2018/04/11 by Daniel Theriault, Rasul A. Mowatt · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #American Environmental and Regional History #Dialectic #Ecology #Environmental ethics #Epistemology #Gender studies #Geographies of human-animal interactions #History #Law #Marine transgression #Oppression #Philosophy #Political science #Politics #Sociology #Urban Green Space and Health #White (mutation) #Wilderness
paper · doi:10.1080/01490400.2018.1448024
crossref issued 2018/04/11 · crossref published 2018/04/11 · crossref published-online 2018/04/11 · openalex publication_date 2018/04/11 · crossref created 2018/04/11 · crossref published-print 2020/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/02/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05 · crossref indexed 2026/08/05
Wilderness has been constructed as White, in part through histories that marginalize African American attitudes and experiences. In response, we provide an overview of African Americans' relationships with nature during three historical periods: (a) Enslavement, (b) Reconstruction and Postreconstruction, and (c) 1936–1994. African Americans' relationships with nature were created through an ongoing dialectic of oppression and transgression throughout each historical period. Four types of transgression were identified: wilderness as a space free of White oppression, wilderness as a site to challenge White oppression, engagement with nature despite White oppression, and advocacy for more just relationships with wilderness. Transgression is discussed as a means to remember environmental history and envision new relationships between African Americans and wilderness in the present, bonds for which transgression may one day no longer be necessary.