Capstone Presentation

Hello my name is mariska Pacheco Sanchez and this is my W. G. G. S. T. 4 84 capstone.

Um Hopefully it works because I just have to rerecord this.

Um And I'm sorry for the mask. I am at work right now.

Um So I wrote my paper on an american pastime,

leisure and recreation and the battle to desegregate it.

Um You know after integration began to take place in the United States.

Right?

Um So in what ways ways are people of color

largely disadvantaged and having access to leisure and recreation.

Um So the history that really stems from slavery

and the discrimination that took place prior to now.

Um

You know

they talk about the major ways that slavery affected

people of color in terms of human rights,

you know unequal house access to housing work.

Um Good communities, good schools education so on and so forth. But in a lesser way.

Um No one really talks about the ways that

lack of recreational activities

impacted people of color in terms of

you know not having access or equal access to the same things

that white people had access to back when integration first started happening.

Um So

on a personal note growing up in west Virginia was

really difficult not only as a woman but as a person of color

because while I did have access to these

recreational activities that I may not once have had

um I still did not have

you know give I was not given the same courtesy in terms of respect I was made fun

of for my skin color um Where I was

from people would be racist towards me and discriminative.

Um, but I used leisure and recreation as a way to channel my feelings towards that.

Um, and I was able to participate in, you know,

swimming and amusement parks and whatnot when I was growing up.

Um, let's see.

So the history of slavery and discrimination, you know,

after the fact plays a large role in people of color today.

And how, you know,

an american pastime may be completely different for a white person

than it is for a black person because there,

you know,

view of it is totally skewed from the aftermath of segregation and slavery.

Um, so

all the things that they didn't have access to growing up,

you can build some sort of resentment around that

because it's not fair and it's not right.

But that was the reality of, you know, the situation in America at the time.

Yeah,

mm hmm.

So

Slavery began in the early 1400s, um,

with the first African American slaves arriving in Florida in 1581.

So that was years and years ago,

but we're still seeing how that instance affects people of color today.

Um, in terms of the way that we get equal assets for things.

Um, so when the indigenous peoples were dying due to the, you know,

diseases brought by the english and everything,

they used african americans to make up the difference.

So people of color have always been held at a lesser regard.

Um and that can be seen throughout history from

indigenous people to black people to brown people.

Um

It's always been this hierarchy

Um of white people in charge.

So when the abolitionist movement began to happen,

um and states began to ratify the 13th Amendment,

which basically said that indentured servitude was not allowed.

Um and you can force that um that didn't occur until much later on.

And while Delaware and Kentucky were a couple of states,

Um that did eventually ratify, that didn't happen until 1901 in 1976.

And that's a really big gap of time where

they said, you know,

some places could decide on their own if people of color were really, you know,

worthy of having equal access to things.

Um and that includes recreation.

Um

six,

so after um segregation,

many people of color still gained access are

still struggled to gain access to equal things,

you know, basic human rights, but also in the recreational industry as well.

They didn't have access to the same swimming pools as white people did.

They didn't have access to amusement parks, beaches, you know, any,

anything that you can really think of, it was all separated.

Um And that was because white people had created a dome

around the industry as to keep people of color out.

Um And since, you know,

it's very difficult because most people of color were

living in marginalized communities located in the same areas.

Um so they didn't have enough money to get outward.

Um this would be located on the outskirts of the city.

Um there is a very clear divide of where you lived, whether that be um you know,

in the marginalized part of the community

or the white part of the community,

and you can easily tell that between the infrastructure,

the amount of funding that they got federally for, you know,

their public accommodations, like pools and stuff like that,

but also as well as their schools, their workplaces, you know, everything was,

you know,

very clearly separated.

Um so, you know,

that allowed people to ignore what was going on in these communities

and how they didn't have equal access to leisure and recreation.

Um and they were often built atop, you know, white neighborhoods,

where they were gated communities and an incredible amount of, you know,

amenities that people of color basically did not have any access to it all,

even though segregation had been over with.

Um so that resulted in the continued treatment, mistreatment of people of color.

Um and in terms of like white people found new ways to discriminate against

black people, brown people, whoever it may be on the basis of their skin color,

um because they were able to get away with it because the government basically left

it up to each state to decide how they wanted to proceed in terms of,

you know, what they would allow.

So although

legal segregation was over,

they found other ways to make sure that there was

still a separation between races in these public spaces.

Um So municipal pools is one of the

recreational activities and leisure activities that I discussed in my paper.

Um People of color didn't have access to nice swimming pools.

Um In fact they were often very small

gated with you know, cheap fencing. Um There was limited to no seating areas.

Um The pools were filled with cracked concrete and they were

often far away from these communities that would service these pools.

Um versus if you were in a white neighborhood they were often very large,

often you know made to mimic the look of a beach.

Um There was plenty of outside seating area and

they were usually located um near white neighborhoods or

around the white neighborhoods.

