Black people are not usually associated with the great outdoors — camping, hiking, backpacking. It’s often a white endeavor.
But Earl B. Hunter Jr., founder and president of Black Folks Camp Too, is here to change that.
Black Folks Camp Too is partnering with Arizona State Parks and Trails to train their staff about how to diversify the outdoors.
Hunter Jr. joined The Show to discuss the partnership and own experience in the outdoors growing up.
Interview highlights
EARL B. HUNTER JR.: I didn't grow up loving the outdoors. Matter of fact, my parents and my mother and my great grandparents and my grandparents, they detered us from going in the outdoors at all because of the things that have kept most Black folks from going in the outdoors in the first place — is generational fear, lack of knowledge, and lack of invitation. And so the way I actually got into the outdoors is that I became one of the only Black executives in the RV industry. And that actually piqued my interest to get into the space that we're in now here at Black Folks Camp Too.
Tell us a little bit about what you discovered when you did start camping, start kind of experiencing the outdoors in this way.
HUNTER JR.: What I found about camping is that camping is extraordinary. Camping is amazing. It's a, it's a place where you can get a lot of peace, tranquility. And its also a place where you can actually gather around the oldest form of light, heat, community, the campfire. I love that piece of it.
What I didn't love about camping in America at the time was that most campgrounds and most spaces didn't know how to welcome and invite folks to look like Earl, particularly Black folks. Meaning that there were some things at the campgrounds that were going on at some of these campgrounds that I did not like, and I felt like if we're going to invite and welcome more folks of color, we need to have a conversation with the entire industry and let them know that some of the things that are happening in these different spaces. They need to be shifted, they need to be changed, they need to be removed, so that the folks that we're inviting and welcoming to come will have a better experience.
What kinds of things happened? What did you hear?
HUNTER JR.: So it's not what I heard, it's what I saw. I saw folks are just kind of egregious signs and things that are happening in regards to folks' political views and taking them to the extreme. And which nobody really cared, but it was one of those things that they folks use the campground as their political battleground.
And I felt like, you know, when, when you're camping and when you're loving the outdoors — particularly when you're loving on our public lands, which we all pay for — I felt like the political landscape and what that means and how that feels should not be played out in a space which, you know, you're coming to have fun, you're coming to relax. I just didn't think it was the place in the, in the time to do such.
You mentioned about not growing up in the outdoors because of the, I think you said, generational fear that lots of Black folks have about the forest, about the outdoors. What do you mean by that?
HUNTER JR.: Our job over the last five years since 2019 is to educate the industry, educate this $1.2 trillion industry on the reason why Black folks have really not experienced the outdoor lifestyle. Why we're the most athletic — some of the most athletic people in the world. Why you see it at the Summer Olympics, you really see this in the winter Olympics, why you, you know, you don't really see this trail running and enjoying the outdoors. And all of that stems back to the majority of Black folks have generational fear where our parents, our great grandparents and our ancestors told us: "Don't go in those woods." Those woods represent a heinous place. They didn't represent a place for relaxation, a place for love, a place to get peace. It represents a place of fear and of danger.
The second reason is not having a lot of knowledge. We don't have a lot of knowledge. We found through our data, through our strategic planning that, you know, a lot of the folks that we took out — whether they're low income or high income of the Black community — they didn't know what trailheads were. They didn't know what to do if they saw different wildlife in the outdoors or how to prepare. How to extend the tents, buy RVs and things of that nature. Or even kayaks and canoes. We found almost close to 60% of the folks that we took out could not swim.
And so, when you think about the outdoors in that particular space, it wasn't enjoyable to these folks because of the fear, the lack of knowledge. But the most important thing that I felt like that needed to be addressed within the outdoor industry is the invitation and welcoming. We felt like the industry itself needs to really stand on the highest mountain and tell not only just Black folks — but tell everyone — that you're invited and welcomed. It didn't matter your racial, age, gender or ability.
Did you find yourself when you started exploring the outdoors and getting out into the outdoors, confronting some of those fears that you maybe didn't even know you had?
HUNTER JR.: Absolutely. You know, I'm a pretty optimistic individual, and my first time ever going backpacking, I was very afraid to go in those woods. I was very afraid to experience the outdoors. I was very afraid of that. And I didn't really tell anyone that I was afraid of it because I didn't want to tell anybody that I was afraid. ... As a man, I did not want folks to know that I was afraid to go into the outdoors for the very same reasons that my great grandmother had shared with me. And with so many other folks, particularly Black folks — not only just in the South but all over America — don't want to talk about some of the reasons why they don't go in the outdoors. So we, we tend to revert back to the reason why we don't go in the outdoors. We tell folks that we're scared of bugs. Well, we may be scared of bugs, but the bugs are not keeping us out of the outdoors because the same bugs and the great outdoors are the same bugs on the back of our deck when we're actually doing barbecues. And that didn't keep us from barbecuing.
... What I really found is that I still have fear when I, when I actually started to go into the outdoors for the first time. It's just that my fear was, it was normalized because I was prepared and I was actually introduced to the backpacking side of it ... by two individuals that did not look like me, not the same race as me. Actually were two white individuals who introduced me. And they showed me the way. They broke a lot of generational fear that I had based on the fact that they were able, willing, and invited and welcomed me out to do something that I've never done before.
Your company is partnering with the Arizona State Parks and Trails with a training program to proactively counter some of these things. Talk a little bit about what this looks like.
HUNTER JR.: We saw a lot of folks over the last 20, 30, 40 years wanting to educate the lifestyle or particularly educate the visitor or potential visitor, which are Black folks and different people of color. And we felt like the education needed to be for the industry rather than to the consumer first. So we're very ... business to business driven. And what we found, close to 90% of the outdoor industry has no clue on why some of the most athletic folks in the world have never been seen on a trail and running on a trail. And yet they've been spending the last 40, 50 years, I guess, trying to create solutions to fix it. Well, we want to fix the issue. And we want to do it with our courses, we want to do it with training. We believe that the industry is primed and ready to get more information. And the more information, the more educated the industry can get for emerging demographics, we believe they'll be more equipped to invite and welcome more folks.
