What Nolan Wells' Death Reminds Us About Safety, Trust, and Being Black Outdoors

I can’t stop thinking about Nolan Wells, and being so sad for his friends and family. I keep seeing folks spewing the most awful rhetoric at his family. “He shouldn’t have been out there”, “Y’all should’ve know better”. Literally blaming the victim and his family for being ignorant. I would never say that to a mother looking for her son, and now that he is confirmed dead, those folks feel even more justified in their statements. 

However misplaced, their opinions and outrage are not unfounded. Black folks will joke about “not going into the woods” or label stuff as “white people” stuff. And there’s a lot of pushback on those from Black folks that disagree with those opinions because they themselves are outside, and they feel that labeling things as though they are for white people sounds silly. 

I think the missing piece is that those judgements and fears come from very real feelings that certain things are historically unsafe for Black people, and the obvious solution to prevent yourself and your children being harmed is to never be in those positions in the first place. 

I’m going to say this plainly. In my nearly forty years of living, I too have learned and experienced that white folks are a potential risk to my safety, and that I need to keep my head on a swivel regardless of how much trust I think I may have in them. There are very few white folks in this world that I genuinely trust and I refuse to feel any sort of guilt about that. Stories like what has recently happened to Nolan Wells do not help to mitigate that lack of trust.

I don’t hate white people, nor do I think that all white people are going to cause me harm. But the scariest part to me is that a lot of white folks causing this harm don’t even realize they are capable of it. Stuff like ignoring “do not trespass signs” or other general rule-bending is not a big deal to them because property owners/ police are far less likely to penalize them for minor infractions. They often don’t even think about the repercussions for being Black in those scenarios. That makes them even more dangerous. 

As far as the white folks that intentionally cause harm? I hope they never know peace. 

Nolan’s story smells just as rotten as the story of 17- year old Kendrick Johnson who was found rolled up in a gym mat. Or 40-year old mother of five, Tamla Horsford, who was found in the backyard of a house where she was attending a sleepover.

Stories like these make me feel like being an Black influencer in the cycling/ outdoor space is a massive responsibility, and working with brands is usually a challenge in that regard. They don’t understand that despite the gorgeous scenery of Lake Powell, being out there stand up paddle boarding and doing yoga in slot canyons does not make me feel completely at ease. I want to do it, it is fun, it is exciting, it is adventurous, but I am also coming up with escape plans if needed. 

They don’t understand that off-roading in the desert past communities that look like they would very likely kill me and hide the body if they had the chance, raises all my spidey senses.  Do I have any way to prove that to be true beyond a feeling? Nope. But intuition has kept me alive thus far, and I’m still gonna tell all my friends where I’m and who I’m going with, so if anything were to happen, they’d know where to start looking. 

It’s why, despite being invited, I have never shown up for an all white-women’s retreat in a remote area. Those trips are hella expensive to begin with, but I usually feel in my spirit that if something were to go down, I’d be fully on my own. It’s also why in the earlier days of gravel events, I would never go alone. I would only show up if Will could come with me, or if I had other non-white friends there who I knew would have my back and vice versa. 

At the end of the day, safety in the outdoors is an issue for everyone. But it would be incredibly disingenuous to pretend that there isn’t a cultural/racial divide in how (especially American) society moves and who it moves for.

I want better for all of us. I want safety for all of us. 

Those feelings are part of why I co-founded The Black Foxes. When we were bikepacking through Tennessee and seeing weird statues and built-to-scale resurrection dioramas, it was immediately understood that we needed to not stick around. When we encountered a loose dog, and one of us was really scared, Raequan immediately picked up a big stick and sprang into defense mode while we came up with a plan together to make sure everyone could get past safely, without judgement. When our planned camp spot was adjacent to white folks with a huge confederate flag hanging in the trees we immediately kept it moving, there was not much of a conversation and no need for explanation. We had an all-Black film crew with us, and it made navigating those things so much easier. 

When we were staying in Colorado, and one of the neighbors of our Airbnb kept being particularly nosey and asking a ton of questions about us and why we were there as we were packing up to leave, we all stayed polite, navigated the situation accordingly, and weren’t even a little surprised by the false negative review the host left us. 

What is understood never needs to be explained, and that’s why it’s so important to create and cultivate safe spaces where folks KNOW they are welcome and safe. That’s why I’m so happy to see spaces like Ebony Beach Club, Hike Clerb, Blk Hiking Club,  Dadbod Cycling, Black to the Land, etc for creating a space with a deliberate and clear message of inclusivity. 

I understand that Nolan Wells wasn’t necessarily trying to be an official member of the outdoor community (whatever that means), it seems like he was trying to do fun stuff outside with his friends. It’s the stories of regular people just existing that stick with the majority. He could’ve been any young Black man in any group of young white men. We may never really know what happened to Nolan, Kendrick, or Tamla, but our imaginations are going to fill in the gaps regardless. Unfortunately, our imaginations don’t have to do much work and that is a big part of why a lot of Black folks are going to choose to stay inside. 

I sent this post to a friend and she asked me what I’m trying to achieve by sharing this. I am now adding the following two goals:

1. I want white people to think about their existence in spaces:  How they contribute to a feeling of safety or lack thereof. How they are moving when unsafe behavior is being joked about when no Black people are around, and if they do identify any weaknesses in all of these opportunities, how they can do better. 

2. I want brands to think beyond tokenizing Black people and create safer experiences for brand shoots which can also encourage better outdoor practices generally. Do you have more than one Black person on this shoot? Is your crew diverse? Are you shooting in a safe location, and if not what can you do to make sure EVERYONE is safe, and feels safe. 

Links:

Nolan Wells:TIMELINE: What we know about the search and recovery of Nolan Wells

Kendrick Johnson:Death of Kendrick Johnson

Tamla Horsford:Death of Tamla Horsford

The Black Foxes:The Black Foxes