{"id":213612,"date":"2016-05-19T16:53:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T20:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/172.24.32.11\/daily\/2016\/05\/19\/trees_in_america_s_national_parks_are_racist_\/"},"modified":"2021-04-06T11:03:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T15:03:57","slug":"trees_in_america_s_national_parks_are_racist_","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/05\/19\/trees_in_america_s_national_parks_are_racist_\/","title":{"rendered":"Trees in America\u2019s National Parks Are Racist!"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

RUSH: You know, I\u2019ve referenced this a couple times, never got to the details.  I grabbed it from the archives Stack.  Hang on, folks.  There.  I got it.“The Racist Trees of Our National Parks.”<\/a> Front Page magazine. “Trees are America\u2019s newest racist symbol.”  Ready for this?  What do you think this is about?  Now, what do you think?  Just take a stab here, folks, in the dark. “The Racist Trees of Our National Parks. Trees are America\u2019s newest racist symbol.” Again, to who?  Who thinks trees are racist?  “Trees are America\u2019s newest racist symbol.”  Who thinks this?  I would submit to you nobody thinks it.Somebody with a fax machine and a logo sent out some thing that they\u2019re offended by and the Drive-Bys pick it up because it fits a narrative they\u2019ve already established.  Okay, ready?  You can\u2019t think of why a tree would be racist.  Wait \u2019til you hear this, then.  If you\u2019re really dumbfounded.  This is not a joke.“Mickey Fearn,” as opposed to Mickey Birch, “Mickey Fearn, the National Park Service Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance –” What a title.  What a job.  The National Park Service Deputy Director — means he\u2019s assistant — for Communications and Community Assistance, “made headlines when he claimed that black people do not visit National Parks because…” Because… of the trees.  The trees remind them of their slave ancestors being lynched by their masters.<\/p>\n

“Yellowstone, the first national park, was created in 1872 in Wyoming. Slavery was over by then and no one had ever been lynching slaves around Old Faithful anyway. But false claims of racism die very hard. Now Alcee Hastings, an impeached judge, and a coalition of minority groups is demanding increased ‘inclusiveness\u2019 at national parks. High on their list is the claim that, ‘African-Americans have felt unwelcome and even fearful in federal parklands during our nation\u2019s history because of the horrors of lynching.'”<\/p>\n

Now, why is it only trees in our national parks where there wasn\u2019t ever any racism or slavery?  Why is it only trees in our national parks remind African-Americans of their ancestors being lynched?  Why doesn\u2019t every tree remind them of that?  You African-Americans in the audience — and I know that there is a beaucoup bunch of you out there — I bet you, not a single one of you has the slightest reaction like that when you see a tree.  You talk about a constructed media narrative.<\/p>\n

“What do national parks have to do with lynchings? Many national parks have trees. People were hung from trees. It\u2019s racial guilt by arboreal association. Trees are racist down to their roots.”  That\u2019s the Alcee Hastings group. (interruption) Cut all the trees down?  There aren\u2019t any trees in the inner city, right?  Many people thought that\u2019s what was gonna be racist about it.  (interruption) Well, I know a tree grows in Harlem.  There are trees.  But not like there are out in the suburbs and not like there are at the national parks.<\/p>\n

But this story goes back all the way to May 6th.  I\u2019ve been holding it that long.  It\u2019s almost two weeks old.  Of course it\u2019s insulting.  Here\u2019s the way this works.  You have your average American getting up every day, going to work, living his or her life, and then all of a sudden hears that there\u2019s a movement out there that trees in the national parks are racist because they remind people of lynching, and they think there\u2019s a movement going on, better join up.  This is a totally concocted, nonexistent event, or thing.  Classic example of a media narrative.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Dan in Savannah, Georgia. Great to have you on the program, sir.  You\u2019re up first today on the phones.  Welcome.<\/p>\n

CALLER:  Yes.  Thank you, Rush.  An honor.  Listen, your opening monologue. As I\u2019m traveling from I-10 to see my grandchildren back to Savannah, Georgia, I see lots of trees.  Now, somebody said that the black citizens of America were scared of  national parks because of trees.  I can promise you, I see a lot of black American citizens out on I-10 traveling right with me, and nobody looks scared. So I don\u2019t get that.<\/p>\n

RUSH:  Is it not one of the stupidest things you\u2019ve ever heard?<\/p>\n

CALLER:  Stupidest, absolutely — and I can be stupid, and I\u2019ve heard a lot of stupid stuff in my 62 years.<\/p>\n

RUSH:  Well, there\u2019s an origin for the theory, but I didn\u2019t get to this in the story, and I\u2019m running out of time here. So, Dan, thanks for the call.  I\u2019m glad you referenced this.  The origin of this theory that trees remind African-Americans of lynchings — and they, therefore, don\u2019t go to national parks — originates with Carolyn Finney, an actress.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH:  I promised to give the details on this, the racist trees in our national parks story.  Again, the story\u2019s by Daniel Greenfield.  It\u2019s at FrontPage mag, David Horowitz\u2019s publication.  The origin of this bizarre racist lynching theory of national parks — if you\u2019re just joining us, a story about how blacks do not like going to national parks because the trees remind them of their ancestors being lynched during slavery.<\/p>\n

Never mind the fact, have you seen these PSAs on TV, black family after black family going to national parks, have you seen these?  Well, I don\u2019t know how recent they are, but there\u2019s been a whole campaign of African-Americans going to theme parks, national parks.  The reason for those PSAs to promote government-owned land, leftist PSAs and they\u2019re designed to show wards of the state visiting government-owned lands, how great government is, how beautiful government can make things.  And they\u2019ve used a lot of black families, actors in these PSAs, so that\u2019s why this story\u2019s kind of odd.<\/p>\n

“The origin of the bizarre racist lynching theory of national parks appears to be Carolyn Finney. Finney was an actress noted for, apparently, little more than an appearance in The Nutt House. Then she became a cause for race activists when she was denied tenure by Berkeley\u2019s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management because her work didn\u2019t meet academic standards.”<\/p>\n

So she didn\u2019t get tenure at Berkeley.  She was fit to be tied.  She\u2019s angry.  She blamed racism for that, as did her supporters.<\/p>\n

“These days she\u2019s a diversity advisor to the US National Parks Advisory Board. What wasn\u2019t good enough for UC Berkeley is good enough for national parks. She is also the author of Black Faces, White Spaces. In it she claims that ‘oppression and violence against black people in forests and other green spaces can translate into contemporary understandings that constrain African-American environmental understandings.'”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s gobbledygook.  That\u2019s leftist.  She\u2019s attempting to be an intellectual with that collection and assembly of words.  But it\u2019s basically this former actress and professor denied tenure at Berkeley who claims that trees are seen as racist in national parks because it reminds African-Americans of their ancestors being lynched.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  RUSH: You know, I\u2019ve referenced this a couple times, never got to the details.  I grabbed it from the archives Stack.  Hang on, folks.  There.  I got it.“The Racist Trees of Our National Parks.” Front Page magazine. “Trees are America\u2019s newest racist symbol.”  Ready for this?  What do you think this is about?  Now, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrees in America's National Parks Are Racist! - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/05\/19\/trees_in_america_s_national_parks_are_racist_\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Trees in America's National Parks Are Racist! 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