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Essay / Revision of my speech on the diversity of national parks
The purpose of my speech is to inform the public about the diversity observed collectively in the national parks. By the end of my speech, the audience will know which race is predominantly present in our national parks, as well as which races are underrepresented in the parks. They will also know what the NPS and other organizations are doing to increase user diversity within national parks. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay National parks are an important part of American society, they are scenic or historic areas that are set aside and protected by the government to "conserve the landscape, natural and historic objects and wildlife that are there and ensure their enjoyment in such a manner and by means which will leave them intact for the enjoyment of future generations” (NPS Organic Law, 1916). These parks are funded by American taxpayer dollars, making each citizen a partial owner of the park. This means that all citizens, regardless of race, are welcome to visit these parks, but the NPS sees a dramatic lack of diversity throughout the national park. This lack of diversity among users is a problem that the NPS has been trying to solve since the 1970s with very little luck. There is a lack of diversity in America's national parks. In 2014, national parks collectively welcomed 292.8 million visitors. . Nearly 80% of these visitors were white, while only 22% of visitors were minorities (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/diversify-our-national-parks.html ?_r= 0). This lack of diversity has been a problem within the park system since the 1970s. Researchers are finally noticing factors contributing to this trend and are beginning to work to encourage more minorities to visit national parks. There are 405 national parks in the United States, and according to the New York Times, these parks welcomed 292.8 million visitors last year. This may seem quite impressive until you look at the data more closely. Of all these visitors, 78% were white while only 22% represented minority groups such as African Americans, Asians, people of Hispanic origin and American Indians. This is a disappointing trend that the National Park Service has noticed with little change since the 1970s. In order to change this trend and attract a more diverse group of visitors to these parks, researchers need to understand what causes this lack of diversity in national parks. To understand why minority groups are less likely to visit national parks, we must first examine who is actually in the parks. To understand this, the NPS conducted 2 surveys, CSAP1 which was conducted in 2000 and CSAP2 which was conducted in 2008. These surveys contained the same questions so that their results could be compared to each other to track changes. in the context of the use and users of the park. The first question on the survey was “Have you visited a national park in the past two years?” » and here are the results. *Insert Table 2 from http://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs/CompSurvey2008_2009RaceEthnicity.pdf. This table shows the relationship between the percentage of each race in the total population and the percentage of people of each race who visited a national park in the past two years. This shows whether race is under- or over-represented in the parks. The two races which arouseOf concern are African Americans and people of Hispanic origin. Besides minority visitors, there is also a diversity issue among park staff. “According to a 2013 report from the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization, 80 percent of NPS employees were white. And the 22-member National Park Foundation board, whose mission is to support the NPS through fundraising, has only four minorities.(http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/ 2015/7/heres-why-americas-national-parks-are-so-white.html). There is a clear lack of diversity within the park that can be demonstrated with concrete data, between visitors and rangers. The NPS question then becomes “why”? Well, the second set of questions in the CSAP2 survey (only shows CSAP2 data because the Spanish language option was not available for the 2000 survey) asked non-visitors why they didn't not visited the country. I haven't been to a national park. The top 3 reasons between African Americans and Hispanics happen to be the same. The top reason is "I just don't know much about NPS units", the second reason is "Hotel and food costs in National Park System units are too high" and the last answer most A common one is "It takes too long to access any NPS unit from home." This means there is a lack of knowledge about national parks, money and cost could be a big part of the NPS diversity problem. Another reason given for affecting diversity in parks is that minorities simply don't feel welcome. There are stereotypes that haunt their race, such as "black people don't do nature" and even jokes about "waiting for whites-only signs at national park entrances." These comments are cruel and even though we are past the days of segregation, it has had a long term effect on people and African Americans still fear the racist treatment of white park rangers. After conducting research and reviewing data on diversity in the parks and why some races avoided national parks, the NPS and other organizations began working toward a common goal: bringing minorities into the parks. This is an important goal because national parks are important cultural and historical sites in U.S. history and they thrive on people's education and appreciation. The Census Bureau projects that by 2044, the United States will have a majority nonwhite population. If this is true and the parks cannot accommodate more diverse races, the NPS could be in trouble or cease to exist in the future. One of the main reasons for the lack of diversity is that people simply don't know about the parks. This means that the NPS can target various areas and promote itself or conduct environmental education classes in those locations. Individual racially diverse leaders are helping the park service by also reaching out to their communities to target a new audience of visitors. For example, retired NFL player Darryl Haley was invited to speak at the Grand Canyon's Black History Month celebration in 2013. This effort was so successful and enjoyable that it continues to organize awareness events in many national parks. Park rangers said Darryl is "one of the pioneers moving forward what has been delayed, reconnecting people of color with our public lands, which will keep our public lands relevant, sustainable, protected and..