Does the membership of any cycling club accurately reflect the BME makeup in their catchment area? Should it?
I'm curious to know the motivation of the op in asking this question.
What is (his?) angle on all this?
The answer to the first question must surely vary from place to place, has anyone done the statistical analysis?? .
And as to the second question.
Whether it matters, well that's got to depend.
If it is just a cultural aversion, as suggested by some, because of the associations that some groups have around cycling, then no problem really, except I'd imagine we'd all say more people on bikes in general, yes please because it's ace.
But at the same time, each individual, very much to their own choices.
However, if people from BaME groups are being put off joining clubs because they fear not being made welcome, or have other anxieties of that nature then that's another matter, and that needs addressing, assuming the club is being run by half decent human beings.
Without asking the people in question, as to why they're not joining in, its very hard to know the answer really.
White guys saying "Oh, it's all pc gone mad" about measures to counter discrimination that they'll never have experienced, is almost self satirising nowadays, but it does still seem to get said in all seriousness.
I'm not in any cycling clubs, and I live in a very white area, so it's very hard to make an observation as to numbers in my area.
However, In my field (ha) of agriculture, I speak to quite a few people from ethnic minorities about their feelings around entering farming, or food growing as an occupation.
Some have made it in, but also many of them have said that they often feel unwelcome, in such a traditionally 'white' arena.
My progressive little farmers Union, does what it can to highlight these problems, and we definitely have a bigger proportion of membership from non white communities, than say the NFU, but there's still a good way to go, before those groups have any significant representation in farming and food growing in this country..
Even though I've met many people from BaME groups who say they would like to be involved.
So what was the point of the original question please??