https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/fatal-bear-attacks-2021/

2021 Has Been a Year of Brutal Bear Attacks—And the Worst May Be Yet to Come

Snip- It’s not just more bears. There are more people recreating in bear country than ever, and a lot of them don’t know how to recreate safely. Following restrictions on indoor activities and international travel during the COVID-19 Pandemic, people from all over the country have turned their attention to public land in the western U.S. The sudden increase in visitors has put local land managers in a bind.


People dont learn how to navigate bears and thats with land managers and park rangers. There are stores that’ll sell you all of the equipment to go and be outdoors but the actual knowledge of how to be outdoors safely is learned. I learned from my wife about digging holes, elevating food, and urinating away from campsites. I was in my mid thirties. To me racism is no different as a concept but deeply worse. Because nobody talks honestly about it and often the victims of it have internal mechanisms to downplay it. “My parents, elders, and ancestors survived worse so who am I to complain”. For me. My folks put me in bear country. My parents couldn’t teach me or talk to me about things they didnt know or couldnt conceptualize because their solution was to give me better opportunities. To them racism wasnt scoring me different on tests, alienating me on assignments and activities, weaponizing calling my parents or the principal for the slightest infraction … it was always on me, a kid, to have done the right thing or pick my punishment. Follow the school rules which were against what was being taught in the house and get punished at home or break the school rules and get punished at home for having the school call.

And since racism is so insidious and systematic and not always overt, folks just didnt know and still dont know what people are being subjected to. We see it every year with national news now between mock auctions, racist homework assignments, school beatings, Halloween costumes … etc. And thats just the overt stuff.