Peak Racist Colonial White Space

Remember when the National Trust and other charities were saying that we need more ‘diversity’ in the British countryside and that ethnic minorities don’t feel welcome on account of it being a “racist, colonial white space”? I wrote about it here:

The Daily Telegraph reports:

The British countryside is a “racist colonial” white space, wildlife charities have claimed.

Wildlife and Countryside Link, a charity umbrella group whose members include the RSPCA, WWF and National Trust, made the claim in evidence provided to Parliament on racism and its influence on the natural world.

MPs in an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) were informed that the British countryside has been influenced by “racist colonial legacies” which have created an environment some fear is “dominated by white people”.

The country’s green spaces are governed by “white British cultural values”, the report argues, and the perception that the countryside is a “white space” prevents people from other ethnic backgrounds from enjoying the outdoors.

The Wildlife and Countryside Link report was submitted to MPs on the APPG for Race and Community, which had called for evidence on the links between “systemic racism” and climate change.

The call for evidence comes in the wake of academic “hate studies” experts launching a 2023 investigation into “rural racism” in the British countryside.

‘Cultural barriers’

One section of the new Link report seen by The Telegraph argues that there are “structural, experiential, and cultural” barriers preventing ethnic minorities accessing the countryside.

It states: “Cultural barriers reflect that in the UK, it is White British cultural values that have been embedded into the design and management of green spaces, and into society’s expectations of how people should be engaging with them.”

It adds that “racist colonial legacies continue to frame nature in the UK as a ‘white space’”, and claims that “the perception that green spaces are dominated by white people can prevent people from ethnic minority backgrounds from using green spaces”.

The report suggests that there should be a “rights-based approach” accessing green spaces, suggesting that the Government create a “legally binding target for access to nature”, possibly by ensuring everyone has a green space within a 15-minute walk from their home.

Well, problem solved at Dovedale Stepping Stones in the Peak District as far as the structural, experiential, and cultural barriers preventing ethnic minorities accessing the countryside are concerned! They’re gone and as a result we’ve seen full on cultural enrichment as a group of Muslims engaged in a mass brawl with another group of non-white, non-racist countryside visitors (sparked off apparently by some bloke trying to get across the stones with a pushchair).

Having said that however, even though it is quite obvious that there were no barriers in place preventing these formerly fearful minorities from visiting an iconic rural beauty spot, it could conceivably be the racist and colonial design of the stepping stones themselves which was at fault here, because that appears to be the source of the violent disagreement. The stepping stones have been used by racist colonial white people for centuries, apparently with no mass brawls breaking out, but now that culturally diverse pigmented minorities have started using them, we’re getting riots.

It must therefore be the white British cultural values that have been embedded into the design and management of the stepping stones which are the problem. Not sure how this can be remedied in practice but maybe a double/triple buggy friendly second lane of stones beside the original line to accommodate the five wives of the Muslim men and their offspring and perhaps a one-way/traffic light system in operation at busy times of the day.