"Public Land Owner"

I hate these shirts. Unequivocally and completely.

I also have a serious beef with Steven Rinella and the MeatEater media group, but that’s some scalding hot tea for a future post. One of the things that this group and many other hunting dude-bros like to sport is this shirt, as they proselytize the virtues of the (not) uniquely USian institution of national parks as land everyone can use.

As with so many USian ideologies, this one of every citizen being a “public land owner” shallowly shrouds the praxis of white supremacy. The land was free before the “brave” came and stole it. The Indigenous people were open to sharing with foreigners, so long as said new comers followed their lead and respected their knowledge of how to live on the land. Things were far more sustainable, healthy, abundant, and accessible so long as white folks weren’t here to genocide their way to supremacy. All of the worst did happen, but Steven’s shirt wants us to put all that aside and join in on the ownership his ancestors created through systems of ongoing oppression and thievery.

Naw.

Wearing this shirt, to me, is a big middle finger to all Indigenous people who persist on lands their ancestors never would have voluntarily seeded were it not for the unspeakable violence white colonizers introduced to these lands. But that reality can and should make way for a humble t-shirt emblazoned with the noble message of virtue signaling…er…equality and shared responsibility. All that bad history, ongoing land thievery, and genocide is water under the bridge that Indigenous folks refuse to get over, eh? Especially now that white folks are willing to admit that the outdoor heroes they still celebrate were racist and problematic, it’s all good because we can all come together on “shared land”, right? After centuries of land exploitation and destruction, a minority of the descendants of white power in the U.S. are able to admit that shared stewardship of the land should be considered, the rest of us disturbed by the histories of how America was made and is maintained should join the brave white outdoor generation in advertising this message of hope for a better future.

I mean I would, but…

Until white outdoor ambassadors like Rinella are willing to regularly engage with the history of white supremacy (they’ve done it a handful of times out of hundreds of podcasts), challenge their white colleagues and the whiteness of USian outdoor culture (they did this fewer times and it was like watching someone give themselves a colonoscopy), and help deconstruct the power structures that provide them with tremendous economic and social privilege (yeah right, you know they haven’t done this at all), then they should do what white sports dude-bros do every time a Black athlete has the audacity to assert their full humanity. Burn them dusty-ass t-shirts.

But they’ll keep sporting these whack-ass t-shirts because whiteness is a smorgasbord where you can feast on all you find delicious with none of the guilt of counting calories. In this analogy, calories is the accountability white ancestors rarely had faced for their f*cksh*t.

“All these lands were stolen.” -Dr. Carolyn Finney

Dr. Finney is one of my favorite people and one of the most important thinkers, creators, scholars, artists, teachers in the realm of USian outdoors. Next year will be the 10th anniversary of her book,

and if you haven’t read it yet, then please do so ASAP. Interestingly, Dr. Finney was guest on a MeatEater podcast in 2019, where she talked about her book and issues of hunting and race. She was amazing, but that host was problematic as all hell. This dude brought up my name/writing on multiple…

Damn! Sorry. Getting ahead of myself and letting the tea pot boil over. That story is coming, I promise.

Back to my point.

Dr. Finney has this brilliant quality in all of her work where she’s able to weave the historical and the personal into deeply insightful, challenging, cohesive and engaging visions of what is possible if we — like those basic-ass shirts think they are doing — recognize our common humanity and work to live together in equity and accountability.

These lands weren’t broken and the great white hope of Plymouth Rock didn’t fix a damn thing. That great white hope broke these lands, is still breaking these lands, and all the while it finds new ways to dupe the heirs of whiteness into believing its rampaging planetary violence is benevolence, innovation, and leadership.

We can do better. It’s possible to live towards a restorative justice that is better than the reality whiteness insists on constructing.

That future must be Indigenous led, Black AF, and unapologetically feminist. White outdoor dude-bros, as a collective body and as individuals with more power than sense, are deeply in the red when it comes to stewarding the land well.

Y’all need to sit down, STFU, and take off those silly-ass t-shirts.

What’s in my pocket

When I was in high school, my dad bought me a Leatherman multi-tool. It was one of the best gifts I ever received. I took it everywhere, including to Rajasthan India for my dissertation research in the late 2000s. It was there where one of my collaborators broke it without telling me. I haven’t spoken to that guy since and when I do, it will be too soon. Needless to say I was pissed and a little devastated until I remembered that Leatherman multi-tools come with a lifetime warranty. So, I sent off my 10+ year old multi-tool for repair and got this in return…

FOR FREE! I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never paid for a Leatherman in my life and as long as their warranty policy remains, I never will. I love this thing. I take it everywhere outdooring and it’s never let me down. If you’re in the market for a great multi-tool AND you’re looking for a way to support your new favorite newsletter, click the link below and a portion of the sale will go to yours truly for the recommendation. It’ll be the last multi-tool you ever buy.

• Leatherman Wave+ Multi-Tool

What’s in my ear-hole

I’ve decided to return to one of my favorite stories of all time, Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. Card holds fast to some reprehensible ideas about LGBTQ+ folks on top of his perplexing penchant of creating agnostic/atheist leading main characters (Card is Mormon).

All that being said, like J.K. Rowling’s TERF-ass, Card’s problematic personal views seem not to have impacted his ability to create an utterly enthralling universe that millions have come to love, including me. Ender’s Game is science fiction at its best and illuminates the complexities of humanity through the lens of alien encounter and conflict. The audiobook is a feast for the ears with some of the best voice acting in the industry. Read (listen) to the book before or if (big “if”) you watch the movie, though. This story, like Dune by Frank Herbert, is impossible to fully grasp without the written word.

What’s on my brain

Gaza and mass shootings in the U.S., which is to say whiteness and settler colonialism. Civilians, disproportionately Black and brown, suffering for the psychosis of whiteness. And of course the U.S. will wring its hands of ongoing domestic terrorism while also funding the machine of settler colonialist terror and genocide abroad.

I just want peace. But not the kind that comes from silence in the face of atrocity. I want the peace that can only come when whiteness and settler colonialism are dismantled and abandoned.

Follow Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein on the bird app (it will never be “X”) for amazing and insightful takes on what’s happening.

Announcements

For those who follow my YouTube content…

I’ve been recording new footage and have carved out time in my schedule to edit so that you can keep up with all the dope sh*t I’ve been doing in October (like crossbow footage from last week’s newsletter). A new episode of OutThereJCH on YouTube will drop this Friday November 3rd at 10AM and every Friday after that.

Thanks for reading! TELL A FRIEND TO SIGN UP!

I’ll talk to y’all next Sunday.

Cheers,

Jonathan