No more tokenistic gestures: a call for real, concrete action in climbing

Black Lives Matter is something that has been on all our minds recently. Recent amplification of Black voices has forced the climbing and outdoor community to reflect on how it looks, who is included, and issues of race and diversity. We all have a role to play in this but it is important that it also happens at the top. This morning Dr Rebecca Williams and I discussed what this might actually mean. Let me explain.

Lack of diversity in climbing isn’t a new concept. I have had multiple conversations with governing body personnel, as well as heritage professionals, and normal, everyday climbers on the lack of diversity in climbing. I’ve always heard positive things, a desire to achieve greater diversity. Support for the Black Lives Matter movement by the climbing community has been a step in the right direction and an increased awareness and acknowledgement of privilege in the outdoors. I myself am a White, cis-gendered, student. I am fully aware of my privilege but I am also acutely aware that when it comes to change, it also has to come from a place higher than me.

I have seen fantastic conversations taking place on social media in relation to Black Lives Matter, as well as brilliant resources being shared. I have also seen some problematic and ignorant comments. I have seen comments talking on behalf of others. People directly affected by the issues being discussed are less likely to speak up if self-entitled climbers are hogging the platform, who genuinely believe it is their place to speak on behalf of young Muslim women for example. Spoiler alert, it is not their place. It is important that conversations are happening, however, they could be conducted in a much more effective way. In a way that allows those impacted to have their voices heard and to not to be spoken over by those in positions of privilege. Rebecca and I asked why this is happening, and we thought about the role of moderation of online groups and platforms. This mostly relates to Facebook groups and other online forums. At the most basic level any comments that go against a platform or group’s values and are in breach with policy should probably be removed. If you make a comment that demonstrates racial hatred – Facebook can delete your comment. This is not about silencing voices, we value freedom of speech. However, there are unacceptable things being said by community members that are not being addressed by moderators. It is also the responsibility of moderators to make sure that those who the issues affect get their voices heard, their comments read and they do not get lost in a thread that is misusing the platform. This requires action.

A clear line on what climbing and outdoor groups do and do not stand for needs to be taken. Okay then, don’t remove a comment, but do address it. It occurred to Rebecca and I that certain platforms and many organisations have shown solidarity but have not demonstrated a clear position and have not told us what they intend to do about inequality in climbing. We talked about what we feel have been tokenistic gestures in the past. If real change is to happen, it needs to be informed and supported by research. For example, there’s absolutely no point in saying “yes we want to make Black climbers feel more valued and we want to get more young Black people climbing” if there is no action taken to understand why Black climbers feel less valued and why Black young people might be less interested in learning to climb. These goals will never be met if resources, funding and effort is not made to try and understand what exactly needs to be done. Looking at the Active Lives Survey for November 2018 – 2019 told me next to nothing about differences in levels of participation for different ethnic groups in climbing and bouldering. I can find information for different genders but that’s it. This relates to data gaps and how intersectional data is not collected or available. If you are interested in this, go and check out Caroline Criado-Perez’s book Invisible Women. This book reveals why data gaps are so dangerous and quite frankly, non-sensical.  

Rebecca and I, along with many others I am sure, would like to see a commitment to research on race and climbing by those with the power and money to conduct and fund it. I can rave about intersectionality and my own research, how much more needs to be investigated. However, that’s not much help unless organising bodies step up to fund research and make a commitment to bring about change. This is an open call to powerful, wealthy organisations to use their privilege to instigate active movement towards change. No more tokenistic gestures, real change.

I realise there are other issues that need discussing that I cannot cover in one single blog post. However, the message is loud and clear that change needs to happen and it needs to begin now. No more waiting around, we are watching. 

Thank you to Dr Rebecca Williams for allowing me to sound out ideas and for helping me pull my thoughts together. 

Dr Rebecca Williams on Twitter: @Smart_Climbing

Emily Ankers on Twitter: @active_em_blog 

                       on Instagram: @active.em.blog