It’s been a week full of action: protest, confrontation. It’s also been a week full of powerful writing: many voices speaking frustration and despair, but many voices hoping for change. These articles helped me understand yet another arena where people of color encounter obstacles: outdoor spaces.

Poppy Noor writes in the Guardian about “Being black while in nature: “You’re an endangered Species.”

That led me to birder J. Drew Lantham’s 9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher in Orion.

“Don’t bird in a hoodie. Ever,” he advises.

And Sarah Laskow writes in Atlas Obscura about Rahawa Haile, one of the few black women to attempt to hike the entire Appalachian trail. Haile carried with her books by black authors, which she left in trail shelters along the way.

“There’s so much talk about where the black body belongs. Most of my hike was saying, this is a black body, and it belongs everywhere,” Haile said. “These books were a way of me saying, black intellect belongs here, too.”

Haile also says in the interview: “What gets lost in talking about diversity isn’t just [a question of] how can we can get more people of color outdoors. We have to address how we can get white audiences to acknowledge there are barriers and why that matters.”

These articles remind me of how easily I seek refuge in open spaces, and inform me that access to these spaces is more free for me as a white person than to my friends and neighbors who are black. To open all spaces to all people means saying “Black lives matter” this week and as long as it takes.