[QUOTE=elmwood]
Question: do you think some blacks could associate camping with rural outdoorsman culture, instead of the Boy Scout/hiking/LL Bean/REI/EMS image of camping that seems to be prevalent among urban/suburban middle-class whites? While plain old hike-and-pitch-a-tent-in-the-woods camping seems culturally neutral, outdoorsman-style activities – hunting, fishing, shooting, and so on – is strongly associated with what may be seen as (r-word) culture. In that case, I can easily see why blacks would be adverse to camping.
This being Doperland, though, I know that soon black Dopers will check in and say theyand all their family members are avid outdoorsmen, follow dear seasons across various states, bowhunt in a way that would make Ted Nugent proud, make road trips to Bass Pro and Cabela’s, drive Ford F-350 pickup trucks with a leaping bass decal in the back window, and are active members of Ducks Unlimited. 
(Yes, I do know many African-Americans are avid fishers, although I usually see them fishing in more urban areas; not fly fishing, bass fishing and the like)
[/QUOTE]
I was done with this thread, but decided to check in again, expecting a train wreck actually. I guess your post deserves a response, elmwood.
My father was in the US Military, so that was probably a factor in my formative experiences, which may have been different than those of children of civilians. I don’t know.
As a kid in the midwest in the '60s I grew up camping. I was in the Boy Scouts for a number of years, making it from Tenderfoot to Eagle. My father served as one of the rotating assistant scout masters when he was home twice a year on leave from Vietnam. I both loved and hated camping. I loved the tasks and challenges. I loved learning how to set up a tent with just a tarp and a hand axe and knife to create tent pegs. I loved (and was amazed when) learning to start a fire without matches. I loved the camporees, and the one jamboree I survived without too horrible a brush with poison sumac, and let’s face it, I loved pleasing my dad…even when he wasn’t there. I hated the cold, the bugs, the wet (did I mention I hated the wet?), and the night.
After losing interest in the scouts in my mid teens I camped a few more times with a cousin my age, but even then I knew the thrill of camping was gone for me. One day, while packing in preparation to head off to college I came across some of my old camping gear and realized it had been two years since I’d camped and, although the feeling of nostalgia and the memories were pleasurable, I had absolutely no desire to actually camp again.
It’s now been a little over 20 years since I’ve gone camping, and although it’s something I’m pretty confident I’ll never do again I can’t deny that the experience helped make me a different person than I otherwise might have been. I learned an appreciation for true self-sufficiency while camping. I learned how to swim while camping. I learned the importance of teamwork, not from school, but from camping.
Contrary to what others have intimated here, even if in jest, at least in my and my counsin’s case, as well as other African American kids we used to camp with, fear of White racists was not a consideration at all in our decisions to camp, or to discontinue the practice. It simply got to a point where we knew we were done with camping as life provided other, newer, more promising adventures.
As far as fishing is concerned, I can’t stand it. My dad used to take me fishing, but the waking up at 4 in the morning to go out and sit in a cold raft, on a cold lake, for hours, waiting for a stupid trout to nibble the nightcrawler or herring on the end of ten pound test (that I had to bait!!) was absolutely not my idea of fun, in fact I found it disgusting. With the smell, the slime, removing the hook, and the gutting…oh, the gutting…I hated catching a fish as much as not catching a fish.
My cousin, on the other hand LOVED fishing and does to this day. He and his friends, some of whom are also African American (GASP!) rent a C-Dory every year and spend just about every weekend on the river snagging the (not so) big ones.
I don’t consider myself an outdoorsman, avid or otherwise, but there are Black people who are, not that you’re saying there are not. My contention is the impetus for recreational practices are almost as much environmential as cultural, so to say something as ridiculous as no Black people camp, as the OP does, is a false assertion, and does nothing to promote the desire for an honest discussion or debate.
(Yes, I do know many African-Americans are avid fishers, although I usually see them fishing in more urban areas; not fly fishing, bass fishing and the like)