Readers write: Recognizing the influence of Black moms and BTS

Look to the mothers

I’m writing in response to the July 5 cover story on “The outside divide.” I worked on a client project in the early 2000s where the National Park Service was trying to entice people of color into visiting national parks. An opinion survey from that time indicated that the people to entice families into the outdoors were mothers. Mothers were the decision-makers for family vacations and recreational activities, and mothers of color were often afraid of the great outdoors.

While I’ve been to a few state parks in Illinois, such as Starved Rock, I have never visited a national park. As a Black woman, I’ve also never been camping; neither has my mother or sister – even as Girl Scouts. Our view of camping is that it is a way to pretend to be homeless. So the angle that you missed is, what are the various organizations doing to encourage Black adults to visit the great outdoors? Get the adults outdoors and the children will follow.

D.Y. Simmons
Redlands, California

Giving BTS its due

It’s really disappointing that, in the July 26 article “Pop music: Fewer gatekeepers, more opportunities” about the music charts and democratization of the music industry, there was zero mention of BTS, the artist that held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts for seven consecutive weeks over Olivia Rodrigo (who, along with the many musicians mentioned, is great).

The lack of respect for the current biggest pop artist in the world – and their organization HYBE, which is fundamentally changing the music industry – is surprising coming from the normally internationally cognizant Monitor and sadly reflective of the wider racism within the music industry. I expected better from this wonderful publication.

Emily Ellet
New York