Header Image: Brown Girls Climb
Following the recent amplification of the Black Lives Matter voice, the issue of racism and its role in society has quite rightly been put at the forefront of debates around the world. The injustices that BAME communities are put through on a daily basis have been highlighted like never before while white communities have been forced to confront their underlying privilege.
While all this has been going on, the outdoor industry (Outdoors Magic included) has had a good look inwards and discovered its own problem with diversity and reflected on ways it can continue the fantastic momentum that the Black Lives Matter campaign has gained to ensure that the outdoors is as welcoming as possible – no matter your ethnicity.
In April of this year, Phil Young published a piece on our sister site, Mpora, titled: “Why The Outdoors Has A Race Problem And How It Can Be Fixed”. In it, Phil stressed the importance for more BAME representation within the outdoor industry – as he put it: “it’s very difficult to be what you can’t see.”
How, in other words, can young people of colour feel welcome in the outdoor community, if they have no role models to look up to and little representation in outdoor marketing?
This is a continual journey of education into the issues surrounding race in the outdoors for us at Outdoors Magic. We’re going to be looking to further educate ourselves on the issue, use our reach to widen the outdoor narrative and look to include more stories from athletes, influencers, and activists from BAME backgrounds.
“How … can young people of colour feel welcome in the outdoor community, if they have no role models to look up to”
With this in mind, here’s a list of 10 organisations that are actively making the outdoors a more inclusive and welcoming place. Our friends over at Mpora have an evolving list that you can read here, covering the whole action sports and adventure travel sphere – be sure to check that out.
Many of these organisations are charities and rely on donations, so please feel free to support them if you can. Otherwise, a simple follow and ‘share’ of their story will go a long way in helping them out.
Let’s all work together to make the outdoors a more inclusive space.
