African Americans, Outdoor Recreation, and The 1919 Chicago Race Riot 

In African Americans, Outdoor Recreation, and the 1919 Chicago Race Riot by Colin Fisher. He discusses how nature played a huge role in African American Citizens life in the 19th Centuries. The author went on to talk about one of the most violent altercations in American History that took place in 1919 in Chicago and left 38 people dead, 537 injured and 1,000 homeless.

The Riot started because 5 African Americans were rafting and entered the cool lake which was claimed to be for working class white people and one of the white man on the jetty off spotted them and started throwing rocks at them which led to one of them drowning and the other 4 raced back to the black beach to inform the lifeguard and the police officer but no arrests were made. This shows how white people played a role in not allowing blacks to get full access to nature. Demand for equal rights and access to the nature for blacks was more than just a civil rights issue it included health issue because many African Americans believed that nature helped them with ill effects of the urban life. He discussed the living conditions of the African Americans and new migrants moving to South Side of Chicago. Many black Chicagoans saw recreation in nature not as luxury but as an essential escape from unhealthy urban conditions. ” African Americans were mostly living in the Black Belt neighborhood which was composed of 80% blacks and was located in the South Side of Chicago. In this reading the author goes on to discuss different reasons why one of the most violent altercation between 2 races took place and how nature played a big role in people’s life.

One of the Argument Fisher makes in this article is that, “ Tensions Between blacks and whites over housing, politics, and labor certainly played a major role in the resulting of race riot. ” On the inauguration day protest many people were arrested because of rioting in the downtown area of Chicago. We can use that to say how political powers play a role in race riots because it was mostly all races vs whites since Donald Trump is favored by White Americans and very little percentage of other races. When Barack Obama was elected as president in 2008 it shined a light on all African Americans because he was the first African American to be elected into office. He made citizens feel that racial equality achieved and any African American can be elected into office this opened up many opportunities for people that believed they couldn’t certain things due to their skin color. The 2008 Election furthermore created a divided party identification, the economy became more divided by race since not everyone wanted a African American to lead the country. Obama discussed race less in his first year of being elected as the POTUS compared to Donald Trump whom created hatred towards different races through stereotyping.

Another Argument Fisher makes in the article is that, “Many lived in dilapidated, dangerous and congested wooden-frame tenements, sometimes with collapsed roofs and porches garbage filled backyard and alleys. ” In today’s world environmental hazards have gained national prominence. We see how in today’s world some black neighborhood or other small communities that are not very rich seem to be living in a very bad environment. Low income families are exposed to more environment hazards than white people living in nice neighborhood. In low income communities no one really seems to care because they don’t really understand how the environment they live in plays a huge role in their everyday life. Also Fisher says, “South Side inhabitants made regular use of commercial beer gardens and private parks that offered an escape from urban environment…. ” This explains how nature is really important for us if we want to live a healthy life. We can make a connection with all the killing and shootings that happen in south side of Chicago compared to the suburbs and other cities. South Side is for low income families that can’t afford to live in nice suburbs or cities so they have to deal with everyday violence and life threats. South Side conditions are not that great which plays a big role in they city violence, In Chicago around 2,000 people have been shot in 2018 we hear about shooting all the time in the news. “Environmental racism” is a conceptualized reality created by the biggest polluters in the U. S. — factories, warehouses and other facilities that house toxic waste are overwhelmingly located in poor, non-white neighborhoods. ”