Ethical Considerations
In the execution of this project, we as a class must remain cautious to not overstep and speak over minority voices. Of the seven students conducting this project, none of us are members of the African American or Indigenous communities. This causes an extra necessity for us to remain considerate of who we are speaking about while conducting our research.
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One of our ethical and business considerations we had to take into account is that while we are interested in listening to and trying to better represent the minorities that feel excluded from outdoor recreation as a whole, we also still need to understand that there is a large majority that needs to feel represented as well. As discussed in the document, the idea of having a public forum for people to discuss what they think belongs in their local ORE is a great idea, and even better is it gives the chance for us to invite the underrepresented minorities to come to this event and have an equal voice with their input. What is a poor idea though is if these forums were to solely focus on the local minorities due to the overwhelming majority. From a business standpoint it is impossible to ignore the population diversity of Walker County, and if this majority doesn't feel represented at all, the ORE will suffer. The key here is allowing equal voices as to make sure one side isn't excluded, repeating previous mistakes that caused the principle of exclusion in the first place.
We also considered Moundville (Moundville Archaeological Park on the Black Warrior River near Tuscaloosa AL ) as a useful resource for preventative measures so that we might not make similar mistakes during the development of this ORE. While there is plenty to use, due to the small almost unrecognizable population of Native American peoples in Walker County, we chose to not pursue this resource too much as there are more closely related examples of exclusion that would benefit this report. However, it still holds purpose in this document as an example of how it is well worth the time to take into account Native People's history and claim to whatever land is being developed from the start rather than later as it has the potential to cause major backlash in the long run.
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Considering perspectives of indigenous and historical groups was challenging when writing this report, due in large part to the lack of a clear historical record beyond a few hundred years. As a result, writing on place names or other historical considerations was largely limited to general suggestions that could be applied beyond this project. This does not reduce the significance of these suggestions but may limit their applications in Walker County.
Other Considerations
As a class, we covered a lot of relevant ground in terms of the topic of minority inclusion in outdoor recreation economies. Much of this ground is not represented in Walker County because the target is so narrow and there is a very limited minority population in the area. Despite this, we were very thorough in our approach due to the presence of these groups in areas directly surrounding Walker County, as well as for the applicability of this research to the rest of Alabama and perhaps the country.
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In general, not all of the work we did has proven relevant to Walker County, but it was all still important to consider for the sake of the generalizability of our project.