I was reading a lesson in Nebel's Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding about nature observation. I was struck by this quote: "On a purely aesthetic level, becoming able to recognize common plants and animals of your region is, to me, rather like getting to know and feel at home with neighbors versus forever being in a world of strangers."
And this got me to thinking about the lack of African-American ecologists. A Google search turned up a 2007 study confirming my suspicion. The abstract explains that "ecology in particular has among the lowest proportions of underrepresented students and professionals of any science." Then I found this blog post which sums up some of the rationalizations people try to give for why "black people don't like wilderness," and therefore don't become ecologists. I did find a cool post, Black & Green - The New Integration, profiling five urban ecologists. So there are some!
It's hard to talk about this without veering into the massive "Why are there so few minorities in science?" topic. Obviously they're related. But I want to know if teaching children to observe and appreciate nature is a cultural practice that some engage in while others don't. My father (a black man) is a land surveyor, but he's a rarity in his profession because he is not an outdoorsman. I learned to identify birds and flowers from my mother, who is a white woman. My personal experience is anecdotal, and I can't draw conclusions about entire groups of people based on it. But I will ask the question, do African-American families in general place a low value on nature observation with their children? If that were true, would it contribute to an explanation of why there are fewer black ecologists than most other sciences?
I think what I'm talking about is placing a value on nature. Going back to Nebel's quote, I think he has identified a kind of literacy. Nature literacy. Understanding the plants and animals in your area is one more way to engage with your world rather than be isolated from it. This is a valuable literacy for anyone to possess.
Whoa. This is apparently still right on the money in 2014. I can't seem to find an example of a predecessor in ecology or environmentalist issues just yet. I am a scientist looking for more black authors. Rather than go negative though, I would assert that at a time when the movement took off, 1920's, black people were still struggling with obtaining basic human rights.
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