Michael Allen beat the odds and worked for the National Park Service for nearly four decades/Courtesy
Michael Allen joined the National Park Service as a college student recruited in 1980 from South Carolina State University, a public historically Black land-grant institution, to interview people about the history and culture at Fort Moultrie National Historical Park. He climbed the ranks, but not everyone could fathom a Black man as park ranger.
“When people saw me in uniform, they thought I was a game warden, police officer, highway patrolman, security guard – anything but a park ranger. Once they even thought I was the valet to park the car,” he said.
Allen worked for NPS for 37 years, but he is unusual. Despite decades of efforts in Democrat and Republican administrations, there has been little progress in recruiting and retaining a workforce that reflects the increasingly diverse and multi-cultural American public.
Whites account for 79 percent of full-time permanent employees, and 62 percent of all employees are male.
Black employees comprise almost 7 percent of the NPS’s permanent full-time workforce, significantly less than the 13.4 percent of African Americans in the national population. Hispanic employees also are underrepresented, making up 5.6 percent of the Park Service general workforce despite accounting for 18.5 percent of the population. Asian Americans encompass about 2.3 percent of employees compared to 5.9 percent of the national population.
Only Native Americans at 2.5 percent of the workforce exceed their percentage of nationalwide population, which is 1.3 percent.
Beginning with the Kennedy administration just before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, diversifying the workforce has been an NPS objective.
Two years ago the Trump administration distributed an all-employee letter from Daniel P. Smith, at the time the Park Service's acting director. “We will attract, recruit, and retain a diverse workforce that assures our national parks and NPS programs reflect the diversity of America,” he said.
Smith’s statement reiterated support for Director’s Order #16 B: Diversity in the National Park Service that was issued by Jon Jarvis, President Obama's Park Service director, in 2012.
Yet, white males continue to dominate the NPS workforce.
“There has to be persistency and consistency in carrying through the commitment to diversity. It’s not a passive objective,” said Robert Stanton, the 15th Park Service director and the only African American to hold that position. He headed the NPS in the Clinton administration from 1997-2001, capping a 35-year-long career that began as a seasonal employee at Grand Teton National Park when Stewart Udall was Secretary of the Interior.
Stanton was also the agency's first African American superintendent, appointed by George Hartzog, Jr. who was director from 1964-1972. Committed to diversifying the NPS workforce, Hartzog named Stanton superintendent at the National Capital Parks-East region.
It’s difficult to create a diverse workforce for several reasons, including competition, the ability of seasonal employees to slide into permanent positions, and rules set by the Office of Personnel Management, said Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.
Federal laws do not allow the applicant’s race or ethnic origin information to be shared with hiring officials. Even though an applicant is allowed to declare such information, the hiring official is not privy to receive it due to the race-blind approach of the process, said Kathy Kupper, a Park Service public affairs specialist.
Critics cite systemic racism as another reason for the lack of diversity.
James “JT” Reynolds, retired African American superintendent at Death Valley National Park, contends diversity efforts have failed because there are no consequences for managers who “blow off” diversity policies from headquarters.
“Whoever shared the thought that you cannot determine a candidate’s ethnicity, tells me something about the game used to overlook some candidates,” he said.
Over the course of his 38-year-career, Reynolds had opportunities as the selecting official responsible for developing the knowledge, skills, and abilities listed when advertising a vacant position and for reviewing the certification “cert” list -- candidates deemed qualified for the position by the human resources manager.
Bob Stanton, here with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton at Mesa Verde National Park, was both the first Black superintendent in the National Park Service and its first Black director/Courtesy
In his role as superintendent and a selecting official, Reynolds said he could “make a pretty good guess” to determine a candidate’s sex and ethnicity by reading the resume, name of college, spelling of the candidate’s name, and home location, and by calling supervisors and coworkers to learn more about them.
“I am sure the superintendent (if interested in diversity) sees all the names, and knows which candidates are diverse. I know I did,” he said in an email.
Stanton agrees that managers should have an understanding of what is expected of them regarding diversity and inclusion.
“Accountability starts with the director and becomes a shared responsibility up and down the line,” he said.
The National Park Service has recruitment programs that make it easier to get a job; there are “special hiring authorities that sometime permit vacancies to be filled by eligible candidates who qualify based on various elements such as public land corps internships or military service,” said Kupper.
