Minorities in social nudism

[nunne]

I confess that I am not a well traveled nor extensively involved naturist, but in the times that I have been to nude beaches, nudist resorts, and other c/o places, I have seen very few minorities in the social nudism environment.

Also, look at the vast number of photos on clothesfree.com, and almost all are white. This is not to say that there aren't some, but considering the makeup of our total population in the United States, minorities are significantly under represented in the social nudism community.

Can someone tell me why this is so?

[nunne]

I confess that I am not a well traveled nor extensively involved naturist, but in the times that I have been to nude beaches, nudist resorts, and other c/o places, I have seen very few minorities in the social nudism environment.

Also, look at the vast number of photos on clothesfree.com, and almost all are white. This is not to say that there aren't some, but considering the makeup of our total population in the United States, minorities are significantly under represented in the social nudism community.

Can someone tell me why this is so?

[NudistPa]

That's a very good question. At all the nude beaches and resorts I've been to, I rarely seen African Americans and almost never any other nationalities such as Hispanics, Asians, Indians..I surmise it has to do with cultural values?

[NakedGary]

Not so in California

I am a gold member of one of the largest clothing optional nude resorts in Northern California, or California: www.lagunadelsol.com (http://www.lagunadelsol.com) minorities are well represented, including single minorities in fact are on AANR West Board of Directors, and AANR West Government Affairs Chair.

Some of what you notice may be due to minorities generally have larger families, & find that financial and family priorities outweigh the luxury of travel, and Club or Resort membership.

Here is a couple of links I have found on the Topic:

http://www.naturistjournal.com/Allison/01/09/13/0229205.shtml

http://www.baresoulnudist.com/


NakedGary

[David77]

African-Americans, for instance, do not want to lay out in the sun to get a tan. They alredy have a tan!

Many (but not all) avoid being in the sun as it will make their darker skin darker.

Instead, they may use a bleaching cream (purchased at Walgreens, for instance) to make their skin lighter.

Some persons at nudist resorts perfer to remain in the shade for several reasons.

[Naturist Mark]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by NudistPa:
That's a very good question. At all the nude beaches and resorts I've been to, I rarely seen African Americans and almost never any other nationalities such as Hispanics, Asians, Indians..I surmise it has to do with cultural values? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I have yet to be to any nudist event that wasn't racially diverse. I know quite a few black, Asian, Native American, and even a few Hispanic nudists. That said, there is a predominance of white people, somewhat out of proportion to their demographics.

I understand that isn't quite so in a few places, particularly Haulover Beach.

Here a couple of older discussions on this same subject:

<A HREF="http://www.clothesfree.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=13;t=000011;p=1" TARGET=_blank>WHERE ARE THE MINORITIES??
</A> Are only Caucasians nudists? (http://www.clothesfree.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000148;p=1)

Plus this site: http://www.baresoulnudist.com/

-Mark

[NakedGary]

The topic has been well discussed in over two pages of replies at:

http://www.clothesfree.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000148;p=1

http://www.clothesfree.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000148;p=2


F.Y.I. For Your Information

[nunne]

Thanks for the information about the previous discussions. I must have missed them or they may have appeared before I got into the forum on a regular basis. The discussions are very good, and I hope to see more minorities in the various places I may get to visit. Thanks.

[blackrebel]

I chuckle at your comments and your perspective looking through my eyes. There is a LOT of education that you all will have to go through to ?get it?.

There are several reasons why we don't participate in nudism in greater numbers. The first reason is environment. There is a strong presence of the Bible in our community and that has most folks in the mindset of ?nudity is for sex?. Let?s not get into the issue of Christian Nudists, because we know that these folks exist, they just are not vocal in our community. There is a black minister in our nudist group, but things do not change over night. I have many black friends who are not totally at easy with nudism other than at home and MAYBE in mixed company in a non-sexual situation.

Next point is basically your doing. Whites place such an emphasis on tanning and we are excluded from this because for the most part, tanning is a white thing. Go ahead and enjoy yourself. We still need to be respected and when you come up with that juvenile comparing skin tones, it really is not funny. Enjoy your tan, leave us alone with this comparing.

As things change, we are more and more educated on public nudism, because in the home we are just as likely to be nude, but just in solitude or with a loved one and much less in front of family members such as our kids.

It will be a long uphill climb for blacks as well as whites to have legit nudism becoming more and more of a norm because we are bombarded with sexuality of nudism each day.

[Rex]

Hi blackrebel, good to make your acquaintance.
I'm sure a lot of us would benefit from your input on how black people tend to feel about various things.
In Australia, anyone who can take the sun has a great advantage in all sorts of ways.
When I was a kid, growing up in Yorkshire, England, I realised that I tanned easily and darkly, whilst some of my friends burnt. My mother told me that we had Southern European and Middle Eastern in the family, and that some family members were so dark skinned, no-one could quite work that one out, but no-one cared anyway.
My first wife, and the mother of our children, was English with German and Portuguese ancesters, and our first-born goes so dark in the sun, he has been mistaken for an Australian Aboriginal.
He is now married to a Balinese girl, and lives in Bali.
Ron is happily tanned, whilst Dayu, a lovely brown-skinned girl, avoids getting any darker than she already is.
In Australia, they advertise stuff to give us all a tan, in Bali, they advertise stuff to lighten the skin.
I lost my second wife coming up to 2 years ago, and am now going out with a Japanese lady.
Emiko has beautiful mid-brown skin, which I don't think she was happy with, but I tell her how beautiful she is, and I think that's doing her some good.
I've gone on a bit more than I intended.
If you're sensitive about some things, well I won't understand all of it, but I will understand some, because Ron suffered some abuse and discrimination in Australia, because he was, at times, taken for Aboriginal.
For open-minded people, education is the key. You're in a position to give us some education, and I hope you will.

