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The Environment and natural wilderness around us can be viewed differently by people. Some can view it in a positive light, while others in a more negative manner. Evelyn White and Lauret Savoy are of the latter opinion. They both view wilderness as a medium for the relationship between racial discrimination and comfortability with the natural world. Racial discrimination can cause a lingering and deeply-rooted sense of fear and anxiety for people toward the world around them. Both texts elaborate on how one’s trauma, outside events, and trauma inflicted upon one's ancestors can make someone feel disconnected from society and their environment. This deconstruction paper will examine how different writers portray the wilderness and people's relationship with it.

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Savoy, Lauret E. “Provenance Notes.” Essay. In Trace a Journey Through Memory, History, and the American Land, 15–30. Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2015.

White C., Evelyn. “Black Women in the Wilderness.” The Stories That Shape Us pp. 376-383

Analysis #3 Image:

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/09/13/ap416070848671_wide e4d4ecf89d1cab1c3b930c2dfaddfc5e9831deb0.jpg

Analysis #4 Image:

https://rachelfintzy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/8/How-To-Rid-Yourself-Of-Black-and-White-Thinking.jpg

Analysis #5 Image

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mosaictraveler.com%2Fjapanese-forest-bathing-takes-being-one-with-nature-to-a-new-level%2F&psig=AOvVaw2e7nN93_lYzvx2Lb6d_BY_&ust=1697284932234000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBAQjRxqFwoTCKi19Zz98oEDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

Menrisky- (Lecture 5, 9/13/23)

Menrisky- (Lecture 7, 9/20/23)

Discussion Section 2

Week 3: Wilderness

Romanticism and the Harm it's Done on Native Americans

Sophia Sanchez

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I wanted to sit outside and listen to the roar of the ocean, but I was afraid. I wanted to walk through the redwoods, but I was afraid. I wanted to glide in a kayak and feel the cool water splash in my face, but I was afraid.” (377, Black Women and the Wilderness) From the start of the essay, one can pick up on White’s difficulties regarding her relationship with the world and possibly why that is. As a black woman, she has faced discrimination from society, and that has instilled a sense of fear in her. It’s clear that she would love to enjoy these normal activities and experiences, but the prospect and fear of being judged, shunned, and harassed due to her skin color prevents her from doing so. It’s not nature/environment's fault White is distrustful and afraid of it, but simply the actions of others.

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“...A classmate walks up to say “You’re colored, aren’t you” I nodded yes to what really wasn’t a question. Troubled by how ugly Bobby Kane could make sun-light and sky-blue sound, I run to Sister Richard Ann. That evening I ask my parents.” (19, Provenance Notes) These moments and interactions, no matter how seemingly small they are, can have a profound effect on how a child or any person views the world around them. For Savoy, a child at the time, having these moments thrust upon her had the slow, but noticeable effect, of taking away that black of child innocence and showing her how cruel and disagreeable the world can be. As a child, these types of things can make you question who and what you are. Savoy realized, early on, that the world around her saw her foremost as nothing more than a person of color, which filled her with a sense of uneasiness. This is similar to White, who faced discrimination based on her skin color and felt uneasy about her place in the environment around her.

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Aftermath of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by KKK members

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“...I remember standing in my house in Gary, Indiana, and watching in horror as my mother ironed the black fabric that, in my mind, would align me with the bloody dresses, limbless bodies, and dust-covered patent leather shoes that had been entombed in the blast”. (379, Black Women in the Wilderness) In this small section of the text, White is demonstrating how deeply rooted the fear of racial discrimination and violence is in her mind, even as a young child. She saw how KKK members bombed the Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and that left a profound impact on her. White is so affected by the racial violence that happened to those innocent girls, which could also happen to her at seemingly any moment, that the trauma of it bleeds into the different aspects of her life. She can’t feel safe around other people when they’re doing simple things like ironing clothes, because, due to the engrained trauma, the sense that “that is going to happen to me” fills her mind. At this young at, White is unable to enjoy simple things and go out in the world because the paranoia and fear, which is justified, over facing extreme racial violence is too strong.

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“Some ancestors knew land intimately as home, others worked it as enslaved laborers for its yield. What sense of belonging were possible when one couldn’t guarantee a life in place?” (21, Provenance Notes). Savoy, being a person of mixed race, demonstrates the paradoxical mindset she has. There’s a disconnect toward the environment, due to some of her ancestors once being slaves, and, at the same time, a sense of ascertaining privilege because of some of her ancestors being white. Savoy is also contemplating what being free truly means to her. On the one hand, she can feel free due to the whiteness in her. On the other hand, she can’t because of the lingering sense of racial discrimination that affected some of her ancestors and could affect her as well. There's a strong sense of imbalance brewing in her mind. She’s unable to find a place where she feels safe and free in the world around her due to the conflict of the injustices against her African-American ancestors and having the blood of the same group that discriminated against her other ancestors. Going through the world and enjoying what it holds is a struggle for her because of this strong mental conflict.

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Both White and Savoy have a similar approach regarding how they overcame their fear of the wilderness due to trauma over racial discrimination and violence.“I touch the terror of my Ibo and Ashanti ancestors as they were dragged from Africa and enslaved on Southern plantations.” (382, Black Women in the Wilderness). “Far from any real town, my house sits at the edge of a field cleared two centuries ago, bordered by relict stone walls and wooded, worn-down hills. So different from the Devil’s Punchbowl or Cimarron plains, this landscape is yet kin and reminder.” (30, Provenance Notes). For White, she tried to put herself in a particular state of mind where she, in a way, confronted the trauma and discrimination faced by her ancestors. She went deep inside herself and into such a dark place to achieve this. White comes to realize, at its very core, that the environment wasn’t the thing that caused all the pain and suffering toward her ancestors and herself. It was just people with terrible beliefs who abused the land to cause pain to others. Forming this separation, White was able to feel comfortable enough to engrain herself with the world around her. Savoy was first confused about her place in the society and world around her, but a decision was made to travel and experience nature firsthand. Through this somewhat immersive experience, she was able to find a sense of direction in life. This almost goes back to how Native Americans view nature. They view it as something that’s a guide and teacher for us to follow. Savoy connected with nature and was able to reflect on her past and her ancestors as well, with the result being a good understanding of the future path ahead of her.