For example, Allen was recruited through a cooperative education program allowing students to combine academic study with practical work experience that can lead to permanent employment. Soon after he was hired, he noticed that African Americans were mostly missing from the history the Park Service told in its exhibits and interpretive programs on Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina. White co-workers questioned his presence, but Allen refused to be intimidated.
“That experience, that journey, and those questions were my foundation to the work, activities, programming and whatever else I did for the next 37 years,” he said.
JT Reynolds rose to superintendent of Death Valley National Park/Courtesy
Over the course of his career, Allen recruited others “but often their experiences were not welcoming or positive,” he said. Allen, who retired in December 2017, suggests the agency talk with former employees and find out why they left the agency, if there’s a sincere interest in retaining people of color.
Another former NPS employee, Nina Roberts, faced years of rejection despite having experience working with parks and conservation organizations and a graduate degree.
“I’m one of many perfectly qualified women of color who applied for NPS jobs for a decade only to be turned down/rejected and in many cases, like mine, not even granted an interview,” she said.
Eventually the biracial woman was hired through a graduate internship program, now called Pathways, and later for a full-time education specialist position. By this time, Roberts was in her 40s.
She encountered some white men who “did not treat me kindly. I think they were threatened,” she said.
Roberts helped create a semester-long paid internship program at Golden Gate National Recreation Area for her students at San Francisco State University, where she is a professor in the Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism.
“Now working in the halls of higher education, I still push the envelope from the outside. I find a place for students who want to work for the NPS,” she said.
NPS has had more success in establishing park units that speak to the country’s diversity – a goal sought by Hartzog when he was director.
In close to 40 states, the NPS has identified sites that reflect the American Latino heritage. There are more than 70 American Indian and 100 Asian American/Pacific Islander sites listed on NPS’s website.
When Stanton first joined the NPS there were only three units honoring African Americans. Today there are almost 40, along with the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
“President Obama brought in more sites to reflect more fully the face of America,” said Stanton.
The recent additions include Cesar Chavez National Monument in California, Stonewall National Monument in New York, Pullman National Monument in Illinois and Harriet Tubman Underground National Historical Park in Maryland.
Comments
This is a thorough, well researched and well written article. it provides insights into the challenges the NPS has to diversify its workforce. Congratulations to the author on a job well-done.
Yes, this is an excellent article that does a good job of opening discussion of this problem; however, due to constraints of length, it doesn't quite tell the whole story. It properly explains how "diversifying the workforce" has been a National Park Service (NPS) goal for over fifty years; yet, admits, today, 62% of NPS employees remain male when the majority of Americans are actually female. African Americans staff NPS permanent full-time positions at a rate just over half their share of the broader population; Asian Americans occupy such permanent full-time positions at a rate just less than 40% of their share of the population; and Hispanics fall even further behind, occupying those positions at a rate barely above 30% of their population share.
The article mentions the NPS having "more success in establishing park units that speak to the country's diversity," well, duh! Those park units bring in a wider spectrum of visitors; those additional visitor numbers provide the grounds for budget requests; and the NPS is willing to disingenuously welcome visitors that they wouldn't hire for permanent full-time positions. Banks, night clubs, and car dealerships do that all the time.
The article also quotes an agency spokesperson rationalizing that, "Federal laws do not allow the applicant's race or ethnic origin information to be shared" and "the hiring official is not privy to receive it due to the race-blind approach of the process." So, what accounts for the continuing differences in employment even between genders and minorities? At least parts of the answer are that gender is usually revealed by the first name of the applicant, while surnames often give away Asian Americans and Hispanics. BINGO!
But, the problem goes both higher and deeper. Staffing needs at many, if not most, parks vary seasonally with seasonal visitation. Thus, those parks make extensive use of seasonal, essentially temporary, employees. It's hard to join the ranks of the permanent full-time NPS staff, even hard to get to be what some parks call permanent seasonal. The agency has instituted a system of hoops that most folks wanting any kind of career with the agency need to jump through. Most of those hoops automatically reveal gender, race, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, and, most important in some cases, docility and potential for silently accepting agency impropriety and they do so long before an applicant is competitive for a permanent position. There's the veterans preference hoop, which often provides key background information. Other hoops involve requiring folks wanting to be permanent employees to first "pay their dues" as seasonal, contractor, or concessionaire employees or in some relationship involving other civic or nonprofit service. So, yes, the NPS could actually supply much more impressive diversity numbers if seasonal rangers and other lower level employees were counted; but, most of those employees won't ever make permanent full-time status without first demonstrating, as a veteran or through some series of seasonal stints, that they match the "profile" of what the agency wants in its local inner circle. If they don't, either the agency will decline to bring them back the next season or, if their work is necessary, the agency will just keep them in contractor or seasonal mode until they rot on the vine.
