Over the years I I have experienced and attended so many events where I felt like I did not really belong. From being confused with staff, to being stared at, gawked at, talked down to, inappropriately questioned, etc. Even small group rides where folks thought I was lost and they’d redirect me to the slower group. They’d ask me questions to assess if I was qualified to be there, but only me.
If I’m being honest, if I wasn’t stubborn, dead set on becoming pro, and sometimes petty, I may have turned around and gone home, cuz normally, “ain’t nobody got time for that!” But I am stubborn, I was dead said on becoming pro, and I am sometimes petty, so I made sure to ride those same folks off my wheel every time that happened.
Most of the time I never went back, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. Or maybe it is. People don’t want to be in places where they don’t feel welcome, and what makes someone feel welcome changes from person to person.
I’ve been observing the cycling space for a while and it seems like especially in the past two years, these spaces have become particularly more white in ways that feel like a reversal of a lot of the work that we were doing to make these spaces more diverse.
Of course, they’re still making a little space here and there for respectable blacks, approved Browns and a few more, but most folks that presented even remotely radical have largely stopped getting invites. The big brand ambassador programs look nearly the same as they did before 2019, so do the race teams, and the industry staff.
It’s a combination of being excluded and unwelcome, and I think both are equally dangerous. Folks are being given the boot, or being asked to exist in hostile environments until they give up and leave.
I started this post to talk about the pedaler’s retreat and how I wanted to create spaces for people to come on vacation and have those pro experiences in a beautiful place and not feel like they didn’t belong. But clearly I’m off the rails there, so I’ll have to come back to that another day.
But now I think this is more of a general thought dump about the bike industry, the recreational/ racing community, and the attention, or lack there of, being given to something that is still quite important.
If I see one more diversity panel filled with predominantly white women, or even worse, predominantly white men, I will scream. I mean, I’ve been screaming, but no one can hear me unless i’m on the panel myself.
All these feel good posts on Instagram and other places where folks are talking about building communities, how welcoming they are, how great of an experience it is, and how they’re doing all of these things for people in cycling and women and cycling and then every. single. person. is white. Of course there are exceptions, but they are carrying far too much weight.
It’s a problem. And I know that I’ll be accused of being “reverse racist” or racist against white people which just isn’t a thing… or it will be minimized because I’m an American who is obsessed with race. But even if there was any truth to either argument, that does not mean that Black and Brown people in other places do not experience racism.
Just to be clear, I do not hate white people. I do not wish harm on white people. I just want better for everyone and in order to achieve that that means facing racism and discrimination head on and that starts with acknowledging that it is happening in the first place.
And when I say racism, I am including micro, aggressions, implicit biases, even the unintentional stuff that’s not remotely as obvious as calling someone the N-word.
The whole space has gotten a little too comfortable continuing to prioritize elevating certain voices, give opportunities to certain people, and pat themselves on the back for doing a great job regardless. Enough.
Anywho, a shift is happening, and I see leaders of color popping up like the Avengers once more and supporting the folks that have been in the trenches these past few years scrapping by themselves. There was never a time where diverse spaces were going to be adequately built without the leadership and guidance of diverse people. All this to say, if you’re leading the charge, I see you, we need you, keep going if you can, but always take care of yourself!
In the end, bikes aren’t perfect, but bikes are fun, and we should all feel welcome to enjoy them! Especially in places that claim we ARE ALL welcome to enjoy them!
