VIDEO: Proud Michigander being proud about Michigan
Now, don’t get me wrong, I think back fondly of the days that are described in this video. The days when there used to be enough snowfall to go sledding late at night, the days when snow was so deep we could dig tunnels that were taller than most of the neighborhood kids…I remember those days and loved them and am alternatively sad and scared shitless that my kids have no similar experiences.
However…it does irritate me that there is literally not one visible person of color in this video. First, it completely erases my experience as a poor Mexican living in Michigan: We used multiple layers of socks for mittens when it got really cold, we wore secondhand/mismatched boots and snowmobile suits, we often used tires instead of sleds, and many of us had parents who had literally never seen snow–but we went outside and had a marvelous time anyway.
Why is the outdoors always presented as something that is “done” by white folks? And what’s more, why is the outdoors always presented as something that is done by RICH white folks (snowmobiles, skis, skates, etc)? In our community, we did the outdoors the same way George Lopez talks about ‘doing’ the baseball game or Disney Land–on the extreme dime and in bunches.
Is there something about tons of poor dark people ‘doing’ the outdoors that is not pleasing to the eye, or even threatening? Judging by how hard people fight to kick so many of us (poor, people of color, disabled, immigrants, women, etc) off of public land, I would have to say yes.
This erasure or denial of people of color using public outdoor land has many effects–first, and most importantly, it criminalizes our presence on these lands. It criminalizes people of color for being outside. Which, as we’ve come to see in the past, the criminalization of people of color in the public sphere has tragic consequences more often than not.
If a whole group of people (in fact, probably the majority of people) don’t have unrestricted freedom of movement, is that group free? Is it fair to say that a mark of true liberation (or true privilege) is the ability to maintain an unchallenged presence outdoors? That it’s not getting a person of color as a president, but having the right of any person of color to lay their naked ass outside for days at a time and not be shot, jailed, beat up, raped, or otherwise accosted, enforced and deeply respected as a human right and necessary?
ETA: I just remembered this excellent post by The Adventurist on the life of Sherpas in Tibet. Sherpas are people who “help” mountain climbers achieve their dreams of climbing big ass mountains. But as The Adventurist’s post points out–when it comes to moving out from underneath the ‘labor’ signifier–Sherpas getting recognized for setting records, getting their own sponsors–it’s almost impossible, no matter how good they are. I think it really centers what I was trying to talk about in this post–how is the ‘Outdoors’ as a site of recreation or even free enterprise, limited to “whiteness”?
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December 2nd, 2008 at 5:47 pm #
This is a very complicated idea (to me, at least) and maybe we can all unpack it together.
You could start by looking at it through colonialism – white man going to conquer nature to make it fit for their consumption. But I feel like maybe that’s too simplistic. There *is* an element of classism as you’ve pointed out.
Hmm.
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm #
Just thinking about winter sports,history and geography, those sports are a northern European thing. And then again, a northern U.S. thing. So they have a whole tradition of representation, early modern Dutch painting, Currier & Ives …
And a recent history. When my grandfather, a working class guy all his life, came over from Norway early in the last century, skiing was so exotic that rich people would pay him to come out to the country club and ski so they could watch him.
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm #
Hi – found your site through criticalbloggers via Critical Moment…I’m newish in town (born in raised in Lansing, back in Michigan after 10 years of femme dyke finishing school in San Francisco and 7 of domestic restlessness in Santa Cruz, cause my partner got a job at Wayne State) – anyway, enjoying your blog. I wonder too about class position, how it’s apparently okay (if not somehow condidered especially appropriate) for people of color to LABOR outside but not to enjoy leisure in “nature”…the construction of nature being a whole big thing…and then also even though I am white the thought of camping with my female partner (for example) is prohibitively frightening. I’m not interested in skiing and love to walk; I also hate to drive and naturally walk a lot, which in Detroit is interesting and makes me feel aware of being “outside” in a particular way.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:14 am #
When I was a girl we went sledding on a large (it still looks rather large to me now as an adult, unlike most things, LOL) hill at the neighborhood elementary school (where I attended). Back then parents went with you and it was a family thing. Right below the hill and across the street are “the projects”. At that time, the only PoC in the immediate neighborhood lived in the projects or right surrounding the projects (I passed for white and my adoptive parents are white), whereas now there is much more integration in the wider neighborhood. I am thinking back on when I was a child sledding there, and I have to say, I don’t remember ANY of my PoC friends from school sledding with us. I am thinking of Sami (Mexican), Patrick (Native), Kim & Lotus (Korean) and the many many Black friends I had then. I really don’t think any of them ever came out to sled with the rest of us.
