Living so close to the mountains, I am a sucker for the outdoors. Granted, at my somewhat advanced age, I don't weather the night sleeping on the ground the way I used to. But every once in a while, I convince Mrs. Brown that we should gather our backpacks and head up for a night or two.
Of course, being an outdoor person means one needs gear. If you're shopping for gear and want a good discount, may I suggest The North Face? The only catch is that you will need to confront your privilege. It only takes an hour to complete "Allyship in the Outdoors" and once you are done, that 20% voucher is yours! The program seems targeted at the UK and the EU, but I am sure everyone is welcome to take the course.
According to The Sun, there are four modules, including one about "white privilege." Each module has a multiple-choice quiz, which the customer must pass. The purpose of the program is to build awareness of people of color in the outdoors and “understand barriers and challenges by listening to lived experiences.”
Build awareness of people of color in the outdoors? That sounds patronizing and objectifying to me. I picture some woman on a trail grabbing her husband and saying, "Look, Harry! There's a person of color in the outdoors! Quick! Get the camera!" The program even instructs participants to ask themselves how many people of color they see on the slopes, hills, and trails.
On the issue of white privilege, the company says:
In this context, we refer to ‘white privilege,’ meaning that your race and skin colour can give you access to the outdoors when others can be excluded because of historic, enduring racism and biases.
It also wants people to know that the George Floyd incident “fostered a new awakening in the outdoors that racial inclusion and representation matters.”
The North Face's website offers a full line of clothing and equipment. By chance, we were at one of their outlets over the weekend. Most of the inventory was geared toward Gen Z customers who want to affect that mountaineering appearance without actually going into the outdoors. The "gear" was limited to a collection of fleece blankets that come with handy duffel bags. It's not the first time we have been in that store, and the place is often festooned with rainbows on every available surface and multiple shirts.
Related: FCC to Mandate 'Race and Gender Scorecards'
It almost goes without saying that most outdoor companies are woke. To a certain degree, it comes with the territory. And a company is free to extol the values of its choice. But there is no such thing as a "whites only" forest, mountain, meadow, desert, river, lake, or stream. By definition, public lands are open to the public, except when land management agencies close them off. No one is preventing racial minorities from going for a hike, setting up a tent, or wetting a line. But the narrative must be maintained, so the great outdoors must be made "equitable." It's always a good idea to turn up the Virtue Signal once in a while.
Toby Young, who is the founder of the Free Speech Union, pointed out a delicious bit of irony. The quiz itself is testimony to the fact that The North Face acknowledges that its customers are white. He wryly noted:
After all, why would black customers need to take a course about ‘white privilege’ to get a 20 percent discount? But if all customers are white, shouldn’t it be examining the beam in its own eye?
I cannot speak for the UK or the EU, but to be totally fair, I have seen examples of white privilege in the outdoors. Visit any trendy ski town in the West and drive by the high-end homes surrounding it. For the really nice mansions out among the pines, you may be able to see them from a distance but take care not to get too close. You see, people have spent inordinate amounts of money to build their homes on pristine pieces of land, with unobstructed views of the surrounding forests, mountains, and lakes. And the last thing they want is to have to stare at someone recreating in those forests, mountains, and lakes. They pay quite a bit of money for those views, you know. And they are usually rich, and they are usually white. And they are usually progressive.
Remember, only YOU can prevent left-wing hypocrisy!
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