So the NPR thing finally happened. A perfect reminder that I can’t stand the way I sound, but my daughters sound great!
Here It Is 5: NPR Famous?
Published
So the NPR thing finally happened. A perfect reminder that I can’t stand the way I sound, but my daughters sound great!
Geocaching While Black 
I was about to ask if NPR shared the title they were planning to use, but after reading “Doug” and the Anonymous person’s comments, they didn’t have to because it fits. And after reading the Found It logs for that Confed cache, it was clear that this wasn’t just another cache in a park for them.
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Thank you so much for sharing your experiences as a Black geocacher. I have been working on my graduate degree using geocaching as a locative media and transmedia tool to share the stories of historical members of our community who have been important but overlooked because of race and gender. While doing my research into geocaching, I came across some of the issues you bring up in the article. What you’re doing is important. Thank you.
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EVERYTHING has to made into a racist event! Who taught you this victim mentality? How about the fact that people are going to question a stranger lurking and poking around in their neighborhood, regardless of external skin pigmentations? Quit being a whiney baby, and deal with life as it comes.
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I hope the next geocache Doug finds has moldy food in it. And I hope he forgets his pen.
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As a young-ish white lady, you’re full of crap, broseph. I NEVER get harassed playing Pokémon GO, UrbEx wandering, or anything else. My family members who are non-white can hardly take a walk while being black without dealing w some be from some busybody in their own neighborhood. You seriously need to check your privilege. Also, I agree w Alex above: I hope all your future caches are nasty or lead to nothing just bc you have an attitude problem. Good day.
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I’ve always wanted to try geocaching and my gf and I recently started doing a bit of UrbEx fun while taking photos. Thank you for this blog. I’d never have found it without your NPR interview! Btw, you sound wonderful, as do your kiddos. You have a beautiful family, my friend! If you’re ever geocaching in the St. Petersburg area, let me know. I’d love to come exploring.
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Another that heard you today, very cool. Don’t worry about the asshats who can’t even navigate your blog to put their diatribe in the wrong place… I haven’t geocached in a while, but am an avid Pokemon Go player, and often think white people don’t appreciate the differences in others experiences.
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Hey! I need more PG! friends! Wanna exchange trainer codes?
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I’m an avid geocacher and have thought many times of my privilege while doing it. I’ve thought to myself, if I were Black people would watch me more, be more suspicious. But because I’m a white woman people rarely stop and when they do, it’s usually to ask me if I’m okay, if I’ve had car trouble.
If you’re ever in Kentucky, I’d be happy to accompany you and grab some caches together. —itscherij
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Shalom!
I started geocaching 6 years ago when I was living in Israel. Often times the police would stop me, thinking I was involved in terrorist-related activity. My people suffered through the holocaust (over 6 million jews brutally executed), and even now we cannot live in our country without feeling under constant threat from antisemetic Palestinians. Now that I’m living in NYC, my geocaching experience has improved. Nonetheless, I still get harassed by antisemites while geocaching in the city. If only these people knew how the nazis treated my great-grandfather. He was skinned alive and taxidermy was then performed so that my great-grandfather could be used as a realistic scarecrow to keep birds away from nazi crops. Every time I’m harassed by antisemites while geocaching, I feel a deep-rooted generational pain. I’m sure your experience is similar. Soon we will wipe out the antisemites and racists who keep our people down. God bless you and keep on caching!
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My husband, daughter and I love geocaching. Everywhere we go in the world has had fun geocaches for us to find. This article really affected us and really shows the racism and bias that exists. Most recently, we found a cache on public land next to a homeowner’s fence line and had a very pleasant conversation with the homeowner since they we’re always curious why people were looking in the area. I think if our skin color was different, it might not have been a pleasant conversation.
Keep caching and thank you for speaking out about racial biases.
I also think that first comment is abhorrent and should be removed, especially on your personal blog.
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I wanted to take this opportunity to preserve a comment made by someone who listened to the piece, but chose to leave their opinion under one of the individual locations I’ve previously been to. Because it has nothing to do with the location, I opted to delete it there, but I wanted to keep it both because I don’t want to be accused of erasing alternate views and because I find it stupidly hilarious:
“I read the article that NPR wrote about you. It was anti white claptrap. You are just another anti white black. Nothing in the article about the FACT that blacks commit massive crimes and constantly burglarize white neighborhoods. What you call racism is white people looking out for themselves. It is impossible for me to believe you do not know about the massive amounts of black on white crime. Claiming white people who are aware of blacks predatory behavior are simple haters of skin color has gotten tiresome.
