"Being black and being outside is revolutionary."

August 27, 2024 3:14 PM

“Isolation, Microaggressions, and Empowerment — My Experience as the Only Black Woman Raft Guide on the Arkansas River in Cañon City, Colorado”
posted by box (14 comments total)

I'm a member of a few outdoor clubs in the PNW, and in the last five years there has been a huge increase in specific advocacy at underrepresented communities in the outdoors. While it would be pretty difficult to gatekeep all of the outdoors, these orgs have a huge presence in the community around these hobbies and traditionally would serve as gatekeepers. There are still some stereotypically bad people in these orgs, but the "kids" that are slowly replacing them generally seem pretty rad. This, and essays like this, are awesome to see even when they're documenting difficulties that people are facing.
posted by yeahwhatever at 3:58 PM on August 27 [5 favorites]

Most of the comments that people make about me are about my butt, my hair, my curves, or my lips.

Living in a (Colorado progressive) bubble, I am astounded that white people actually make remarks like this. People actually say, out loud, something about her butt and her lips?!
posted by kozad at 4:05 PM on August 27 [5 favorites]

Thank you for posting this, box. I’m glad Jamilah Toure was brave enough to share her experience with the rest of us. I’m reminded by it of how much work there is to do in this world.
posted by hilaryjade at 5:42 PM on August 27 [6 favorites]

There is a large conservative population in the suburban and rural areas of Colorado. Cañon City, being the site of a maximum security correctional facility, would, unsurprisingly, be one.
posted by evilDoug at 5:50 PM on August 27 [1 favorite]

colorado, like a lot of western states, has very few black people. something like 4-5% of the population is black and i’m guessing the vast majority of those folks live in denver/boulder or other cities and their suburbs. the people that live in rural areas and never hardly leave might have never seen a black person except on television, an insane thought to me as a born southerner but that’s definitely the impression i got from the rural west. they’re not even necessarily racist exactly, i mean they are but it’s mostly just received “wisdom” and unfamiliarity. they just don’t have any real relationship with black folks and so meeting one is like meeting someone from a foreign country
posted by dis_integration at 6:00 PM on August 27 [4 favorites]

they're like this with foreigners, too?
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:33 PM on August 27

Black people are so Othered in predominantly white America (despite being Americans, of course) that I believe and understand that yes, people said things about her body, butt, lips, and hair. It may not have been as tone deaf as, "My what big lips you have," but more along the lines of "Your lips are *so* different from mine!"

And if they happen to be a certain type of white person who comes from a white person bubble, they are simply saying whatever pops into their head about this "exotic" black person, not at all understanding that what they are saying should be censored. This is called white privilege, white supremacy, or Centering of the White Person's Experience.
posted by honey badger at 7:05 PM on August 27 [11 favorites]

Yeah, we lived in Colorado Springs for several years, and while I generally really enjoyed the region despite the fact that it was clearly more conservative, Cañon City freaked me the fuck out. That place has a serious old west sheriff-y vibe in a big way. I mean, I would stop and get gas there or whatever, but I did not want to spend any more time there than absolutely necessary. Just a big ol nope.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 4:18 AM on August 28 [3 favorites]

Mod note: One removed, please avoid general calls for violence.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:03 AM on August 28 [2 favorites]

The infamous photograph , KKK on a ferris wheel , taken in Canon City .
posted by hortense at 11:59 AM on August 29

Good on Jamila Toure for living the life that she loves and kicking ass on the river.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 12:40 PM on August 29 [1 favorite]

KKK on a ferris wheel , taken in Canon City.

Incredible. I had never seen that before. As a kind of addendum to the piece in this post, it really sets the background. Nobody in that photo is alive today, but their grandchildren almost certainly are, and some of their children. And they probably still live in Cañon City
posted by dis_integration at 2:10 PM on August 29

And still employed as Baptist pastors , cops, and prison guards.
posted by hortense at 8:53 AM on August 30

> People actually say, out loud, something about her butt and her lips?!

I believe it. It would be something like "I love your pants! They fit your curves so well! You're so curvy! I wish I were curvy like you! I have the flattest butt, I'm 60% Swedish and 40% Irish and so I have a flat butt!" I've heard that kind of thing plenty of times from my fellow white women. Not insults, but smiley little reminders that you are different.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:14 AM on September 6 [1 favorite]