The major purpose of this study was to achieve greater understanding of differences among racial and ethnic groups with respect to visits to national parks. The study makes a contribution to the literature in its statistical analysis of three dominant hypotheses associated with lower participation by non-white racial and ethnic groups in outdoor recreation at national parks. These include the “marginality” hypothesis—that economic barriers prevent participation; the “ethnicity” or “subcultural values” hypothesis, which posits that different cultural groups have different preferences that may not include nature-based outdoor recreation; and the “discrimination” hypothesis, which focuses on the ways that non-white people may feel unwelcome due to hostile behaviors by individuals or institutions.
The authors point out that these explanations have rarely been tested for validity using national-level data, nor assessed for trends over time that might reflect changes in sensitivity surrounding racial-ethnic issues in the U.S. Therefore, they attempt to broaden the understanding of these hypotheses by analyzing data on African-Americans, Hispanics, and whites from the National Park Service Comprehensive Survey of the American Public (NPSCSAP) of 2008-2009 with a special focus on respondents younger than 45.
Working from the existing dataset, the authors looked at questions that had been asked on level of education, income, state of residence, and marital status as indicators for the marginality hypothesis; they used “feeling of safety” in national parks and agreement with the statement that “it takes too long to get to a national park from home” to assess discrimination; and they used “enjoyment” for out-of-town nature trips and the language in which the interview was originally conducted to assess subcultural values. These choices were made due to past findings showing linkages between such factors. For example, past studies have shown that minority groups tend to prefer parks close to home, and that African Americans in particular have expressed trepidation about travelling long distances through largely white areas to get to national parks. Similarly, if an interview was entirely in Spanish it suggested that the interviewee was from a less assimilated subcultural group. The variables considered in different questions were then analyzed for relatedness through logistic regression.
The analysis found small differences between Hispanics and whites in national park visitation, mostly attributable to socioeconomic barriers and lack of cultural integration—a hurdle that was reduced among younger Hispanics who may be more distant from immigration experiences. On the other hand, larger differences were found both between African Americans and whites and African Americans and Hispanics, due mainly to African Americans' tendency to have an aversion to outdoor recreation in national parks—the subcultural hypothesis. The authors propose possible explanations for this avoidance such as historic discrimination in parks, the design of these places to accommodate white tastes, and a lack of childhood experience in these places that may have passed these cultural preferences down from generation to generation. They also suggest that people of color may have a less positive association with nature due to historical factors that link it with poverty, perceptions of backwardness, and risks of violence including lynching.
While this study was specifically focused on wilderness-type national parks, past studies have showed that African American visitation of sites like the Nicodemus National Historic Site (a town in Kansas established by former slaves) is relatively high. Given the many proven benefits of recreation and nature and the growing gap in outdoor participation between African Americans and other groups, as well as a decline among visitors 45 years of age and younger, the authors call on the National Park Service to adopt strategies like Yosemite's programs on the role of Buffalo Soldiers in the national park to bring in a cultural history dimension that may make these outdoor experiences more relevant to broader audiences.
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