"Whites Only"?

On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 18:09:40 -0600, "Pat" wrote:


: Where are all the black riders? What is it about our sport that makes it
: so unappealing to an entire race of people?
:
: Anybody have any theories?
:
:
: Could be they just aren't interested,
:
: But look at the ratio of white riders according to the total white
: population, then look at the ratio of black riders according to the total
: black population. There may not be much difference,

Yeah, when people find out that I ride (and these are white people by and
large), they are astonished because none of them have ridden a bike since
they were 12 years old! They are just amazed that an adult would ride a
bike. In fact, they tend to make fun of it at first with a kind of "Aren't
you through with childish things by now?" attitude.

Well that's not a black or white thing! I know people whose parents
wonder why any adult would ride a bike, etc, and I get the sort of
quizzical attitude from my family. I get the feeling it's
trans-racial.THey just DON'T UNDERSTAND....

On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 21:41:17 -0500, wrote:

On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 16:26:53 GMT, RonSonic
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 08:46:39 -0700, Mark Hickey wrote:

"Roger Zoul" wrote:

wrote:

Is there a chance that black folks feel too vulnerable out on the road
alone? FWIW, I once lived in an area of the country where that might
have been reasonable. (That's one of the reasons I left.)

I have to admit that these kinds of thoughts always creep into my head on my
solo rides. I just ignore them and keep going.

Good for you... I once lived in an Asian country where (for various
reasons) there were spikes of anti-Western sentiments. I too had to
consider the possibility that someone might feel it prudent to reduce
the Western population in that country by one with a twitch of the
steering wheel, but didn't let that stop me either.

The way I look at it, if prejudice keeps you from doing what you want
to do, the weenies win, and we can't have that! Sadly, we live in a
world where we can legislate equality (which is a good thing), but we
can't legislate the attitude of the individual. Hopefully those who
are truly warped will die off and not pass along the behaviors to
their offspring.

Last year in St Petersburg, Fla, the KKK held a rally. The turn out of Klansmen,
NeoNaz, fellow travellers, sympathizers and immediate family was five (5).
That's right, the Klan held a rally and got five people to show up. There were
about 40 newsmen and 200 some counter-protesters. Even that was a historically
low turnout since the Klan isn't even worth protesting anymore.

Evil really hates being yawned at.

Ron

I believe it. Interesting though, recently i was watching a PBS show
about Malcolm X, who grew up in Michigan. I was surprised when they
said that (at the time,anyways) Michigan had an even higher Klan
membership than any state in the Deep south. I don't know if that
statistic remained the same in the years after the 1930s.

Back in the thirties the Klan could get 50-60,000 together for a march on DC.
And they sure weren't all from the south.

I really don't know the racial history of the south on a personal level having
lived in more northern locations until the mid 80s. But I do know that white
southerners do not on average have any greater racial animosity than anyone
else. Perhaps it's the larger black populations here, but there is a general
sense that we may as well get along and personal opinions are secondary.

In any case it is a better world we're living in these days and a better one
ahead. Certainly couldn't be a hell of a lot worse than what created the KKK and
the Nation of Islam.

Ron

"Gooserider" wrote in message
m...

I suppose it all depends on what kind of urban black neighborhood you
mean.
If you mean a gentrified area with middle class "buppies" (black urban
professionals) then I'd say you're on the right track. If you mean poor
inner city projects, I would worry about your safety.

I mean black neighborhoods in the greater Seattle area. These aren't
horrible ghettos, but they aren't gentrified, either.

For my job I finance low income housing. I find that I will learn more about
a project or a neighborhood by riding through it than I will either walking
around or driving through, or at least, learn different things about it.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

"RonSonic" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 12:52:29 -0800, "Claire Petersky"

wrote:

FWIW, as a white woman, I feel safer riding in urban black neighborhoods
than I do on many rural roads. Young black men apparently find very
little
percentage in harrassing me for the sake of harrassing me; somehow in the
woods a young white guy in monster truck will think it's fun to run me
off
the road.

Has the latter actually happened?

I'm both fierce about keeping my lane position, and also seem to need less
space to be comfortable between me and the motor vehicle than a lot of other
cyclists, so, I'm pretty hard to run off the road. I've had people come
pretty close, though.

I did have a motorist nudge me, where the bumper was put right up against my
back tire, and push the bike, in what -- December? I found this terrifying.
This happened in suburbia, as it turns out, by a black woman in a compact
car with Maine licence plates. I don't know what stereotype to draw on for
that one.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 01:48:44 GMT,
, "Gooserider"
wrote, in part:

Basketball is the favorite
sport of black people by a large margin. Its popularity is no doubt due to
the fact that it is very inexpensive to play, and regardless of your
hypersensitivity, a disproportionately large number of black people are
economically disadvantaged.

