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Vermont

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reimagining the relationship

July 2020

African Americans to the Great Outdoors

George Floyd was brutally killed by the police in Minneapolis on May 25th 2020. Earlier that same day, an incident took place in New York City’s Central Park: a white woman called the police falsely accusing an African American man of threatening her life. While lying, she emphasized “African American” several times. Christian Cooper, who was bird watching, had simply asked her to put her dog on a leash. The Central Park episode is of different impact if compared to the lost lives of African Americans: in the first six months of 2020, more than 100 black civilians were killed by the police in the United States. However, it illustrates how complex the dynamics of race and privilege are, and that , says Carolyn Finney, an African American actress, scholar, and author of . , she adds. Exposing how racism and the problematics surrounding the relationship of African Americans and the American land are rooted in the nation’s