The fascination with trigger warnings and safe spaces, much beloved of today’s insular college campuses, is evidently percolating outward into the community at large.
That’s the bad word from a “coalition” of civil rights groups and legislators who are calling on the National Park Service “to focus on increasing inclusion on public lands, including possibly changing the ‘threatening’ uniforms of Park Rangers.”
At least the Hispanic Access Foundation, which is asking Barack Obama to mandate the changes via executive order, understands that their demands are “scary.” Here’s a video from a press conference last Thursday. The transcript follows:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
What we’re calling for is drastic, very scary change.
One example I can give you is with the Latino community, especially among the border states, but even nationwide, just the simple color of the uniforms that rangers wear.
[…]
It’s such a shame that something as simple as the uniform and its similarity to the border patrol’s uniform — in the coloring — could be very threatening for certain segments of the Latino population. So a discussion about that is going to be really tough.
The group has published a list of “recommendations,” which also include swapping out (or repainting) the vehicles used by the National Park Service, which currently resemble the ones driven by the Citizenship and Immigration Services. Then there’s this sign of the times:
Review names of sites throughout system for cultural bias. Some may require comprehensive name changes to reflect a broader and more inclusive history.
