The far-left Los Angeles Times published an entire article claiming minorities don’t camp because camping is racist.
While the stupidest article I’ve read in a long time (in an effort to combat fake news, I don’t link fake news) doesn’t come right out and say that — well, actually it does…
National parks have a history of segregation that dates to the 1930s, something that didn’t change until the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Almost all U.S. national parks were originally home to Indigenous populations long before they were set aside as parks. Many of those Native American tribes were pushed off their land, often violently, to create an illusion of untouched landscapes.
Even the Sierra Club, for the first time, in July openly condemned its founder, John Muir, over racist comments in his writings about Black and Indigenous people.
Does someone want to explain to me what 90-year-old segregation policies and what happened to the American Indian more than a 100 years ago and the racist founder of the Sierra Club have to do with how many minorities do or do not camp?
Nothing.
Not a thing.
But Woketards gotta woketard.
Anyway, according to the Society of American Foresters, we ‘re told that “between 2010 and 2014, 94.6% of visitors to national forests identified as white. People who identified as Latino made up 5.7%, and those who identified as Black made up 1.2%.”
Fine. Let’s take those numbers at face value.
The question, though, is why… Why do so few Hispanics and blacks go camping…
The Woketards at the L.A. Times could come up with only one reason, the dumbest and most anti-science (as I’ll explain in detail below) ever. And the Times didn’t just run with this reason, the Times stripped naked, covered itself in motor oil and chocolate jimmies, stapled a pinwheel to its pointy head, and ran with it.
Do you want to know why camping is racist?
Do you really want to know…?
Camping is racist because there’s the equivalent of a poll tax to be a camper — a poll tax of $250.
The premise of the entire piece is based on the fact black people don’t camp because in order to camp, it costs $250 to obtain the necessary camping equipment.
“Want more diversity in camping? Start with the gear,” is the headline of the piece, and the L.A. Woketards believe they have found the answer to the “gear” problem — a charity that offers free camping kits — tent, two sleeping bags, cooler, etc. — worth $250 to “BIPOC” — which means something-something-people-of-color.
Can we back up just a minute…
Two-hundred and fifty dollars?
You’re trying to gaslight me into believing blacks are not camping over $250?
Other than a couple of anecdotes of people taking advantage of the free offer (who wouldn’t?), there is zero journalism in support of the premise black people don’t camp because they can’t get $250 together.
You’re trying to gaslight me into believing the equivalent of the price of a television at Walmart is what stops black people from camping?
You’re trying to gaslight me into believing that what adds up to less than the monthly cost of cable TV, Internet, and cell phone is what’s stopping black people from camping?
You’re trying to gaslight me into believing half a monthly car payment is what’s stopping black people from camping?
According to this study, there is very little disparity between blacks and whites when it comes to having Internet at home, it’s close to 75 percent in both demographics.
According to this study, a higher percentage of black Americans (68 percent) own Smartphones than white Americans (66 percent).
I’m sorry, but if you can afford to purchase a Smartphone, pay the monthly cost of a Smartphone and Internet, you can afford $250 in camping gear.
Get this…
According to this study, a married black couple with a family — which represents 45.4 percent of the black population, earns a median annual income of almost $75,000, which is lower than the same for a white family ($88,000), but come on…
Let’s do the math…
There are roughly 49 million black people in the U.S., and 19 million of those live in a household that earns, on average, $75,000 per year, and you’re trying to gaslight me into believing a measly $250 is what stops black people from going camping?
Do you see how stupid all this is?
I am a camper. Not a crazy camper, not a lunatic camper –I don’t do tents and sleeping bags because I’m not insane. A few years back, however, the wife and I bought ourselves a little single-axle travel trailer. It’s much smaller than your average RV, but it has all the necessary items that separate us from the savages: hot water, air conditioning, gas heat, microwave, queen-size bed, DVD, CD, AM/FM stereo, stove, refrigerator, and a 25-inch flat-screen TV.
How’s that for white privilege?
Except it’s not, and the math proves it…
If you want a camper just like mine and get the normal 60 month loan at five percent, your monthly payment works out to — wait for it, wait for it — $226.
If you land a 3.5 percent loan, which is pretty common these days, you can own my RV for just $165 per month.
Listen, I have no idea how many black people camp or don’t camp, or how many black people own RVs… To be honest, when the wife and I are out camping, we’re not counting black people.
What I do know is that 50 percent of the people in my camper are not white, because my wife’s not white.
I also know the camping community is made up of the nicest people in the world, that it’s a terrific subculture of Americans who define the very best qualities of “live and let live,” and campers are uniformly friendly, welcoming, and helpful. No one has ever made my wife and I feel anything but welcome — even after I make a public ass of myself trying to back that sucker up.
But what I really know is that this L.A. Times article, which is based on the condescending lie black people are incapable of scraping together $250 and looks to be written by a white woman, is just another example, not only of fake news, but of the kind of condescending racism that’s all too common among America’s insufferable Karens.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.