Where do you stand on the use of the term ‘chain gang’ in cycling? It’s pretty common, but beyond the sport it of course carries a very different meaning.
The London Evening Standard reports that Brewdog has been defending itself from criticism after last week announcing The Brewdog Chain Gang, a series of social cycling clubs operating out of its various bars.
The beer brand’s social media followers obviously aren’t all cyclists and a number of them got in touch to express their displeasure at the name.
Emily Jane tweeted: “Is it just me or is Chain Gang a pretty gross name for @BrewDog’s bicycle club? It’s a slavery humiliation and forced labour slang word right?”
Another Twitter user – William Shatner’s TekWar – added: “Apparently ‘chain gang’ is a term used in cycling circles, HOWEVER, you’d think a multinational corporation (with previous problems of causing offense) would think a bit harder about this sort of shit. Its not hard, just dont be a dickhead.”
(William Shatner’s TekWar was presumably referring to Brewdog’s pink ‘beer for girls’ earlier this year, which the firm said was a “parody on the failed, tone-deaf campaigns that some brands have attempted in order to attract women.”)
Commenting on the Brewdog Chaingang, a spokesman said: “We named our cycling club Chain Gang as a nod to the well-known and often used term in the cycling community referring to a group of cyclists riding in lines behind a leader, allowing for a slipstream effect.
“It’s a commonly used turn of phrase in cycling and thousands of cycling clubs, races and organisations around the world use it within their names.
“The launch has been really well received with over 1,600 people signing up to create over 150 new cycling chapters in more than 20 different countries, achieving our goal of bringing together like minded beer and cycling enthusiasts.”
67 thoughts on “Brewdog criticised for calling its new cycling club a “chain gang””
Wow! PC gone mad or what?
Wow! PC gone mad or what?
There must be thousands of people scanning news reports every hour so that they can be offended at something. They’re going to go ballistic when the reports of bonking in the chain gang are published.
Bunch of liberal lefties
Bunch of liberal lefties looking for an excuse to be offended. Stick to reading the Guardian.
fizrar6 wrote:
More likely to be Daily Mail readers. They offend, and get offended, very frequently.
JWL wrote:
Fucking snowflakes everywhere!
JWL wrote:
I quite agree. I’m a liberal myself and a Guardian reader. Also, lefties aren’t liberals.
fizrar6 wrote:
Why when anything is represented does some arse have to blame liberal lefties when the prime example of misrepresentation is the Daily Mail – far from liberal and even further from left-wing.
fizrar6 wrote:
Oi! I’m a Liberal Leftie, but one who does not easliy take offence and I’ll have you know I agree this is ridiculous! There are degrees of liberal leftie you know and its not about trivial matters like this… 😉
Non-event.
Non-event.
It’s purely due to ignorance of the term – Emily Jane presumably has had her ‘oh, didn’t realise’ moment.
One of the main failings of social media is that stuff that would have been laughed at or drowned out in a crowded room is ‘published’ and jumped on by people who seek to amplify the nonsense.
There was nothing to see here; ideally Brew Dog wouldn’t have dignified it with a response. It would have fizzled out in no time.
davel wrote:
it sounds like it cropped up on their shareholder forum initially, so I think Brew Dog were obliged to respond to that as a query from their punk equity holders, and now newspapers like the Standard are covering it, even if they seem to claim the real William Shatner was upset,and asking for formal responses.
Pathetic
Pathetic
I wasn’t aware the term had
I wasn’t aware the term had slavery connotations, I was under the impression that it related to prison labour gangs.
People do love to be offended by anything brew dog does these days.
Housecathst wrote:
Quite, that’s the only thing I knew it for , I did some studies into the slave trading BITD (seeing as I come from Hull it was a thing) and I’d not come across the phrase though of course slaves were chained up.
You could pretty much have a loose association with almost any phrase or saying and turn it into something that is unpleasant, people have just gone totally insane the last 20 years or so with what can/can’t be said.
Housecathst wrote:
I always thought that too, so thinking I might have been wrong I just looked it up and sure enough it refers to prison work gangs, nothing to do with slavery. Having ridden on chain gangs and used the term for years I’d forgotten about even it’s prison associations. Some people are just so keen to be right on they’ll jump on anything with a remote possibility of a link to something offensive.
bikeylikey wrote:
grr.
I know, someone is wrong on the internet and I should really let it go… but seriously dude are you just reading the first paragraph of Wikipedia without reding the rest of the article??
Just to recap, there is evidence that the chaingang was used to perpetuate the conditions of slavery in the Southern states after the abolition of slavery I the US.
Yes, almost everyone was unaware of this fact in the UK
Yes, I was too until I researched it
I’m sue BrewDog were unaware too.
But that doesn’t affect the fact that historically the chain gang was used as a means of enforcing slavery after the official abolition.
If your cognitive dissonance does not allow you to handle this fact, that is your problem.
stomec wrote:
I think you’re overstating the case Wikipedia makes for it being slavery-related.