Nowadays however, living in the same neighborhood, I see much more children of color on that hill, perhaps even more than the white kids (and parents no longer attend).
I am wondering, in light of your post, a couple of things:
- Did PoC feel that they didn’t have the right to leave the projects and come join the rest of us to play?
- If so, why?
- Did it have something to do with the adults being present?
- Does it have something to do with the “ghettoization” of being in the projects, vs being “integrated” into the neighborhood and feeling like one can then “claim” all the rights associated with it?
That said, now not only is sledding on that particular hill no longer a family affair, but you rarely see a white child out there. Which makes me wonder if the white folks think the colored folks have “taken it over” and are afraid to let their children go there anymore… sigh…
(For the record, I hate winter and snow, and I had horrible experiences sledding that stupid hill, including getting entangled in a fence at the bottom. My own son is very outdoorsy but not into sledding either, but he has been up there a couple of times with friends.)
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:49 am #
When I go up north I think of going to the rez (reservation) to visit my family in the UP (upper peninsula of michigan). There you see a lot of Ojibway people. Yes, there are other folks (most Scandinavian) who mingle and get along well with the Ojibway people near the rez.
I did live up north last summer (near Traverse City) and felt very uncomfortable because I was among many many white folks. I was not where I was at today in regards to healing my hurts, pains and internalized oppression because of being Native. I often would get angry and felt very isolated in regards to being the only Native person for miles and miles.
“Up North” in Michigan is very romanticized. BFP – It is funny because I was just thinking of getting outside and connecting with the land today. And because it is cold I am not able to be outside as much and connect with the Earth. I have friends who have lived in Traverse City and popular areas like that who get frustrated at all the people who come “up north” to vacation. One of my friends is an activist, minimalist, environmentalist and feminist. She gets really upset with the fact that people do not respect the place and its beauty. She gets ultra upset at the fact that they build huge mansions on the shore of Lake Michigan. She also gets annoyed with the disrespect that many tribes get from the people who visit. I personally agree with her. I feel if you are to go up north you need to know and understand the land that you are on. Also, respect the knowledge and wisdom that the Native peoples offer in the places that you visit.
From an environmental perspective going “up north” can be equivalent to going to a mall. Pick the parks or the beach that you want to go to. Go to these places and not really connect with the land. BFP – another thing I was thinking this morning is that if I am to personally visit a place, like a beach or forest in northern Michigan then I must truly connect with it and respect it. On the contrary there are those who do really respect the land in these places and I have met many who really care about “up north.”
Great post!
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:17 am #
You’re right, it’s intentional, all us white folks had a secret meeting and decided you folks won’t be allowed in winter sports.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:32 am #
Joel–ho hum.
Yes. that’s exactly what I said. You’re right.
::rolls eyes::
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:48 am #
I wonder how much of that, aaminah, has something to do with not having the ‘right’ sledding stuff but not wanting to be embarrassed in front of folks who did? for example, when I lived at the University of Michigan’s family housing area, there were TONS of non-U.s. folks/poor folks who actively dumpster dived to find material to use in the snow–I remember our neighbors from China crafted something out of milk jugs, for example–but when you’ve got your tire or your milk jugs around tons of other people who also have tires and milk jugs, you don’t feel self-conscious at all, ya know? and then add in not being able to speak english ‘properly’ I prolly wouldn’t want to go outside either–the neighborhood I grew up in was very working class poor and diverse as well, so there was sorta the same mentality. nobody got snotty or felt bad because it was a common thing to have people looking different or not using ‘normal’ sledding stuff….
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:07 am #
Nora–hey! Good to meet you! Glad to see you in detroit, and I loved reading about your acupuncture program!