It truly is a vertically integrated racket and, as I've indicated, this racket extends downward even into the nonprofits that serve to generate park funds through the visitor center bookstores. Let me give you some specific examples reported by seasonal employees at nonprofit, NPS affiliated, bookstoress. Although one park was located in a region rich in racial, ethnic, political, and religious diversity, including diverse histories and remnant homelands, that diversity, while practically on the park's doorsteps, was invisible within the leadership of either the nonprofit or the NPS. Both the nonprofit and the agency had access to a diverse national recruitment pool, as well as a diverse pool of locally available labor at this park; yet, there still seemed to be few minorities above the level of the seasonal workers.
And, there were regional tensions, often severe, and seasonal workers were frequently confronted with "eccentric" behavior from visitors. There were times when customers looked at name tags, then asked about ethnicity, often in overtly dismissive tones. On two separate occasions, workers were asked if they were Catholic, then subjected to denigrating comments about various scandals. And, it was not helpful in setting the right tone that the "official" NPS approved guidebooks to the park were available in English, German, French, Chinese, and Japanese, but not in Spanish. When issues were brought to the attention of nonprofit and agency leadership, not only was little useful guidance provided on dealing with such discrimination and bias, employees raising such issues were summarily flagged to not be rehired for the next season.
On two other memorable occasions, employees were counseled against spending too much time helping minority visitors. In the first such incident, a group of minority visitors came to a register with small purchases and a few questions about where to go and what to see in the park. Being eager to help further the alleged NPS goal of welcoming greater diversity, an employee took the time to show them a map of the park, give them directions to some of the highlights, and tell them when might be the best times to avoid crowds. As the visitors left, the employee was forcefully warned to quit talking so much to visitors and the employee was told they would be "sorry" and destined to fail as an employee if they didn't heed that advice. The employee had been doing exactly the same thing with every visitor and couldn't understand the problem until, upon further reflection, realized the only differentiating variable had been the minority status of those particular visitors.
In a very similar second incident, an African-American man approached an employee with his teenaged daughter and asked for recommendations on books for her. The employee determined that the visitor was a physician, his daughter an ambitious student, and directed them to some advanced science texts. The employee also informed the visitors about the park's educational programs and directed them to the course catalog. The visitors agreed to enroll as supporters of the park and, as they filled out enrollment paperwork, a large group consisting of two Hispanic families, including three public school teachers and their young children, approached. The employee repeated much of what had just been told to the physician, who encouraged them to join him in enrolling as members. In the end, three minority families were enrolled as national park supporters. However, this employee was also subsequently berated for spending time on "those people" instead of other customers. It was clear that the real issue had nothing to do with the other customers.
In another episode, a visitor entered a park bookstore with a large revolver strapped to his side and began lecturing everyone in the store about how the 500 S&W cartridge was the best, if not the only, way to protect themselves from the wildlife. Alarmed by his obsession with his sidearm and unsure of his stability and potential behavior, the employee engaged the visitor in a side discussion and the episode ended without incident. However, the employee had lingering concerns about the man's mental stability and about how the next such encounter might unfold differently and even impact public safety. The employee reported the episode to a veteran NPS ranger who advised posting signage prohibiting firearms in the bookstore; however, prior to any further action being taken, the employee received a visit from a supervisory NPS ranger for the area. The need for signage was mentioned and the employee was then lectured on the beneficial roles of firearms and the National Rifle Association in America.
In these situations, employees were not provided with useful guidance on dealing with discrimination or bias based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation, but were instead flagged to not be rehired for the next season.
In additional to those direct, personal forms of biases, I see 2 major structural issues.
First, many entry-level positons seem to require unpaid or low-pay internships and term positions in order to be competitive. I know too many young staff with Master's degrees who had to string together years of contractor, term, and seasonal positions across different parks or agencies (with bouts of bartending or waiting tables in between to stay alive) before finally receiving their first GS-7 permanent positions. Folks who have to pay their own way through college, or who have to financially contribute to their families, are excluded, and others have to give up chasing the dream after a year or 2.