The Wikipedia article actually says, “Various claims as to the purpose of chain gangs have been offered. These include:” and then goes on to list seven different claims, only one of which is slavery related. The support for the slavery claim is a 20 year old article written by an Assistant US Attorney for the California Law Review.
Then look at all the examples “In popular media” which illustrate that the practice is much more closely linked with punishment for a crime than with slavery.
Plus, of course, a click on “disambiguation” at the top would show there are also many other uses of “chain gang”, including of course the cycling one.
I’m not saying there aren’t any racist overtones of the punishment-related chain gangs – I suspect that a black person in the southern US states would have been much more likely to be in a chain gang 100 years ago than a white person. But the link seems a bit weaker than some of the comments are suggesting.
Zigster wrote:
Not being American I’m not entirely up-to-speed, but my impression is the ‘chain gang’ is an emotive topic in it’s own right, irrespective of any link to slavery. Becuase it’s symbolic of the whole nature of the US penal system and their approach to the problem of crime. Their prisons are generally way tougher than ours (leaving aside differences between state and federal systems) and their prison population is second only to China’s.
And it appears the profit-motive is hugely involved as well, to the point of a conflict of interest. Prison labour (with or without chains and gangs) makes a large amount of cash for both the state and private interests. Makes one wonder what they would do if people stopped committing crimes such that the supply of cheap labour dried up.
Plus of course it’s very entangled with the issue of race, again, regardless of whether it’s connected to slavery or not.
“just because you’re offended
“just because you’re offended doesn’t mean it’s offensive”
Rapha Nadal wrote:
Yes, it literally does. Linguistically and logically.
“Just because you’re not offended does not mean it is not offensive.” Is a logically true statement.
Deeferdonk wrote:
Are you offended by it?
Rapha Nadal wrote:
No. But, but the definition of offensive is something that causes offence to someone. This has – thats what the article is about. Therefore it it’s offensive, albeit not very, and probably not to many.
Deeferdonk wrote:
Or, just because you are offended doesn’t mean I have to effing care; to paraphrase Stephen Fry.
It must be exhausting being a
It must be exhausting being a Social Justice Warrior. All these innocuous comments that have to be mined at the forensic level for anything that could possibly construed as offensive if one is careful to ignore context. Twats.
Im not sure whats worse that
Im not sure whats worse that they dont realise its just common parlance in cycling circles, which fair enough if you arent that bike nerdy you might not have come across in the context before though still lack of knowledge shouldnt explain away their flouncing, or that they think its part of Brewdogs brand of edgy marketing,that Brewdog deliberately chose chain gang because they knew it would offend them !? their view on the cycling cap design has to be read to be believed too.
You can offend some morons
You can offend some morons saying good morning in which case the old saying “Empty Vessels make the most noise” deals with them and their shrieking.
But I think this is the seminal comment “just because you’re offended doesn’t mean it’s offensive” thank you Mr Nada you summed it up perfectly.
I just wish I were a good enough rider to become an “inmate” on this ChanGang
Emily Jane – fuck off!
Emily Jane – fuck off!
OMG a Twitterstorm in a
OMG a Twitterstorm in a teacup!!!
Our little group has named
Our little group has named our new shirts chaingang 😀
Seems to me like you’re all
Seems to me like you’re all reacting in the very same knee-jerk, hysterical way that you’re criticising. It’s like an echo. Someone farts loudly in a canyon and the sound reverberates off all sides, predictably and automatically.
Chain gangs are seen by many people as essentially a continuation of slavery, nationalised. For people who are not interested in cycling this may be the first time they’ve heard the phrase out of its original context; people who are into cycling may be so used to it that they have completely lost sight of it as a (fairly witty) metaphor, just like people in the 70s and later who were so inured to racist and sexist and other bigoted language that they were entirely unaware of the harm they were causing.
People here are very quick to pick up on casual use of language, such as press reports about cars rather than people hitting cyclists, when you’re on the wrong end of it. Maybe you should consider it from the other side, and think about whether or not the term ‘chain gang’ applied to a group ride trivialises something that is still a live, sensitive issue in the US.
At least do something different, rather than trotting out yet again the unthinking ‘political correctness gone mad’ cliché.
ConcordeCX wrote:
The more I read your comment, the more I like. Nice summary.
ConcordeCX wrote:
They could’ve gone for daisy
They could’ve gone for daisy chain, which would probably gotten more press coverage.
don simon wrote:
Booze train
Classic … These must be the
Classic … These must be the same people that said it was offensive to call Nuts and Bolts Nuts ”nuts” …
It’s also a Chain Gang because there is suffering. Every chain gang I’ve ever been in, has been a punishment fest … none of this ‘ride leader’ and ‘no drop’ softness.
I saw the BrewDog thing, and ignored it, but will now look for a local chapter to ride with.
As far as I know, here in the
As far as I know, here in the US, “chain gang” is a group of prisoners chained together, and forced to do manual labor, like breaking rocks, cutting grass along roadsides, etc. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Cool Hand Luke”, you’ve seen men on a chain gang.