In regards to your thoughts about labor–I think you are SO right on, and I think it’s connected to what Meep said about colonialism. I know homeless people have a fuck of a time being outside on public lands as well–I know all of this stuff is connected–but I have to think further through how it all plays out and exactly how it’s connected.
just because it’s been on my mind lately–i’m also thinking of how at thomas jefferson’s plantation, the guides talked about how the set up of the plantation and house was aimed at minimizing white folks interaction with slaves and the ‘process’ of slavery (i.e. beatings, back breaking work, etc). So from the creation of the u.s., people of color were killed for being on the land, harness for labor, and kept invisible. what are the steps from *that* point that got us to where we are today?
::thinking::
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:18 am #
I finally found the link I was looking for: http://skinnymoose.com/adventurist/2008/06/03/reflections-on-a-glimpse-into-the-life-of-apa-sherpa/
That post, I think, really pinpoints the problem I’m talking about and others have mentioned when it comes to ‘labor’ and the place people of color have outdoors.
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:39 am #
glad to have found your new site!
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:47 am #
Interesting. I hear these commercials on the radio about every 10 minutes here in Chicago but have never seen the video. Michigan tourism advertising is all over the place here – and Tim Allen has at least one new ad per season. So to me this also brings up the question of – who is Michigan’s outdoors being marketed to? Well, I guess that’s obvious, but also maybe another way to think about many of the things that have already been said here.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:15 am #
Locally, I feel like this is connected to the romanticized image of “Up North” and the myth that every part of Michigan outside of Detroit and Benton Harbor is wholesome, rural and very very white.
I’ve been taking a group of Detroit HS students to a camp on Lake Huron for the past 3 years. Every year they are pretty close to the only people of color at the camp and while we very rarely encounter any overt hostility there’s often a subtle sense of “People of Color in our Up North vacation land? How odd.” On a more positive side, several of my students have said that although almost everyone we enounter there is white, they have less of the sense of “not-belonging” or hostility that they feel in white suburbs. I’m really sad that my bosses don’t want me to do these trips anymore so I’m trying to find money and time in our program to at least do day trips to rural areas.
The natural beauty of Michigan is something that everyone in Michigan should treasure. Which means actively fighting the myth that somehow people of color from the cities don’t get to be connected to nature.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:33 am #
annalouise–just out of curiosity–would you be able to accept money if we would do some fundraising? I don’t know how 501c3′s work (are you a 501c3?) but if you could accept the money, I’d be more than willing to post anything you wanted for fundraising etc. Because I totally agree with you–having access to the outdoors as a kid helped to shape who I am as a person today–emotionally, physically–creatively… every child, every *person* has the right to hear quiet, to smell air that doesn’t make them cough–
I’m so willing to help if you need it.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 am #
and yeah, I spent most of my childhood up north during the summers–I pass as white so I never got the looks, but you should have seen our white fellow campers trying to negotiate my father and his name! they were exactly like you describe–polite, considerate, always *trying* to get the name right–but also the raised eyebrows always came along with that–hm. what are YOU doing here!
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 am #
BFP, I’ve clipped and uploaded a video just for you, about what outdoor living is all about for me. I hope you like it.
Even more, I hope you find your way on this journey you’ve embarked on, to a place where you no longer view nature as the realm of white folks. I view this notion as a very recent modern construct. Sure, white folks have tried to drive POC into urban ghettos and many of us have adapted to that, but this conditioning is shallow compared to our deep connection to nature and it peels away fairly easily. In fact many POC experience nature with an intimacy, immediacy, and inner freedom that many white folks have a hard time accessing, because of our many rich cultural traditions establishing unity of humanity and nature and respect for the Earth; as opposed to humanity’s separation from and dominion over nature, as embodied by “the Fall” from the natural state and ejection from Eden, leaving only abusive colonial conquest as a viable relationship with Mother Earth.
Most of my friends are POC in the tri-state area and we’re almost all “outdoors” people (we don’t really say that but I’m going with your lingo). And I’m not just talking about privileged folks or even middle-class folks. I know folks from poor families who know how to fish the streams for food and have an acute sense of the weather and the seasons; Black folks, Asian folks, indigenous folks, from Harlem, Yonkers, New Haven. Admittedly, when I was a kid I was the only POC in my boy scout troop, but once we got out in the backcountry I became a natural leader because of my feel for and adeptness in nature; it was one of the few places where white kids could actually see an Asian kid as a leader. And that was pretty special.