In part it's hard to get good candidates through HR, so often managers who see good candidates in temporary positions add a couple of additional requirements to a position description to ensure that known candidates get through. I've still chiefs and superintendents pull and repost positions if their known candidates don't make the cert. Pathways, future leaders, geoscientists in parks (not limited to geologists!), and other 6 week to 6 month internship programs also provide special hiring authorities. Special hiring authorities allow hiring outside of USAjobs & HR, so participants in those programs can become the only or easiest good candidates to hire. But this biases against folks who can't afford to take a low-paying or part-time internship, and thus ends up reducing the ethnic as well as economic diversity of the new hires.
Second, with the exception of 5/7/9 interp ranger positions, career advancement of employees requires competitive selection for new positions, almost always at different parks. Details or temporary assignments give staff experience and make them more competitive for climbing up the ladder. But at least in the Pacific West region, the salary of the person on detail is not paid by the park they are working for, but rather by their home park. So, in order to get a detail and experience toward advancement, an employee needs a supervisor willing to let the leave for 120 days, with that division in the home park working short-handed (so large enough to get by with 1 fewer employee), while continuing to spend their park budget on that person's salary, so that person will be better able to get a promotion and leave for another park. Yes there are issues with annual budgeting and restrictions on what the home park might be able to do with the 4 month unpaid salary, but this clearly sets up advancement to be driven by "golden boy" favorites with a superior who champions their career. That reinforces the good ol' boy (& girl!) networks in NPS, especially as it is easiest to see the value in and mentor staff who are like you.
Absent some deliberate targeting of paid opportunities that qualify for special hiring toward underrepresented groups, and deliberate career championing of junior staff with different backgrounds and not like the sponsor, I don't see NPS increasing the economic, cultural, or ethnic diversity of our staff, no matter what memos full of words come down from on high, and even if we all "green dot" step up whenever we witness acts as described in this article. CJDillon has seen this from another region and different side, and has seen and done much more. I'd learn from reading his perspective, as well as the other regulars here who are/were chiefs and superintendents and higher.
After being subjected to institutional racist Affirmative Action for over 40 years, based on my skin color and sex, all my working life, historically speaking, Now the National Park Service will discriminate against white males, much as they have already, to make up for discrimination.
Well, tomp2 (in exile), we agree on pretty much all of what I have witnessed; however, when there's such a consistent pattern and practice of adverse actions taken against seasonals to, not merely discriminate on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and political leanings, but also to uniformly weed out and/or retaliate against potential witnesses and whistleblowers in order to enforce that discrimination, it really goes beyond personal forms of biases. That truly does start to describe a vertically integrated racket, a structural racket as you might say.
You actually acknowledge such when you 1) point to well qualified candidates "who had to string together years of contractor, term, and seasonal positions... before finally receiving... their first GS-7 permanent" chance; 2) how folks "who have to pay their own way through college, or... contribute to their families" are weeded out during those extended and easily corruptible seasonal try-outs; 3) how you've seen "chiefs and superintendents pull and repost positions if their known candidates don't" come back as the most qualified applicant for the job those "chiefs and superintendents" wanted to give them; 4) how the use of "special hiring authorities" can serve to, often cynically, facilitate and enable "biases against folks who can't afford" prolonged and often rigged seasonal servitude; 5) how those "special hiring authorities" can thus be used to obstruct, rather than encourage, diversity; and 6) how the use of seasonal and temporary assignments has come to be misused in ways that "clearly" set up advancement to be "driven by 'golden boy' favorites" with superiors who champion careers through "good ol' boy (& girl!) networks" in the NPS. I believe that, at this point, you have to agree that what you're describing and confirming is organized corruption that systematically, through consistent patterns and practices, violates multiple civil rights and equal employment opportunity laws and regulations.
