to join us feel welcome.
Please follow along on our journey. The first post on Expedition Denali, inspiring diversity in the outdoors can be found on my blog The Joy Trip Project.org: http://joytripproject.org/...y-diversity-matters/
(This post was edited by JoyTrip on Feb 26, 2012, 11:56 PM)
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Post edited by JoyTrip
() on Feb 26, 2012, 11:56 PM
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