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Evelyn White visualizes and describes the interrelationships between our culture and nature, in other terms ontology, in the sense that they both exist with each other but aren’t innately connected. She views human culture as something that can simply be without any sort of touch or connection with nature. The environment is a place where one can go and view what it holds, not, for the most part, having any cohesiveness with how humans live their lives. Going off this, White also believes that nature/environment “is not a pristine place, though. It is more complicated, dangerous” (Menrinsky), like a diamond with no scratches. The reason why she has this mindset is because she has personally experienced and got a glimpse of discrimination from the world around her. This is obviously different from how others view nature, but seeing people be harmed, harassed, and those things happening to her has built a sense of fear and mistrust toward the environment. This goes to show that opinions of nature aren’t a shared experience. People can have different things happen to them, traumatic or splendid, that can warp or change how they view nature.

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Evelyn White has strong thoughts regarding people having a universal standpoint, which is to say “the idea that everyone experiences the world in more or less the same way” (Merinsky). This is somewhat obvious, but not all people in the world do or feel the same things as everyone else. There are certain hurdles and advantages that people will have and face that will change their thoughts and perspectives. According to how White views it, women and ethnic minorities, from the very start, have a different outlook/perspective on the world compared to others around them. This is mainly due to the fact that most societies in the world are patriarchal in nature and then there are some that are rooted in discrimination, white supremacy for example. In her reading, she says “I believe the fear I experience in the outdoors is shared by many African-American women and that it limits the way we move through the world” (378, Black Women in the Wilderness) White demonstrates the idea of this universal standpoint by sharing her own experiences. As a colored woman, due to the trauma of the discrimination she faced and has seen, she has a somewhat distrustful and cautious view of the society and places around her. The only reasons why she had this outlook are because of her skin color and gender attached to the racism that follows it. White knows full and well that what she’s experiencing isn’t standard or universal for people. There are just certain societal spaces where certain groups face different problems.

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Lauret Savoy has a similar thought about the interconnections between human culture and nature. In her readings, she says “The past looms close, as immediate as breath, blood, and scars on a wrist. It, too, lies hidden, obscured, shattered.” (29, Provenance Notes) In her view, the past is a large thing that connects us to our culture, identity, future, and the environment. What happened to you and others a long time ago commonly tends to linger and latches on your outlook and attitude toward the world. Nature and our culture aren’t innately connected, it’s just certain events of the past can wove them together. This also ties into the idea of challenging the notion of a universal standpoint. History is something that doesn’t affect everyone the same way. There are going to be certain factors like racial discrimination and privilege that change how we view things going forward in life. White, like Savoy, agrees that people experiencing racism and gender discrimination will not have the same viewpoint as someone who hasn’t experienced the same trauma.

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Both White and Savoy, with what’s been presented, are going against other writers' views over the inherent pureness of nature and the environment. One of these writers, Cronon, has said “Wilderness had once been the antithesis of all that was orderly and good… now it was frequently likened to Eden itself”(Menrisky) According to him, there’s an almost biblical and heavenly purity that nature holds. By comparing nature to the Garden of Eden, the former is presented as a paragon of harmony and happiness. It’s seemingly a place with no imperfections whatsoever. White and Savoy, however, present nature as something that’s not inherently pure. Experiences of the past and present, relating to discrimination and harassment, taint the environment in the form of being almost a conduit for reliving pain and trauma for people. For some groups and people, this presents nature as a somewhat cruel, dangerous, and scary place for them to be around. There is good in the world, but at the same time, there is a lot of bad that changes how a lot of things are viewed by people. If it weren’t for the long series of abuses committed against certain people, they would most likely view nature as a grand and pure place.

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Nature, wilderness, and the environment are all aspects of the world that are shaped and defined “through preexisting social assumptions and institutions.” (Merinsky) These are presented through a subjective lens which can result in a variety of different opinions and thoughts about nature. It should be noted that due to this, nature doesn’t have inherent descriptions and qualities to it until we think of them. The world around us is shaped and defined according to the preconceived notions of people. Both White and Savoy, due to their beliefs and experiences, put negative and somewhat dark characteristics onto nature. Their subjective lens is through shared traumatic experiences that happened in an environmental setting. There’s no such thing as an untouched version of nature. The second we describe and teach about the natural world, we wrap our beliefs and experiences around it.

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Edith White and Lauret Savoy have formed their views and thoughts about how one's own personal experiences can effect their relationship with nature. They conveyed a sense of fear and distrust toward the world around them due to their past, relatives, and things they saw. They eventually overcame their issues with nature being a source of relieving trauma by going out and becoming connected with nature and confronting the things that scared them. Also due to traumatic experiences they have endured, they view nature as something that doesn’t have an inherent sense of purity. People, backed with racist beliefs, have tainted any sense of purity that nature would otherwise have. What we can learn from their writings is discrimination, from the past or present, plays a key factor in shaping how we view society, people, and nature. Racism can make people, as White and Savoy present it, question their place in the world and be afraid to experience the environment.