Now, let's look at the childishly whiny comments Anonymous posted about "being subjected to institutional racist Affirmative Action" based on his "skin color and sex" and his allegation about the NPS discriminating against white males. The article gives us information about gender and racial representation in permanent full-time NPS positions; so, let's look at that. The articles states that, "Whites account for 79 percent of full-time permanent employees, and 62 percent of all employees are male." Well, according to most studies, a little more than 50% of the qualified candidates for these positions, by both percentage of the national population and educational statistics, are women; yet, 62% of the positions are occupied by males. Okay, moving right along. To avoid confusion, let's just look at the information in the article itself, which indicates that ~13.4 percent of the national population is African American, ~18.5 percent is Hispanic, ~5.9 percent of the national population is Asian American, and ~1.3 percent is Native American. This means that at least 39% of America is not white and that the rationally expected percentage of whites in permanent full-time NPS positions ought to be only a bit more than 60%; however, again according to the article 79% of permanent full-time NPS positions are held by whites. This would tend to disprove any contention that Anonymous has been "subjected to institutional racist Affirmative Action" based on his "skin color and sex" and that the NPS discriminates against white males. If Anonymous had only looked at the information in the article and done a little bit of elementary math, he should have been able to see that his comment would look foolish; yet, he posted it anyway. That leaves me to believe that he did not, in fact, face discrimination based on his "skin color and sex" but that any discrimination he faced was actually more likely based on his lack of intelligence.
It seems the diversity in the park reflects the diversity in America. Being that the number reflects the percentage of each ethnic group in America. There are more whites in America, hence more whites in the Park
Realistic, did you actually not understand the article? Okay, rather than let your misinterpretation stand and become another lump of misinformation/disinformation in America, let's go back and try again.
The fifth paragraph in the article clearly states that African American employees "comprise almost 7 percent of the NPS's permanent full-time workforce, significantly less than the 13.4 percent of African Americans in the national population. Hispanic employees also are underrepresented, making up 5.6 percent of the Park Service general workforce despite accounting for 18.5 percent of the population. Asian Americans encompass about 2.3 percent of employees compared to 5.9 percent of the national population."
I thought this information was important enough to restate it, in slightly different terms, to ensure everybody understood. So, in the first paragraph of my comment of July 5, 2020 - 8:48pm, I pointed out that the article "explains how 'diversifying the workforce' has been a National Park Service (NPS) goal for over fifty years; yet, admits, today, 62% of NPS employees remain male when the majority of Americans are actually female. African Americans staff NPS permanent full-time positions at a rate just over half their share of the broader population; Asian Americans occupy such permanent full-time positions at a rate just less than 40% of their share of the population; and Hispanics fall even further behind, occupying those positions at a rate barely above 30% of their population share."
Realistic, those numbers actually indicate that the diversity of staff in permanent full-time NPS positions absolutely does not reflect the percentage of each ethnic group in America, which means the diversity of staff in permanent full-time NPS positions does not reflect the diversity in America. Realistic, for whatever reason, you got it exactly backwards.
In the comments Anonymous posted on July 6, 2020 - 3:00am alleging the NPS discriminated against white males, that assertion was also completely turned backwards, had to be corrected, and, in the third paragraph of my comment of July 6, 2020 - 2:46pm, I noted, "The articles states that, 'Whites account for 79 percent of full-time permanent employees, and 62 percent of all employees are male.' Well, according to most studies, a little more than 50% of the qualified candidates for these positions, by both percentage of the national population and educational statistics, are women; yet, 62% of the positions are occupied by males." This means the gender diversity of staff in permanent full-time NPS positions does not reflect the gender diversity in America.
I also quoted information in the article indicating that ~13.4 percent of the national population is African American, ~18.5 percent is Hispanic, ~5.9 percent of the national population is Asian American, and ~1.3 percent is Native American. This means that at least 39% of America is not white and that the rationally expected percentage of whites in permanent full-time NPS positions ought to be no more than a bit over 60%; however, again according to the article, 79% of permanent full-time NPS positions are held by whites. Once again, this means that the racial diversity of staff in permanent full-time NPS positions does not reflect the racial diversity in America.
So, Realistic, no matter how you slice it, the diversity of staff in permanent full-time NPS positions absolutely does not reflect the percentage of each ethnic group in America. Realistic, for whatever reason, your conclusion is exactly backwards.
The NPS does not discriminate against white males. When the NPS shares that 60%+ of the employees are white male, how is it that white males are discrimated against? This is so typical of wjite males who do not get selected for a position. They are most often beaten out by another white male, not a female or a person of color. I wish white males who state that they were discriminated against, would just stop the lie.