I feel compelled to speak on the imbalance of ethnic races, particularly people of African decent, that are on the beaches in America; on the westcoast especially. I am a Florida native who happened to have lived on a historically black beach for many years prior to moving to my current home in California. It’s worth noting how much freedom and unlimited access my family and I had to the wellness benefits that came along with living on such a beach. On that American Beach, we freely splashed in the water, frolicked along the seashore, beach-combed, picnic’d on the sand, and surf fished into the night. Several years and a cross country move later, the ocean summoned my family and I on a hot sunny day to it’s local pacific shores. It was only then that I began to notice that there was barely anyone, miles upon miles of coastline who looked like us so, those that didn’t look like us, just looked at us. The valley of blue eyes gazed at my family’s presence with awe as we desperately searched for social distance on a absurdly cluttered seashore. Me, a person who celebrates diversity, who was raised to not see in color, and never subscribe to pulling the race card when convenient; For the first time I felt like a specimen, even a species of endangerment. It was as if I had the most colorful fan of butt feathers, like my children were covered in exquisite zebra stripes, and their father: my husband… his very presence with the fruits of his loins and the woman who bared them was to our fair skin spectators the 9th world wonder and a rare sighting. Only things missing were cages and for them to have purchased over priced tickets to see us. Uncomfortable and unequal is an understatement. Fortunately, due to my rich internal life and improvising mental palette I was able to create psychological barriers to block out this type of energy. Therefore, I grappled within myself a way to still enjoy this spa date we had with the ocean. Unfortunately, my family was not as equipped to auto tune the flat out discomfort of this shoreline inequality. It affected them more than they would have me know in service of protecting my solace. My inability to ignore this uncomfortable, confederate flavored reality of modern beach culture moved me to delve into the reasons, the why’s, and why nots. Effortlessly I quickly unearthed facts that there is a negative, even painful history of blacks and American beaches. Rather it was rooted in slave activity or segregation, the history was nevertheless defunct and unfair. I have a new found in depth love and respect for those designated Black American beaches that were set in place throughout our nation to assure that African Americans also had a share in the goodness that a family beach day brought to the soul. Today only one of those beaches still exists… the beach that I used to live on. The beach that taught me that it’s therapy was designed to heal us all. This past century was loitered with blacks in America being denied the very natural experiences with creation that don’t belong to any human to give or take away from another. Those historical and other intricate factors great fully contributed to people of color not wanting to or having much the option to take part in outdoor recreation as much as other racial groups feel so freely and even entitled to. I am politically neutral so my angle is far less that, but equality from a divine standpoint is my curve in the matter. Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it, right is right even if no one is doing it. Black people, God created the earth’s coastline for you too. So, rise up! Go therefore and get wet, surf, fish, sun bathe, coastal forage, and shell collect! Raise your offspring erasing the narrative for centuries to come that people of color don’t/can’t go to the beach or enjoy any other outdoor recreation that the Creator put in place for all humanity to recharge from. Then snap and share those coastal selfies, post those outdoor adventures via social media and on other internet platforms. Show and prove that the resourceful gifts that outdoor living and beach trekking offers are generously given to those who look like you too. ALL children need to see that. Then a beautiful minded child grows up morally sound, with love and racial equality at the core of who they are – and the beach culture changes. Cum Laude; The world changes.
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