A Black Traveler Confronts Racism at a Montana Resort
One writer, inspired by Edward Abbey to head west, sets off for a seasonal gig that proves to be a deeply isolating experienceSource: Outside
As a child, I spent most of my summers visiting family in Jamaica. We would go to “the country,” as most Jamaicans called it, where black skin, kinky hair, salt fish, and coconut trees were plentiful. We got our water from a well and relaxed all day whenever there was a power outage. It was in Jamaica where I learned to believe that natural places meant comfort, that the outdoors could be therapeutic.
I assumed the rural United States would offer equally positive experiences. For most of my childhood, that theory was never tested. I grew up on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, which was predominantly African-American. Growing up, it was common to be told, “Don’t do what all those white kids be doing. You ain’t white.” I became aware of my race there, among others who looked like me. But after moving away from the city, I’d come to learn that towns situated in beautiful natural areas weren’t always like the paradise I’d experienced as a child in Jamaica. Instead, these places can be uniquely isolating for a young black boy in America.
I first encountered rural America in Athens, Ohio. My friends were mostly white, and when we weren’t strolling through the small town, we would go on long drives, sometimes down an unmarked road shrouded in greenery. No matter the time of day, I tensed up during these drives. There is no shortage of Confederate flags or white folks willing to stare at a black person for a little too long in certain regions of southeastern Ohio.
After college, I decided to work as a housekeeper at a ski resort in Big Sky, Montana, as a way to see new parts of the country while making money. My last two years of college were chaotic, organizing rallies around campus after a cop shot Michael Brown and trying to make sense of what my life would be like after college. Books like Desert Solitaire had shown me the allure of the West, and I felt compelled to seek wilderness as Abbey had: “We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope.”
Read more: https://www.outsideonline.com/2242361/confronting-racism-my-summer-job
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commentary on an ameriKKKa that will NEVER change as 66 millions+ of the racist bozos described here are "making ameriKKKa great(white) again". White people are just going to have to be told over and over again, drill it into their thick neanderthal skulls that they have to face the hard fact that they are not superior to any fucking thing or person on this planet and never have been.
More murderous, genocidal, hateful, not superior.
I am beginning to realize just how many problems have been and are caused by the type of everyday white people that this young man had to deal with in his travels. This is a sick, sick, hypocritical country. The hispanic guy described here voted for the drugmoney launderer-p****grabber-racist, sexist POS we now have as potus..
This article will always be a reference on how no matter how much things seem to change, in ameriKKKA, they will always remain the same...stuck in a racist mode of confrontation between most brown people and whites that has lasted since John Smith shouted "after the savages" and ameriKKKa was born....
I fought for this country and every day I get more ashamed to be an american.
I don't understand your problem but I will decide it was due to not enough black people around, and not the issues you encountered with the community present and oh btw, somehow I know your essay won't dO anything because it wasn't the people here and thier racist ignorance it was you who isolated yourself by being black 