(I’ll try to talk about Sherpas next time! It’s an important subject to me, as an Asian Buddhist anti-imperialist mountain person.)
So here’s to the outdoors! Not merely as a resource to be mined or a privileged playground, but as the sacred source of who and what we are. Namaste.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm #
BFP-
I seen the headline for this article and got curious as to who had linked to my blog. Needless to say, I was a little worried about what it might turn out to be.
You surprised me with the intelligent post that asks a very tough question. Nicely done and way to make everyone think. Thanks for linking my article.
Cheers-
Jason A. Hendricks
The Adventurist
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:09 pm #
Hey Jason–I thought long and hard about linking you, because I know we have completly different opinions on so many things and that my community is WAY different than yours, to say the least! But in the end, I figured that this is how two completly different people can make a meaningful connection–by focusing on things that we’re both wondering about, right? (I do admit, I even considered posting a ‘be nice if you post over at Jason’s blog!’ thing too!!! :p but then I figured, hell, that’s showing a lot of confidence in the people who read my blog, right?)
Anyway, no prob for the link, thanks for taking the time to consider something that a lot of people find no value in considering.
~bfp
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:21 pm #
Kai, first, thanks SO much for the amazing video–it brought me to tears! That was really amazing and beautiful, and exactly the direction I would like to head in my ‘journey.’
Second, you said:
I know folks from poor families who know how to fish the streams for food and have an acute sense of the weather and the seasons
And that reminded me of an essay I head written years ago (back when I first started at the university of michigan) about the older black male cooks I used to work with in flint–about how part of their survival strategies (cuz we were all making freaking 6$ and hour, ya know?) was to fish out in the flint river–you never saw such excellent fishermen. They *knew* what they were doing, even though they had live their entire lives in inner city flint. But being poor meant not having food on a regular basis unless they were creative, so they’d go hook up a line with a hook and maybe a little meat they “borrowed” from the resturant, and they’d catch these *fish*–amazing fish that they’d bring into work the next day and “borrow” the resturant’s grills to cook up for lunch and take home for dinner.
ANd I remember writing in that essay, even back then before I became more “aware”–how awesome was that? While I was either going hungry or eating can’s of pork and beans that were who the hell knows how old–they were ‘feasting’ so to speak, on what the land had to offer them–for *free*. AND it was sustainable because they needed no boxes or plastic to pack it up in, they created no waste, and one guy said he fed the bones to his dog….
That’s one of the biggest things I’m trying to negotiate right now–something that’s SO important to me…that sense of intimacy, that sense of interconnectedness–I love the outdoors–I love that intimacy–but in many ways it’s SO difficult for me to connect to it, because of working as a migrant worker, because of being a woman and being scared to be out alone in far off places–so many things.
And I look forward to your comments about sherpas. I first learned about them when I watched a documentary on Mt. Everest, and I’ve been reading about them and following them through the climbing seasons ever since. I feel the same connectedness with them that I feel with migrant workers (even tho I’m not any more) –how do we get to touch and sit with that intimacy and interconnectedness–when we’re so busy sweating our asses off and literally even *dying* so that people who are NOT us can achieve a feat?
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:31 pm #
who is Michigan’s outdoors being marketed to?
I think this is the *exact* question we need to be asking–and I think the answer goes back to what cecilia was talking about in her comment–the outdoors, the nature loving, great time, go to the mall sorta thing–it’s all connected, really, to the process that started with colonialism. The outdoors no longer ‘provides’ as in food, living structures, warmth, etc–because earth provides *money*.
Cecilia, I *never* go up north any more. When I was a kid (way back in the 70′s and early 80′s) going up north meant going to a state park with your tent and carrying buckets of water for cooking and sitting for *hours* by a fire on the shore just talking and being quiet and staring at the stars (I used to lay on a picnic table and just stare at stars–at least until the mosquitos got bad and then I’d go back to the fire!)–I went up north one time in the mid 90′s with my best friend–and already that process you talked about–the huge hotels and ritzy houses on the shore and the *stores*–christ the stores–and people sitting in their huge freaking RV’s with their internet and televisions and screens–I can’t go back there. It’s even worse than going to flint for me. the land and the area are all literally being *raped* right in front of our eyes. all for marketing purposes. Why on earth do people think ‘getting away from it all’ and ‘connecting with nature’ means shopping outlets and high end hotels?