In other places, like Africa and South America, soccer is the game but
there are also professional teams with lots of exposure. Maybe that's
why Ultimate Frisbee isn't more popular among the poor. Flying discs
are easier to shoplift than soccer balls. Vancouver has a small black
population but so maybe that's why I've never seen any blacks playing
it or disc golf. Perhaps those games are just too assinine

Most school yards have hoops and there are several ball hockey "rinks"
around town though there are far more soccer pitches.

I have a friend who is a self-confessed "gear freak". His attraction
to a sport or hobby is directly proportional to the amount of "must
have" stuff hyped in the speciality magazines.

Hockey over skiing, baseball and tennis over basket ball. He went
crazy with photography before the advent of digital cameras. He loved
technical rock climbing and ice climbing but scoffed at free climbing.
Now he's started playing golf though he's learned to minimise his load
for the marathon sessions. (He played 81 holes in one day, on foot,
carrying his own bag, to establish a course record.) He'd only been at
it for two years. I'd imagine he has gone through a few carts and sets
of clubs by now. He's never had a wife. He's married to his current
obsessions.

I'm too short to play golf. I can't reach the ball washers.
--
zk

Sat, 5 Mar 2005 21:12:16 -0800, ,
"Claire Petersky" wrote:

I did have a motorist nudge me, where the bumper was put right up against my
back tire, and push the bike, in what -- December? I found this terrifying.
This happened in suburbia, as it turns out, by a black woman in a compact
car with Maine licence plates. I don't know what stereotype to draw on for
that one.

The idiotic homicidal type that should be shot on sight.
--
zk

: I remember your accident now. How much did it cost to get that
: shifter repaired?
:
: Free. I just took it to the LBS and they had it back in place within
: minutes. Plus they adjusted the brakes and lubed the chain.
:
:
Well, I hope you remember how they did it so that you won't be walking the
next time that happens.

Pat

It is more an issue of socioeconomic's than race. I know runners &
cyclists of all races. However I have always lived in nice
middle/upper class neighborhoods. People who live in working class
neighborhoods who are adults generally don't exercise other than
perhaps lifting weights, cardio is non-existent.

People riding on bikes/running wearing spandex etc it can be safely
assumed that their job does not involve manual labor but most likely
sitting at a desk. I have had jobs when I was younger that involved
manual labor and I was too tired to exercise.

I know anyone can find anecdotal evidence to the contrary but the
facts are what they are.





On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 05:00:41 -0500, (Chris Zacho
"The Wheelman") wrote:

I have been riding for over 30 years now. I've been the member of many
clubs, large and small, on both coasts and in the middle. I've been to
and done many organized rides (short, long and "are you nuts?") and bike
rallies boasting attendances ranging from the hundreds to the thousands.

Yet at any one of these organizations or events, I could count the total
number of "Afro-American" riders with the fingers of one hand. The
portion of South Carolina where I live now, according to the latest
census, has a population that is about 60% black. Yet the local club,
which has nearly 100 members, to my knowledge has only one black
cyclist. Hardly an accurate representation of the population at large.

In fact, I'll be willing to bet, that out of all the posters on this
board, only one, maybe two, max. are black. If indeed anybody here is.
Where are all the black riders? What is it about our sport that makes it
so unappealing to an entire race of people?

Anybody have any theories?

- -

"May you have the winds at your back,
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

(Zoot=A0Katz) wrote:
"Claire Petersky"
wrote:
I did have a motorist nudge me, where
the bumper was put right up against my
back tire, and push the bike, in what --
December? I found this terrifying. This
happened in suburbia, as it turns out,
by a black woman in a compact car
with Maine licence plates. I don't know
what stereotype to draw on for that one.

The idiotic homicidal type that should be
shot on sight.
--
zk

Not a good idea, Zoot, they might take to shooting back. Worse, they'd
have a legitimate defense.

- -

"May you have the winds at your back,
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

I believe it. Interesting though, recently i was watching a
PBS show
about Malcolm X, who grew up in Michigan. I was surprised
when they
said that (at the time,anyways) Michigan had an even higher
Klan
membership than any state in the Deep south. I don't know if
that
statistic remained the same in the years after the 1930s.

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Michigan is a wonderful
state, but not without its fringe element militias even now.

There's a picture here
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/journ...ge_id=9558&v=0
from one of my bike tours. The picture of from Wayland,
Michigan and shows what seems at first glance to be a
lawnmower / garden tractor store, but its name is "Waco Sales
Company" (after Waco, Texas, where there was a violent
showdown between the Feds and a resistance group in the early
1990's*) with a nice sign on the marquee "We buy and sell
guns". There's a lot of hunting in Michigan, so there's
certainly a reasonable commercial market for buying and
selling guns. The "Waco" connection was pretty creepy,
though. I decided that I'd take a picture and get my
lycra-clad self further up the road.

* For more information on the Waco controversy -- and a
sampling of the heat still surrounding it -- see sites like
http://expage.com/lukester84