[asianaturist]

It is a cultural thing.

As a European, I come from a culture where most of the year we live in a dreadful, rainy, dark climate. So of course, on the rare occasions when the sun is out, we want to enjoy its warmth as much as possible. And we want to get a tan.

Now living in Asia, I see the other side of the coin, another side I didn't know existed. Because it's so hot here, people avoid the sun as much as possible. They open their umbrellas when it's sunny just like when it's raining. Ads on TV and on buses promote whitening creams, because a white skin is the beauty ideal here.

So that might explain why some minorities are less likely to get into naturism. Because they associate it too much with lying in the sun. Only when they realize that naturism is more than just getting a tan, will they join up in bigger numbers.

[Sajari H12]

I am an African-American youth and i can tell you why there aren't a lot of minorities in social nudism. At least i can speak for young African-American people...The biggest reason why there aren't so many of us in social nudism is because of peer pressure. If any of our non-nudist friends found out what we were doing and where we were going, our reputations w/ our friends would be ruined....Also they wouldn't look at us a "black people" because we were hanging out w/ "white people"....At least this is the way it is for me and a few of my young nudist black friends....

[Croydon]

There are multitude of reasons as to why their are lack of minorities in nudism. I will touch up on few based on my minor in African American Studies.

In the early years, African tribes were for most part nude and had no issues or problem about that. Things changed when white European missionaries began traveling to Africa and trying to change the culture of these tribes. These missionaries succeeded in stripping these tribes of their African culture and "westernizing" them. It's pretty much same thing as colonialism. One of the things these missionaries changed was their belief of nakedness. These missionaries brainwashed these tribes and led them to believe that their nakedness is shameful and an abomination of God, someone these tribes never heard of or worshiped. Fearing their way of life will anger God and land them in hell, these tribes changed their ways and adopted a western culture. Needless to say, the change of culture and the shame of nudity was passed on from generation to generation.

Another reason for lack of minorities is skin color. In slavery days, the light skin slaves were treated A LOT BETTER than dark skins. You have heard the line "white privilege," well there's light skin privilege. The light skin slaves were the only ones allowed to work in the home of the master, live in the home, treated with love and given gifts, etc. In other words, they were treated like a member of the master's family while the dark skin slaves had to live in unsanitary conditions, work in the hot sun, and eat nasty leftovers that the master's family didn't want. That being said, in the black community, having a light skin is desired and praised because it is the closet thing to white. For ex: In the 80s, black culture praised and praised and praised light skins while dark skins were treated poorly. This still happen today. Many minorities invest time and money in skin bleaching creams in order to lighten their skin. I remember growing up my mom used to have me rub skin bleaching creams over my body. This isn't unique to black culture. In Africa, women rub dangerous and harsh chemicals (even bathing with brillo pads) over their body in order to attract suitable men. In India, same story because women wish to move up in the caste system and lightening skin is one way of doing so. What all that being said, reason #2 for not a lot of minorities in nudism is that we don't wish to darken our skin. Tanning is a white thing and minorities wish to have no participation in that. In fact, when I go to the beach, I stay away from the sun by having a big umbrella under me and by wearing a cap b/c I don't wish to darken my skin.

[toofeelgood]

There deffinately is an unbalance regarding the ethniicy blend amongst naturists. Although, I can say that each summer I whitness more and more people of various ethnic backgrounds at San Onofre beach. Which is awesome! I know it is a slow progress, but I do see progress.

We must remember that anglo/european "whites" have been at the fore front of the nudism movement in America for the past 50+ years so I would think that culturally there is less of a stigma. Although, even after all this time there still is a stigma. As, saraji (sp) stated, there still is a holdfast of negativity toward nudism in his walk of life and that peer pressure is slow in the releasing. Give in to time and people like saraji (sorry if I misspelled) that dare to step forward and follow their personal belief that body freedom is natural are going to slowly pave the way.

Personally, at San Onofre I have seen mostly couples and families of various ethnicities other than caucasion and far less single males which to me is a step forward to naturism in itself. I believe that with the family practice of naturism it helps perpetuate naturism through the generations, and instead of just one more person you have multiples of naturists enjoying bodyfreedom. As well, for myself family naturism helps to legitimize the lifestyle. That, naturism isn't just for single middle aged males, but it is for everyone and it is normal.

[nunne]

These last few posts have really been interesting, and have given rise to a lot of thinking on my part. My parents, who were raised in southern Oklahoma, made certain from the time their kids were born that we were to understand there was absolutely no difference among people based upon skin tone.

I have always considered my self free of prejudice based upon race or ethnicity. But I have also always lived in a white culture with very little real contact or interaction with the culture of African - America. Thus, I suddenly realize that I really do have a prejudice that is based upon my total lack of understanding of the culture with which I have never been involved.

Well, I guess I see a real parallel between my lack of understanding of the culture which leads to fewer minorities being involved in nudism, and the lack of understanding of our total culture being able to accept and understand nudism in the same way as we who have been exposed to, and easily accepted it.

It also seems that we need to understand the cultural prejudice of whites to minorities, and need to learn how do deal with this as the minorities have. It is terribly unfortunate that African - Americans have failed to achieve greater success in breaking down these prejudices within our society, or we could use the same processes to break down the barriers toward nudism that come from our cultural standards.

So, it seems to me the lesson is clear. We nudists need to come to a greater understanding of the remaining predjudices which continue to stand in the way of racial acceptance of one another. As we do so, we may come to an understanding of how to break down the barriers which prevent our acceptance within society. I hope all of us will redouble our efforts to achieve equality for all within the finest nation in the world. (No offense to our non-American friends.)

[FishNude]

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Just enjoy life NAKED !!