It’s like what has happened in New Orleans–New Orleans is marketed to people outside of the state who are rich and can afford to take vacations–while the people *inside* the state are kept at working class poor levels of income keeping the people from outside the state happy–all the while the destruction of land, living space, etc for the people living *in* the state goes on unchecked in the name of progress…
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:47 pm #
I’m from Canada, where hunting, fishing and outdoor sports etc have always been part of the national identity because of the idea of this country as a big open space. Of course, when we look back on those who constructed the idea of that big open space, the Group of 7 painters, early Canadian poets etc; we can see that they produced the backwoods as the perfect ‘wilderness’ by sweeping Indigenous peoples out of it. National parks are a perfect example: white officials eradicated Native entitlement to live and use their land under the guise of ‘protecting nature’. Yeah, because Blackfoot hunters are a bigger threat to nature than auto and pesticide industries.
Your point really drew me back to those early colonial strategies and how they manifest today in terms of outdoor adventure.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:27 pm #
as usual, Kai brings up a good point
We should be more proactive and reclaim outside. I remember when I was working in Scouting and the kids would freak out over seeing rabbits around. On one hand I would get annoyed because it wasn’t amazing, but on the other hand, it was good for the kids to get some kind of connection from the outdoors. I wish I knew how to do stargazing and stuff but I did have fun walking around camp with the kids.
gosh maybe I should be a counsellor again.
December 4th, 2008 at 1:44 pm #
“Cecelia
….One of my friends is an activist, minimalist, environmentalist and feminist. She gets really upset with the fact that people do not respect the place and its beauty. She gets ultra upset at the fact that they build huge mansions on the shore of Lake Michigan.”
I think perhaps different people interact with the environment in different ways. Some people want to live in a yurt and listen to the birds; others want to sit on a deck and crank music and drink beer while they watch the sunset; others want to go on a hike; others want to…
To the degree that there are cultural and class differences–which of course there are–then the various groups won’t necessarily like each others’ choices. I don’t like people who listen to music on the beach; i want a quiet beach and the music intrudes on me. They would think I was intruding if I told them to turn it off. And so on.
I don’t think it is ‘respecting’ land to go drive on it in a jeep. but some people do. What are you going to do with that?
December 5th, 2008 at 1:51 am #
Interesting topic. Cecilia, I have to admit that I am not up on the Traverse Bay area any more. But I can understand being uncomfortable with the “summer people”.
I am white (and grew up in a well to do family), and a member of the obnoxious tourist tribe. My first contact was over 40 years ago as a young kid at a two week summer camp somewhere near Petoskey. It involved 6-person semipermanent tents with army cots and resident mice, campfires, rowing and fishing, nature study (stars, birds, trees), and field trips to pick cherries or go to a rocky beach and poke around for fossilized coral.
My last contact was in 1980 or so, when I was invited to stay in my sister-in-law’s family’s “summer cottage on the Lake” for a week, said “cottage” being a decent-sized house with indoor plumbing, water heater, appliances, etc, in a subdivision (!) just outside a mainland town with mansions on a nearby island. Apparently this area was a popular destination for the wealthiest Chicagoans, and one got the impression that they all knew each other and that they were far more interested in socializing with each other than in communing with nature. I was expecting walks in the woods and getting up in the middle of the night to stare at the Milky Way and maybe an aurora (this is a BIG deal for a city-dweller who is lucky to be able to see the Dippers and Orion in the largest urban park), but no-one walked anywhere or sat outside in pitch darkness. Dull. It all seemed a waste of effort to travel up there to do what they could do at home, visit, eat, shop, swim a bit. I can imagine that the permanent residents view the “summer people” as a blight as well as a source of income. And I can’t imagine those “summer people” being very respectful to the permanent residents, let alone any POC. It can only have gotten worse in the last 25+ years.