You are a fraud and a anti white piece of trash for trying to blame whites defending themselves from blacks perdition are racists. Black privilege at its finest. You people get to blame all your problems on fake racism as you rob murder and rape white people on a daily basis.
You are a cancer on white America. We don’t owe you the right to case our neighborhoods and have every right to protect ourselves from you crime prone people.”
This person obviously doesn’t know me very well, but that’s not important. If anyone has ever questioned why I do all this, here’s a perfect example.
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My husband, daughter and I love geocaching. Everywhere we go in the world has had fun geocaches for us to find. This article really affected us and really shows the racism and bias that exists. Most recently, we found a cache on public land next to a homeowner’s fence line and had a very pleasant conversation with the homeowner since they we’re always curious why people were looking in the area. I think if our skin color was different, it might not have been a pleasant conversation.
Keep caching and thank you for speaking out about racial biases.
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I am so sorry that you were on the receiving end of that racist garbage and ignorance. I am so happy to have listened to the NPR story. It shined a light on another area of privilege that I hadn’t had to recognize, as a white person. I have no idea how to fix this, but I will try to keep reading and keep learning. In the meantime, it would be a total honor to have you find one of the caches we’ve hidden in McLennan County, Texas! (I’m going to go check the logs now!) And we hope to meet you out there on the hunt!
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Holy smokes, man. I’m sorry for the idiocy and bigotry you deal w on the daily. I’d love to have a little sit-down w the original commenter, as they need to have a come to Jesus moment here.
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As you know that is one of the reasons your blog interested me so much. I often wondered if this was a hobby that was something I could do and not think about because of the color of my skin. For me, an encounter with the police is pretty easy; I’m a white, somewhat overweight, white woman. For others it’s not the same.
We need to learn from each other and listen to experiences. It’s the only way the human race can go on. Otherwise, we’ll self-destruct. Thank you for being a voice people can learn from.
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I admire your caching goals of getting a cache in all the Texas counties. We’ve had law enforcement question us in the past and its never pleasant, but the unpleasantness is manageable. We’ve often had people ask, with the side-eye, what we are doing here? Heck we’ve even been shot at (not knowingly) by a hunter. But that’s part of the game (not the shooting part, that was a one off). When you look like you’re looking for something, people will always be a bit curious. Also, that’s why I prefer to cache in the desert. Nobody cares about you checking out a sage brush…Keep up the good work, the world needs more cachers!
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Found you via NPR. Always good to have reminders of my/our privilege. Keep up the fun hobby, and I hope to see you, and more diverse Cachers out there!
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I’ve enjoyed following Marcellis Chad’s county courthouse photos as he has explored states like Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. I firsr met him at the Texas Geocaching Festival. He has some great geocaching stories. Great man, father and he is a representative of the Texas Geocaching Association. God Bless!
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I haven’t listened to the interview yet, but I read the article. My son excitedly texted me this morning that “there is an link on fark.com about geocaching!” and I could tell from the title it was a to the interview article so I texted him back that “I follow that guy’s blog.”
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When I heard your interview on NPR this morning I literally screamed and applauded when you said this, “There’s a certain joy in being Black and basically going out to places where you don’t see a lot of Black people. And being there and being able to say, ‘I’m here whether you like it or not.”
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A friend emailed me the link to the article as she knows I also go geocaching. I am a middle aged white female and I have encountered law enforcement at least twice while caching. I find it nerve wracking myself, but can’t even imagine how stressful for you. I also play location based augmented reality games which can look suspicious to the uninformed. While I don’t play Pokemon Go I have used it as an excuse when questioned. Everyone just smiles. Best wishes for your continued safety and enjoyment of our crazy game.
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What other games do you play? Just curious, bc I’m an (early!) retiree and keeping occupied on good days can be challenging.
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Followed the link to your blog from the NPR article about your geocaching adventures (and adaptations). Thanks for sharing your story. I’ve never used a clipboard…but I have donned a safety vest to help find those tricky caches.
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The old hard hat and safety vest trick
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I wake up to NPR every morning and was delighted to hear your piece right off the bat. Great story! Thanks for putting yourself out there to share your perspective.
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You sounded great and so did your daughters! Cache on and be safe!
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Just read the NPR article and found your blog. I’m so sorry you have to deal with this when you’re just enjoying your hobby. Best of luck to you friend.
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I heard the broadcast this morning and can definitely relate. I tried geocaching 20 years ago and the world was not ready. You are giving me courage to try it again. People were always so surprised that I was doing outdoor things… Like Black people don’t camp or hike.
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If you’re ever geocaching in St. Pete, lmk. I like adventuring and I’m a staunch ally.
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