Um And then there's also the question of how many pools,

so there could be three white pools and only one Blackpool and the

one Blackpool would still get way less funding than all three of them.

And

um so another thing,

another way is amusement parks um I

couldn't find any specific black amusement parks.

Um I imagine that if there was one,

it probably wouldn't have been able to be upheld to a safety standard

um just because they received very limited

funding for their own recreational activities.

Um Even after desegregation

amusement parks were only advertised to white people as black people were not

allowed places like coney Island in new york and fun town in Maryland.

Um There's a section in my paper talking about how

Yolanda King um cried when she can attend fun town

and you know, Martin Luther King Jr told her it's because you know,

they don't allow black people and and that's really a core memory for a

lot of people of color during that time that follows them through adulthood.

Um So bringing it to adulthood,

golf courses is also one thing to talk about

that there's a park located in carroll park Maryland.

Um People of color only had access to this park on the weekends

and that's only because the N double A CP um you know,

called for them to be allowed into this public

accommodation as they were paying taxes for it,

but not getting equal access.

Um And still,

yet people still found ways around that even

though they were only allowed their own weekends,

they still had signs up, you know,

depicting that no black people were allowed and that they weren't welcome

and you know,

this is a way that it has extended past childhood and into adulthood in which

you know, it's still segregated, even though that's technically illegal.

Um And so white people always had access

to these things and were given special treatment.

Um Even on the weekends they were treated very

differently than the white people were throughout the entire week

and then beaches is another way.

Um there aren't any real beaches um that

people of color could go to after segregation,

um because a lot of white people were scared um would scare them into not going,

so they would use intimidation tactics.

Um and that led to the creation of gangs to protect you know, either side.

Um I I don't even really know what to say about this exactly, because

if you look at history,

the stereotypes like black people can't swim

come from somewhere and white people originally made

that um into a a harmful stereotype against

people of color and that's really problematic because

the land that was once,

you know,

beachfront property originally belonging to black people were

taken away by white individuals and then they

make these stereotypes that follow people of color

throughout the recreational industry throughout their whole lives.

Um I personally cannot swim, I'm hispanic, my friend cannot swim, she's Bengali.

Um so it really just isn't really a good stereotype if they were going to make one.

Um, but also the fact of slavery,

they didn't have time to partake in these leisure activities.

White people made sure of that.

Um so Mammoth Cave National Park is located in Kentucky.

Um it was originally a mine staffed with african american people um

Before 1812. Um

they used to mine Saltpeter,

which is the main ingredient in black gunpowder and one of the things

I want to talk about here is the very poor working conditions.

Um So slavery had not been abolished yet.

So they were forced to be in these poor working conditions.

Um And it was very dangerous and it just shows that

The disregard that white people held or hold even for people of colour.

Um so once the mines closed in 1812 after the war they were no longer

miners but they were still forced to stay on property and become tourist guides.

So that became a new tourist attraction after the mine closed.

But african american people were still forced to be there.

Um So if you look up anything now about

it it literally tags african american people as the

pioneers of the new discoveries taking place in that

new attraction but they were forced to be there.

So what what what what what cost does that

come with because they didn't have a choice therefore

those new discoveries you can't really you know

it's kind of like a backhanded compliment.

Like sure we'll give you the credit for it

but you really have no choice in being there.

So is it like we're going forward or we really

staying stagnant in the position where we are now.

Um Let's see.

And then lastly

yeah

this topic relates to W. G. S. T.

Because the history of people of color is virtually unheard

of in the tourist industry and intersectionality is really important.

I'm not saying that

um it doesn't exist in terms of that,

but I have never really heard about the ways that lack of access to

leisure and recreation has impacted people of

color now or when it started happening,

you know, in the beginning.

Um,

and no one talks about how these

dynamics have shaped what is culturally acceptable in

terms of like there are white sports in black sports like basketball and football,

but rugby and swimming, those are considered white sports.

And no one really talks about that.

But I've asked multiple people and they've all agreed that

there are such a thing as that separation even now.

Um, so as a feminist,

it's really important to study everything that people of color were

oppressed or how the many ways that they were oppressed so that

we can move forward and make sure that these spaces are inclusive

and safe and welcoming for people of color because they once,

once upon a time didn't have access to that.

Um, and so now as you know,

doing the research for the project and taking the time to really

sleep in and understand how detrimental this was.

You know,

that's something that's a core memory that follows you through adulthood.

And so I really cannot blame, you know, the fact that there's really no,

you know, history on this other than,

you know, the few articles that I read.

So I hope in the future that the industry could

be more inclusive because it is still very white.

and I think that has to deal with

the history of slavery and discrimination in America

because while we have made tremendous progress forward,

it is still very closed off.

You know,

and a lot of it's inaccessible to people

whether that be because they are still in these

marginalized communities or because they have to hold a

specific quota or fit into a certain category.

Um, so it would be like if

I were darker skinned and you know, wanted to take part in rafting,

that would not be considered normal.

And that's because for so long the industry has been so white.

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