Here's a thought-provoking article... Hunting While Black

[Ben Long]

https://explorepartsunknown.com/west-virginia/killing-deer-and-stereotypes-in-the-wilderness/

Puts a new wrinkle in the "access" discussion. Well, maybe not new, but not often discussed.

 

[elkduds]

"When you’re black, you learn to read white folks as a matter of safety and survival."

Plainly stated. Hard for me to empathize with, but something I will bear in mind.

 

[noharleyyet]

My path to becoming a hunter looks different from most West Virginians’, but that’s OK. I’ll just add the extra work of learning to hunt while black to my reparations tab.

Okay...

 

[BluegrassBilly]

Powerful message, especially considering I'm on a similar journey in similar terrain but with the privilege of a skin tone that doesn't call me into question. The most I worry about is backwoods yokels picking on the city slicker, I fear I can easily overcome.

 

[SandyCreek]

I'm sorry he feels that way, but this isn't the 1960's and no one is going to shoot a black man because he's hunting on public lands. I don't know i just feel like that is a very closed minded article, but then again I'm not in his shoes nor lived his life. I would be interested to know if he has an actual life experiences to back these concerns

 

[MTGomer]

Interesting article.

All the first hand experiences he writes about his interaction with white West Virginians is positive, while the negatives are left to his perception in his mind.

Thats not to say the south isn't racist in places. I've been to rural Alabama. Nothing has changed there.

 

[Tradewind]

Okay...

The minute someone starts talking reparations they lose me. I have never owned a slave and I don't know,nor have met anyone who has been a slave. We all have different paths to the road to success. But NONE of it
starts without work and determination. And no, Ben Long, I have not read the article, yet:W:

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Very racist article!

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I'm sorry he feels that way, but this isn't the 1960's and no one is going to shoot a black man because he's hunting on public lands. I don't know i just feel like that is a very closed minded article, but then again I'm not in his shoes nor lived his life. I would be interested to know if he has an actual life experiences to back these concerns

"Not after Rodney Bruce Black shot and killed Garrick and Carl Hopkins from his living room window in 2014 in Cabell County, W.Va., because he thought the brothers were trespassing on his property. It didn’t matter that the brothers were inspecting a shed on their own property, which they had just purchased."

I don't think he is saying he is worried about being shot while backpacking in the Bob...more that our society still tends to presume African Americans are guilty simply by the color of their skin, that being black and having a gun is often justification to assume a crime is being committed and use lethal force.

Not sure what in this article you find to be racists dirtclod?

 

[Big Fin]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting it.

 

[BrentD]

An interesting and probably pretty honest article. I could agree and disagree with lots of it. He would be an interesting person to meet someday.

 

[Ben Lamb]

The minute someone starts talking reparations they lose me. I have never owned a slave and I don't know,nor have met anyone who has been a slave. We all have different paths to the road to success. But NONE of it
starts without work and determination. And no, Ben Long, I have not read the article, yet:W:

Don't be a dismissive johnny who doesn't read things.

I took the reparations things as a bit of humor. Nice read Ben 1. Thanks for posting.

 

[LopeHunter]

Most women are not raped though if a woman is alone at night walking to a car in a well-lit garage then there is a prudent degree of alertness warranted that generally exceeds what a man needs to achieve in the exact same circumstances. The odds are in favor of both the man and the woman not being attacked. The odds are not the same, though. Women think about when are riding an elevator alone and a man gets on at a stop. When a car with a man driving is turning the same way as they leave the grocery store lot. When they depart the bus and a man turns the same direction they are walking. As a man, I do not think about this for a second.

People of color are in a similar situation, for example, when they drive through an area of a city that is effectively segregated by socio-economic impact so that neighborhood is less diverse than the city as a whole. The parent of that kid might be doctors or engineers and gave their kid a nice vehicle which would not be out of the norm in a nice neighborhood but that car driving through that neighborhood with a kid of color behind the wheel can get a different reaction than if my kid was driving the same car at the same time in the same place.

