Rural, nature-heavy environments have long served as a way for a privileged (and overwhelmingly white) “Us” to get away from an othered and less-privileged “Them.” People of means who feel entitled to space and perceived “purity” will flock to it if law & infrastructure allow it.

This kind of white flight is in the blood of the 20th century’s nature movement within the United States. In my book I argue that national parks served as proto-suburbs, laying the literal groundwork/automobile infrastructure necessary to escape crowded and diverse cities.

When I say there is no understanding how we’ve seized and shaped natural spaces without understanding how we’ve contained and limited the movement of less privileged people of color in cities, this is what I mean. And today, this is what that looks like. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/nyregion/Coronavirus-nyc-rich-wealthy-residents.html

And this: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-22/californians-flee-cities-as-coronavirus-pandemic-spreads