BME (Black, Minority and Ethnic) representation in cycling clubs

[Globalti]

One of the reasons I drifted away from my local mountain bike club was the racism shown towards a couple of young Asian lads who wanted to join by an older member, the owner of a local bike shop. The lads were struggling to gain fitness and learn skills but received no help or encouragement, only muttered hostility, which I'm sure they sensed.

 

[cyberknight]

like most clubs the ones i have ridden with tend to be MAWG

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Cycling is seen in Asia and Africa as something done by poor people who can't afford motorised transport. On the other hand, owning a car, especially a premium brand Western car, is seen as a sign of success in life.
Therefore you will not find many people from those continents living in the West, who actively choose to ride a bike once they are able to afford something with an engine in it. The kids will ride bikes, but generally they don't do so as adults.
Go to any area with a wealthy ethnic population, and the roads outside their houses are bumper to bumper with Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc. You will still see some ethnic cyclists going to work, usually those who do low-status, relatively low-paid type work. You won't find many ethnic business owners or doctors etc, riding bikes by choice. If they can afford a nice car, they buy one. When was the last time you saw someone of Chinese origin riding a bike in London? They are very few and far between, even by general ethnic standards. You can't force people to like cycling if culturally they associate it with poverty!

 

[theclaud]

'Ethnic cyclists'? WTAF?

 

[swansonj]

Cycling is seen in Asia and Africa as something done by poor people who can't afford motorised transport. On the other hand, owning a car, especially a premium brand Western car, is seen as a sign of success in life.
Therefore you will not find many people from those continents living in the West, who actively choose to ride a bike once they are able to afford something with an engine in it. The kids will ride bikes, but generally they don't do so as adults.
Go to any area with a wealthy ethnic population, and the roads outside their houses are bumper to bumper with Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc. You will still see some ethnic cyclists going to work, usually those who do low-status, relatively low-paid type work. You won't find many ethnic business owners or doctors etc, riding bikes by choice. If they can afford a nice car, they buy one. When was the last time you saw someone of Chinese origin riding a bike in London? They are very few and far between, even by general ethnic standards. You can't force people to like cycling if culturally they associate it with poverty!

You four times use "ethnic" when you mean "ethnic minority". "Ethnic" does NOT mean "non-white".

 

[Globalti]

Give the lad a break. This forum is too full of people desperate to prove their PC credentials. It's a kind of virtue-signalling contest.

I once suggested to the son of my Pakistan agent, who was at Bangor uni, that as a student he'd do better to buy a bike to ride to lectures than waste money on a knackered old BMW. I sensed his shock down the phone from the sharp intake of breath!

Once I had explained the need for insurance and the likely cost he dropped the idea and carried on walking to lectures.

 

[Chris S]

Go to any area with a wealthy ethnic population, and the roads outside their houses are bumper to bumper with Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc.

That sums-up my road and I live on the edge of Sparkhill (capital of British Pakistan, according to Citizen Khan)

 

[Smokin Joe]

I don't know why anyone cares about the ethnic make up of cyclists. If people of different origins want to ride a bike they will, clearly they don't. So what?

 

[Dogtrousers]

I don't know why anyone cares about the ethnic make up of cyclists. If people of different origins want to ride a bike they will, clearly they don't. So what?

Depends on the reason why. It could be, for instance, be due in part to the attitudes of white people who - strangely enough - are experts on what "they" want.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Depends on the reason why. It could be, for instance, be due in part to the attitudes of white people who - strangely enough - are experts on what "they" want.

You want to ride a bike, you go into a shop and buy one. They won't refuse to sell you one because you are black or Asian and no one will try and stop you riding it.

When I was a driving instructor I had many black and Asian pupils and when they learned I was a cyclist their attitude was one of bemused bewilderment that anyone who had a car would choose to use a bicycle. There are cyclists from those groups, but in the main they are just not interested.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

You want to ride a bike, you go into a shop and buy one. They won't refuse to sell you one because you are black or Asian and no one will try and stop you riding it.

When I was a driving instructor I had many black and Asian pupils and when they learned I was a cyclist their attitude was one of bemused bewilderment that anyone who had a car would choose to use a bicycle. There are cyclists from those groups, but in the main they are just not interested.

I stayed car free for over thirty years, in two of the places I worked in that period part of the job I did for them was company driver, driving vans and small lorries, a lot of the people I worked with considered me weird because i cycled to work when I had a car licence, they considered me even more weird when they found out I was a club rider and rode at the weekend for enjoyment.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

You want to ride a bike, you go into a shop and buy one. They won't refuse to sell you one because you are black or Asian and no one will try and stop you riding it..

Exactly my view as well. I really don't know why anyone would give a toss whether different ethnic groups choose to cycle or not. It's up to them to decide either to ride or not to ride. It makes no difference to me if they aren't interested in cycling, and frankly I couldn't care less what the percentage of different ethnic groups are who join cycling clubs or just ride bikes.

 

[Ian H]

Lots of entitled white blokes pontificating. Both funny and sad.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Lots of entitled white blokes pontificating. Both funny and sad.

And a few people who just don't get that cycling just isn't for everyone and that people from different backgrounds don't have the same interests that we do.

 

[Slow But Determined]

Lots of entitled white blokes pontificating. Both funny and sad.

I don't see anybody pontificating, I see a lot of people getting straight to the point. As for entitled, I was one of five kids, my dad died when I was five, my mum worked three jobs to keep a roof over our heads, trust me that did not feel entitled.