Most of us will never get cancer but many of us have waited to get tests back wondering if maybe we have it. That is fear. Perhaps unreasonable. Fear we did not create but fear we deal with at that moment. Fear comes in many forms no matter the sex or skin color. Risks for a woman to be attacked late at night in a parking garage or higher and risks of being pulled over as a person of color in a segregated neighborhood is higher. If you are male and have light skin you may not be aware of being followed around a store in the way a person of color might have happen. Or maybe are not actually being followed but were the prior store.

Discrimination is real and happens for lots of reason not related to sex, skin color or religion. A buddy of mine will not hire anyone who did not go to a college with a Top 20 football team. Another will no longer hire people with red hair because his ex ran off with a ginger. My older brother created a lot of problems in school so I walked into a lot of classrooms with a bull's eye on me.

How we deal with hurdles says more about us than how we handle the easy stuff in life. The author makes some observations which rub me the wrong way. His lane in life has more hurdles to clear than mine did. I have the easier path. We both do have a viable path, though.

 

[Tradewind]

Don't be a dismissive johnny who doesn't read things.

I took the reparations things as a bit of humor. Nice read Ben 1. Thanks for posting.

Ok, My liberal conscience. I'll read it later tonight when I have time and then...we can discuss, eh.
Your Pal,
Johnny

 

[Ben Lamb]

Ok, My liberal conscience. I'll read it later tonight when I have time and then...we can discuss, eh.
Your Pal,
Johnny

I look forward to a spirited debate about how to be black in West Virginia by two white dudes on the internet!

 

[JoMo]

Definitely interesting. Really makes me think about how lucky I am to have never had these concerns. Also makes me think of how I could help others who maybe don't feel as comfortable in the woods. As always, we are all entitled to our own opinions and the author's opinion and article help me hear another perspective. Thank you for posting.

 

[RyanT]

I just get tired of articles and videos that point out the color of someone's skin. The more we talk about skin color, the more important it becomes. If news stories weren't allowed to use colors, then "White Police Officers Harasses Black Man" would become "Police Officer harasses man." Nobody would care, and it would be 100 less conversations around the water cooler, and 1000 less Facebook fights.

 

[Doublecluck]

I don’t know, I have never been to West Virginia, but I don’t feel like a Black dude wearing camo and a orange vest carrying a scoped rifle walking around the woods in hunting season is going to get gunned down in any of the states I have lived in in 2018.. I have a lot of hunting friends, hispanic, Phillipino , Korean and Black.. Subject never came up hunting on public land on the west coast.

There is only one sentence in that article that matters to me.

“They died because Americans associate blackness with danger and criminality.”

This sentence really strikes a bit of emotion with me, I have only been shot at one time in my life and it was by two black dudes. Does that mean I am going to smoke the next black dude I run across on a state section in Montana... not a chance... does it mean if I am sitting at the 7-11 in Compton and a cutlass with wire wheels pulls up listening to snoop, I am going to be a little more alert... absolutely.. so is it up to America to change the way they feel about black culture, or is it up to black culture to change their culture.

 

[Idahoarcheryhunter]

I don’t know, I have never been to West Virginia, but I don’t feel like a Black dude wearing camo and a orange vest carrying a scoped rifle walking around the woods in hunting season is going to get gunned down in any of the states I have lived in in 2018.. I have a lot of hunting friends, hispanic, Phillipino , Korean and Black.. Subject never came up hunting on public land on the west coast.

There is only one sentence in that article that matters to me.

“They died because Americans associate blackness with danger and criminality.”

This sentence really strikes a bit of emotion with me, I have only been shot at one time in my life and it was by two black dudes. Does that mean I am going to smoke the next black dude I run across on a state section in Montana... not a chance... does it mean if I am sitting at the 7-11 in Compton and a cutlass with wire wheels pulls up listening to snoop, I am going to be a little more alert... absolutely.. so is it up to America to change the way they feel about black culture, or is it up to black culture to change their culture.

Why are you sitting at a 7-11 in compton anyways? All kidding aside I agree with the sentence you pointed out. I have had bad run ins with just about every skin color. I don't really associate skin color to the type of person someone is, regardless you will have bad eggs whoever and wherever you are.

 

[Tradewind]

I look forward to a spirited debate about how to be black in West Virginia by two white dudes on the internet!

The difference, my racial justice warrior, is that I have lived in a couple of southern cities, including the deep south. Whilst you have lived........
And why do assume I am white?