These kinds of discussions confuse race with culture. The purported paucity of black cyclists is a cultural phenomenon, not a racial phenomenon. Race is genetic and affects physical characteristics, culture is learned. We're not born cyclists, we have to learn it.
So there aren't many black cyclists---so what? It's not their thing. They have other things. Their things aren't my things, and they're not trying to get me involved in their things because they're their things and they don't care that they're not my things, too. Sociology PhD's working for universities can get grant money to study these kinds of disparities and publish the results and we can all read 'em with interest, but it doesn't change the fact that different cultures gravitate to different things, and there's nothing wrong with it. It's just the way it is, and it's interesting to know it and acknowledge it, but there's no need to "fix" it. I know this bothers Grant (there's my Riv content!), and he can have his issue with it but I don't share his concern. I'm not offended by his concern over it and I don't think any less of him for it. When I lived in California in the 90's I learned that 90% of the donut shops in that state were owned by Cambodians. Almost all of the women working in manicure shops are from Vietnam. Most NBA and NFL players are black, but few hockey players, race car drivers, or professional golfers are. In the absence of limits, a large fraction of the students at top-tier US universities are Asian. These concentrations are way out of whack with the groups' representation in the general population. Why is it like that? 'Cause it is, that's why, and it's fine. Nobody's being shut out, except maybe the non-Asians who can't get into the supposed "elite" universities 'cause too many slots are taken up by the Asians, but the Asians get those slots because they've earned them through hard work, which is a *cultural* advantage they have over whites and blacks and Hispanics. Really, there's much ado about nothing here. Like Patrick, I've been kinda fascinated by the concentration of certain races and nationalities in certain professions ever since I learned about those California Cambodians---but as an observer, not as someone who thinks it's evidence of something we need to fix. Finally, there's nothing wrong or offensive about Patrick's post. What flows to the keyboard starts in the mind, and Patrick doesn't *think* in a way that would let him post something offensive. So....chill. No need for anyone to get their panties in a twist over this. Dave Boston/Indy > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/0d126b1a-75ca-48b5-a041-34b4806bb47e%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
