Horrible article on Velorution, WTF were they thinking?

[chrisuren]

Someone's in for a bollocking tomorrow morning.

 

[Origamist]

Another justification from Andrea:

I have been taken aback by the reaction the post has generated. My surprise is probably due that as an immigrant myself, I have not understood the sensitivity English people have to matters of race; it is basically a taboo subject and one should be very careful in saying anything that may be misinterpreted.
The article was not about race but about behaviour on the road and police attitude towards it and resulted from my personal experience of several months of riding in several parts of London that I was not familiar with. I had observed that in areas where there is a predominance of people of certain ethnic/cultural background, respect for vulnerable road users is low. This after all is to be expected: if one comes from a culture where the bicycle is seen as a poor person's vehicle, one is not likely to change one's opinion overnight.
I then stated that unfortunately we are not going to see any leadership from the Police, who is rife with similar prejudices against bicycles.
My wish then is for the Mayor to apply UK legislation (expulsion of foreign criminals) to crimes on the road as well.
I stand behind the article but of course in future I will be more careful in the words I choose.

http://londonist.com/2008/07/bizarre_bicycle_blogging.php

 

[bb1]

I must say, anyone who has an aversion to what Andrea wrote or blindly calls it racist simply hasn't cycled on London's roads very often.

It's true that you can't generalize populations, but it's also true that each population represents a bell-curve ranging from cyclist-friendly to cyclist-hostile. From my experience of riding through the West End every day, the bell curves for the minorities mentioned by Andrea slide markedly towards the cyclist-hostile.

It's all very well defending a society from true racism, but vilifying someone for a well-intentioned observation does nothing to further a very important debate; it only serves to silence discussion.

 

[Wolf04]

It's true that you can't generalize populations, but it's also true that each population represents a bell-curve ranging from cyclist-friendly to cyclist-hostile. From my experience of riding through the West End every day, the bell curves for the minorities mentioned by Andrea slide markedly towards the cyclist-hostile.

"It's true that you can't generalise populations" but you do anyway
Your names not Andrea by any chance?

 

[Cab]

It's all very well defending a society from true racism, but vilifying someone for a well-intentioned observation does nothing to further a very important debate; it only serves to silence discussion.

You must admit that if her intention was to initiate an intelligent debate, her choice of language was simply shocking?

 

[Wolf04]

You must admit that if her intention was to initiate an intelligent debate, her choice of language was simply shocking?

He

 

[Origamist]

I must say, anyone who has an aversion to what Andrea wrote or blindly calls it racist simply hasn't cycled on London's roads very often.

It's true that you can't generalize populations, but it's also true that each population represents a bell-curve ranging from cyclist-friendly to cyclist-hostile. From my experience of riding through the West End every day, the bell curves for the minorities mentioned by Andrea slide markedly towards the cyclist-hostile.

It's all very well defending a society from true racism, but vilifying someone for a well-intentioned observation does nothing to further a very important debate; it only serves to silence discussion.

I called Andrea a racist and am happy with that definition. (Cab diagnosed him as possible sociopath, but I'll leave that to clinicians to determine).

bb1 - as your opinion dovetails with Andrea, can you tell me how you're defining and spotting cockneys or how you're differentiating "North Asians" from "South Asians" etc? Do you find particular Jewish movements more aggressive on the roads than others - are Orthodox Jews worse than those that follow Reform Judaism - or are they all as bad as each other?! What about Christians though - aren't the roads around Lambeth Palace strewn with the corpses of cyclists butchered by the Anglican community...

 

[Wolf04]

I called Andrea a racist and am happy with that definition. (Cab diagnosed him as possible sociopath, but I'll leave that to clinicians to determine).

bb1 - as your opinion dovetails with Andrea, can you tell me how you're defining and spotting cockneys or how you differentiating "North Asians" from "South Asians" etc? Do you find particular Jewish movements more aggressive on the roads than others - are Orthodox Jews worse than those that follow Reform Judaism - or are they all as bad as each other?! What about Christians though - aren't the roads around Lambeth Palace strewn with the corpses of cyclists butchered by the Anglican community...

Wish I'd said that!

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Was Andrea on crack when she wrote this?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Was Andrea on crack when she wrote this?

He. Andrea is a bloke.

 

[simon l& and a half]

I think they're as outraged by the presence of people from Essex as they are by people from Africa.

This is all very wierd, and not at all pleasant. I have to go to Great Castle Street on Saturday afternoon - I might just pop up and ask them what it's all about.

 

[Maz]

I've only just read the article and couldn't believe how racist it was (perhaps it's meant to be ironic or something?? If it is, it's lost on me). I'd never heard of Velorution before and thought maybe it was a extreme right-wing organisation...turns out they're a cycle store!

Why they don't pull the plug on that article is beyond me.

 

[Maz]

Use of the wrong language doesn't make someone racist, intent makes someone racist. Using the wrong terminology is simple ignorance.

Yeah, cheers, Cab.

I must remember that next time I get some racist abuse from the occupants of a passing car. Maybe I should try and catch up with them at the lights and ask them what they meant by it.

 

[womblechops]

I am quite shocked by this. I do think that the "wrong language" is no defence - it is always the argument of the BNP that they are not racist, they are merely presenting facts.

I am glad I came across this forum though as I was actually planning on buying a bike from Velorution (a retrovelo) and I can now confirm that I will be taking my business elsewhere.

Confusions over language or not, a business website is one area where you would expect a higher threshold of care and attention in what is being posted. This was a regrettable, and probably costly, lapse.

 

[Maz]

Welcome to the forum, womblechops.
It might not look like it from this discussion, but this really is the Commuting section. Honest.