Black Faces,White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney,Chapel Hill,University of North Carolina Press,2014,194 pp.,$32.00 (Hardcover),ISBN: 978-1-4696-1450-2

Abstract

Finney critically investigates the racialization of nature and outdoor areas in the USA, disputing the concept that environmentalism and wilderness work as racially neutral forums. Through a combination of historical research, cultural critique, interviews, and autoethnographic reflection, the book shows how African American ties to land, recreation, and environmental belonging have been shaped by slavery, segregation, and regimes of representation. Although the work's conceptual relevance is widely acknowledged, this evaluation also points out some important limitations, such as its uneven geographic focus and its limited interaction with particular outdoor exclusionary locations, such as national parks in the northern and western USA.