Ethnicity and Urban Recreation: Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics in Chicago's Public Parks

Abstract

Field observations of white, black, and Hispanic groups in thirteen neighborhood and regional parks in Chicago were made to determine ethnic and or racial variations in leisure and recreation activities. Significant differences were found not only in the types of activity, but also in the age, sex, size, and social composition of activity groups. These results suggest that meaningful social and cultural differences between ethnic and racial subgroups produce distinctive patterns of recreation behavior. While earlier studies relate black-white differences to the influence of ethnicity, these studies have failed to adequately conceptualize or operationalize the origins of black-white (race) and Hispanic-white (cultural) differences; the social forces responsible for differences between black and white groups in this study appear to be of different origin than those between whites and Hispanics. This study illustrates the advantage of an observation technique in supplementing data generated from surveys of recreation participation.