Systematic Racism Can't Be Fixed Without Tackling It Within Cycling

Fourteen riders share their experiences being Black in the cycling world. Plus: our analysis of police stop of cyclists in three major cities, and steps anyone can take to be actively anti-racist.


In the winter of 2014, I was just leaving a job at a nonprofit I had thought was my dream job. As a gender nonconforming, queer, Black woman, I was working on LGBTQ issues and leading a Boys and Men of Color program at an organization on the frontlines with community organizers. Unfortunately, as is all too common for women of color—and particularly Black women—in the workplace, I experienced racism and anti-Blackness. I was reeling. How could I ever find a job that would feed my soul in the same way?

That’s when I learned about the Executive Director position at the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC). At first, I wasn’t sure about working at a bicycle organization. Sure, riding my bike made me feel free. I was still riding the high of pedaling 545 miles in the AIDS/LifeCycle fundraiser. I wanted to ride my bike everywhere in my daily life. And after the stress of being a civil rights lawyer and social justice nonprofit leader, the idea of a job where I got to be on my bike all day seemed absolutely blissful. I knew some of my friends would question how I could work at a bike coalition. After all, many see bike lanes as one of the first signs of gentrification.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/s...g-it-within-cycling/ar-BB17nV5k?ocid=msedgntp

To quote the immortal words of Mr. Rhett Butler "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn". When I was able to ride a bike the thought was to get out into nature, enjoy the fresh air AND get away from it all for a brief period of time. Looks like this is going to get all F'd up now. But if there is one good thing about biking left is that the road goes in the opposite direction also.

 

I've given up counting how many times I've shaken my head at the stupidity of identitarism. I just don't understand how anyone can wake up every day and think of everything from a skin color perspective. And yeah, I have no doubt that some lefty is going to come in here and tell me its because I'm white. No. It's not. It's because I was raised to not care about skin color.

 

Maybe someone can explain to me how being on a bike is some kind of social justice performance. When I bike all I care about is the traffic, safety, and getting my exercise in.

 

Fourteen riders share their experiences being Black in the cycling world. Plus: our analysis of police stop of cyclists in three major cities, and steps anyone can take to be actively anti-racist.

Hell, in my 32 years of watching the tv show Cops the only ones I ever saw get stopped by cops were white boys with backpacks. And guess what was usually found in the backpacks? Yep, needles, drug paraphernalia, contraband and burglary tools.

Though I must admit that I missed the episode when police pulled over an African American riding a bike carrying a backpack. After searching the backpack the police found a geometry book and a history term paper with an A+ grade. It turned out that the backpack and bike were stolen.

 

They gotta inject their SJW BS agenda into everything. Next it will be, "swimming is a sign of systemic racism and white privilege".

 

About 25 years ago I called a local radio show that was airing a segment on racism. I asked the hosts what would happen if a movie was produced depicting an African American training to be an olympic swimmer and the movie was named Black Men Can’t Swim? Both hosts, one an African American himself couldn’t stop laughing, but both agreed the outrage would be overwhelming. Of course I brought up the movie White Men Can’t Jump and all the racist verbiage against white people contained in the script. They did both agree with me that most views about racism are racist.

 

Maybe it is just bikes with "training" wheels.....rayciss!

 

This obsession with race and racism is a social hysteria!

If you want to see what racism is go and spend some time in China. They have systemic racism there .

 

I was taught to believe that what others think of you is none of your business.

I was taught to believe that no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

But as a collective Western society we have allowed ourselves to indulge our most extreme sensitivities.

The days of thick skin may be gone forever.

 

But this is a non western culture and like many middle eastern countries and other non western cultures their racism is merely a cultural artifact and one to be tolerated and maybe even admired as evidence of diversity of thought or so we in the west have been taught through about 60 years of social engineering. Kind of confusing but somehow they have also taught us doublethink.

 

At first, I couldn’t figure out what this thread is about. Once I read through a little, I saw one quote that every one needs. The cyclist wrote, “I followed advice commonly shouted at races. I only looked forward, never back.”

You can’t beat these racist trolls by calling out the pain and suffering they cause you; they just get off on that. You need to just stop hearing that **** and keep moving forward.

I mean, I get it when you want to call out the criminal justice system, public education system, etc, for racist policies. Calling out individuals for minor offenses may have the opposite result of what was intended.

 

Good for you, but do you think you're representative of all white Americans? Just because you and I don't care about skin color doesn't mean it isn't a huge problem for non-whites.

 

Name one law in our system that gives people of color a disadvantage?

 

Please elaborate the problems of African Americans given affirmative action, the many other laws specifically prohibiting housing discrimination. The laws giving special advantage to African acceptance to University and then the grade inflation that happens upon their arrival. Explain the fact that Obama was elected with the white vote because it would have been impossible without them. Explain why OJ Simpson was exonerated after killing two white people for fear of inciting black rioting? Explain why American employers are afraid of not hiring African Americans and of firing them even with cause. Explain why George Floyd who was a violent career criminal has become a martyr when the majority of police killings are white on white. Explain to me in any meaningful way how African Americans are the victim in American culture by whites while they are so busy killing each other??

 

For the last few days I've been asking the left how are we ever going to end racism if they keep finding new things that are racist. But I guess once you call math and grammar racist, then anything goes.

 

Everybody has problems, why should non whites be any different. I've already told this board that I, a white dude, used to get pulled over by the police when I was driving in the wrong areas of NYC, Newark and Jersey City at night. Almost certainly I was pulled over due to my skin color because the areas I was in were not places white people went to unless they were looking for trouble.

 

Racism can not go away as long as there is an economic reward for mining it. Look how long it took people to stop mining gold in California long after the gold rush was over.

There will always be the call from Black leaders to look for it until they tell their constituents that it is now time to seize the special protections they’ve been given and get an education and stop whining.

Right now even if every white were to die from covid or something Blacks would still blame their situation on Whites for generations!

It is not helpful.

 

I was strip searched in full daylight in Indiana on a highway frequented by drug traffickers moving from Chicago to cities further east. Just because I had out of state plates. So the kvetching about being profiled due to race is nonsense to me as I am white. Police want arrests whenever possible and couldn’t care less who they arrest. I was not arrested because I had no drugs. And they were pissed off!

 

While my personal opinion is that this whole story seems unlikely, even by anecdote, just what "highway" is "frequently traveling from Chicago to further east" and whites are being "stripped searched in full daylight" on the highway? In Indiana to east?

 

If he said he was black you would have believed every word.

 

If you had been born Black, society would have made you care about skin color from a very early age.
The fact that you don't care about skin color shows your White privilege.

 

Thanks for doing exactly what I said would happen. Its the mantra for Indentitarians.

 

All? No. Most? Yes.

 

To be quite honest, when bicyclist are on busy roads screwing up traffic I hate theirs asses regardless of their sex and/or color.

 

So we're now supposed to see skin color rather than character.