For people of color, hiking isn’t always an escape
By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal
Earlier this summer Jenna Yokoyama set out to plan a backpacking trip to northern Idaho.
But before committing she wanted to know if non-white hikers would be safe in a region known as a hotbed for white supremacists.
It was an important question for Yokoyama, 34, a Japanese-American and avid hiker who said several years earlier she was a target of racial taunting in Lone Pine while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.
She posted invitations in Facebook groups for the Pacific Crest, John Muir and Appalachian trails.
Almost immediately the posts generated dozens of comments, many supportive but others accused her of everything from promoting separate trails for white people and non-white people, seeking to form exclusive cliques and even warning her to stay off the trail because she wasn’t worthy of search and rescue help should she get in trouble.
Moderators of the various trail groups sought to prevent hateful and ignorant comments, but the damage was done.
What a sad and disgusting piece of irony that an American of Japanese descent would find bigotry and racism in Lone Pine, a mere handful of miles from the Manzanar Relocation Center where 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were interned during the Second World War after being forced to give up most of their property and belongings.
Anyone unfamiliar with this sad piece of American history should make the effort to visit the Manzanar National Historic Site off US 395 just north of Lone Pine: George Santayana’s observation “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it” seems more and more to be hovering over us these days.
human beings only live 75 yrs or so avg and are experience based learners…you just do not live long enough to learn much.
It was encouraging to read about the groups working to encourage people who have not gotten out in nature to give it a try. There is much research affirming the positive impact of immersing oneself in the natural world on people.The Japanese practice of “forest bathing” comes to mind.