Online

Stanfield McCown, Rebecca Estelle

Natural Resources

2006

MS

Research dating back to the 1960s has reported under-representation of racial and ethnic minorities in outdoor recreation. There are three hypotheses to explain such under-representation. The marginality hypothesis purports that historic discrimination has left minorities without economic or educational resources to visit parks and related areas. The subculture hypothesis suggests that traditional recreation areas maybe outside the cultural value system of racial and ethnic minorities. The discrimination hypothesis suggests that overt and/or institutional discrimination may discourage minorities from visiting recreation areas. The discrimination hypothesis has been advanced relatively recently and has received little empirical testing. This study explores the discrimination hypothesis by measuring 1) how visitor perceptions of crowding are affected by the racial composition of other visitors encountered, and 2) visitor attitudes toward management actions designed to address under-representation of racial and ethnic minorities in parks and recreation areas. The research outlined above was addressed through design of a survey questionnaire and administration of the survey to visitors in Pittsburgh city parks. The survey questionnaire included 3 sets of photographs showing varying mixes of white and black visitors along a trail in Grand Canyon National Park. Respondents were asked to rate the acceptability of each photograph in a single set, and resulting data were used to test for evidence of racial discrimination. Respondents were also asked attitudinal questions from the General Social Survey to allow for comparison of the study sample with the general population. Other components of the questionnaire included respondent attitudes toward management actions designed to address under-representation of racial and ethnic minorities in national parks, and broader racially related attitudes and experiences.