To Be a Proud American (Bowhunter)

As a delivery driver, I’m on the same route every day. With the amount of hours I work and my responsibilities as a husband and father, I often forget upcoming national holidays. But a perk of my job is that I get reminders from the customers I deliver to.

I realized how close to the Fourth of July it was when I started seeing American flags on my route. One afternoon, I was hit with a wave of patriotism. Below a flag hanging from a telephone pole on the curb was a pickup truck adorned with stickers. The truck had stickers from the NRA, hunting brands, and a bumper sticker that declared: PROUD AMERICAN.

That collage of stickers made me ask myself, “Am I a proud American? Better yet, am I a proud American bowhunter?” Now think about this: When someone says “American bowhunter,” it doesn’t necessarily conjure the image of me—a black guy in a hoodie, jeans, and Air Jordans. So the question I’m really asking myself is, “Am I a proud black American bowhunter?”

A Proud American

I am proud to be an American. When I think of my parents, I can’t answer that question any other way. They came to this country with little, but they worked hard, earned degrees, and accomplished it all while raising me. They are retired now and living the good life in Florida. It’s a life well-earned.

My path has been different. After graduating high school, I was homeless for about a year. Despite my parents’ example, I blew an academic scholarship to a great university and ended up on the streets. With no roof over my head, I looked to the armed services for stability.

So I enlisted in the Marine Corps. Unfortunately, I didn’t take to it very well. To say my military career was less than stellar would be an understatement and I eventually ended up in jail.

After that wake-up call, I was able to pull myself together, work hard, and build a better life. One of the great things about this country is its ability to provide second chances. That’s not always the case. For many people, especially people of color, opportunities to succeed are rare. Second chances are even rarer. But they are there. And I’m proud I was able to take advantage of them.

A Proud Bowhunter

As an adult-onset bowhunter, I came into the sport with zero knowledge. But I was eager to learn. Like my parents, I went through an education of sorts, and I worked diligently to hone my shooting skills and hunting savvy. But in my three years of hunting, I’ve only been successful once.

And I’m still proud of that. Like life, hunting allows us to learn, make mistakes, and then learn some more. We get out into the woods to stalk our prey. We can make too much noise. We can allow the wind to hit our backs. But we adapt, overcome, and learn enough to hunt another day.

A Black American Bowhunter

Am I proud to be all of these things together? I can’t always say yes. The hunting community has been preaching about inclusivity. The thought is that making hunting more inclusive will reflect the diversity of our country and increase its numbers.

That’s encouraging. But then I get a reality check. In May 2019, just a few months before my first hunt, Patrick Durkin wrote an article titled “Is Hunting Too White?” The comments I read made me realize that there’s a certain old guard hunter who believes that nothing needs to change.

A little over a year later, I heard about a young man named Dennis who was trying to enjoy a day of hunting in Florida when the neighbors started playing racist, hate-filled music. Incidents like that make my wife worry about my safety when I’m in the woods alone. It makes me realize that we have more work to do.

The Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

As we celebrate that sentiment on this 246th anniversary of its adoption, it’s not lost on me that we celebrated Juneteenth just two weeks ago. It was almost 90 years from when America declared its independence to when the last enslaved peoples were made aware of their freedom, and a little over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Am I proud to be a black American bowhunter? Yes. But that pride comes from working hard, learning tough lessons, and earning my place in the outdoors. I’ve worked for that acknowledgement. But I also acknowledge that my hunting journey is far from over, and this country still has a long way to go.

So I will be celebrating this Independence Day—as a proud black American bowhunter—keeping all of that in mind.

So I will be celebrating this Independence Day—as a proud black American bowhunter—keeping all of that in mind.