This term has nothing to do with slavery, and those who say it does don’t know what they are talking about.
As someone in these comments pointed out, it was hard work to be on the gang, and the cycling club wants to have that image, that you’re going to work hard if you join thier club.
I support their use of the term 100%, despite what dumbfuck conservatives(sorry for the redundancy) say about “liberals.”
I googled Chain Gang came up
I googled Chain Gang came up with Lyrics to a song, Scarves from a New Zealand shop, Chandeliers an article “slavery by another name” the actual article dosent mention slavery. The Urban dictionary is rather enlightening. Jewelry/Piercing, patches from DC, A group of convicts chained together, A chain Lube, Male strippers! Chain Gang Cycling Club. Not a lot about cycling or slavery.
FatTed wrote:
Your google results are wierd – is your search history messing them up?
I googled chain gang and the first article was from Wikipedia. In the history section:
” Various claims as to the purpose of chain gangs have been offered. These include: …. a way of perpetuating African-American servitude after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ended slavery outside of the context of punishment for a crime.[7]”
Odd that you didn’t manage to find that bit.
The Guardian also mentioned this fact, of course.
“Just because you have poo in
“Just because you have poo in your pants doesn’t mean you have poo ‘d yourself”
I need to remove a cassette
I need to remove a cassette today. I dare not name one of the tools I shall be using.
Podc wrote:
An angle grinder?
Podc wrote:
‘Listen, don’t mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right’
Podc wrote:
The use of the word ‘tool’ clearly shows your phallic-centric and patriarchal views! Please use implement to avoid offence!
The term chain gang actually
The term chain gang actually refers to the southern US practice of chaining together prisoners for punishment work activities. It doesn’t refer to slavery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_gang
bikeman01 wrote:
Ah bless the short attention span of the internet generation.
Click on the link in your post.
READ THE ARTICLE
I hope you feel truly embarrassed when you get to the history section…..
stomec wrote:
I trust you are referring to:
Gorman, Tessa M. (March 1997). “Back on the Chain Gang: Why the Eighth Amendment and the History of Slavery Proscribe the Resurgence of Chain Gangs”
Just because Gorman offers an interpretation don’t necessarily make it so.
Ah the wonder of the internet – accepting everything written as fact.
bikeman01 wrote:
So… You originally claimed the term chain gang had nothing to with slavery and used an article that specifically states that one of the uses of the chain gang was to perpetuate the effects of slavery after it was officially abolished in the US.
You then managed to read the article and found you were in error. Your response to this is a vague accusation that a published paper in a law journal is incorrect without offering any actual criticism.
Have you read German’s paper? Why is incorrect? How many papers in law journals of the subject have you had published?
Yes, “chain gang” with a bad
Yes, “chain gang” has a bad history but I am quite certain there was no intent to make light of that history in this promotion.
No such thing as bad
No such thing as bad publicity.
You’re all talking about it. What a masterclass by Brew Dog.
Velovoyeur wrote:
Talking doesn’t pay the bills.
Velovoyeur wrote:
Never understood why people say that, when it’s quite obviously not true.
I mean, tell it to Gerald Ratner. Or, in a much darker spirit, one might ask how is Louis CK’s career now?
Anyway, no idea what I think of this. The fact that Brewdog have US branches seems important – otherwise I’d say it’s completely irrelevant what the term means in a US context – we’ve never had prison work gangs here, and it’s not a live and contraversial political issue. The term doesn’t really have much resonance in British English.
But I can see why those who never heard the cycling usage might raise an eyebrow at using it for a coffee outlet, and a multinational that wants to make profits has to be careful about such stuff. Hard to really care either way.
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
Coffee? Nope. They make hipster juice. Overly citrus-y craft beers with edgy names to hide the fact they can’t organise a decent brew in a brewery.
aegisdesign wrote:
Yes, good point. Clearly I needed a coffee. Or less beer. One or the other, anyway.
These people are to be
These people are to be ignored. Not getting a reaction is their worst nightmare. They need to learn that a few thousand people on a social media website would translate into a few thousand rooms with a single idiot being laughed out of them in the real world.
srchar wrote:
You haven’t ignored them!
These people have expressed an opinion which is fine and they have every right to do.
What I don’t like is the lazy journalism here. A couple of people have expressed an opinion on something. The Evening Standard have blown it in to a news story cause cos it’s easy fodder and requires no research. The amount of stories in the media about what people say on Twitter is depressing.
Anyway if Brew dog wanted to live up to their faux punk image, rather than just put too many hops in beer they would call it something definitely offensive like “pedal c*nts” or “lycra paedos”
Deeferdonk wrote:
Pedal Cunts. You, sir are a fucking genius!
Deeferdonk wrote:
They read road.cc do they?
“A chain gang is a group of
“A chain gang is a group of prisoners chained together”
They are still used in Arizona – “in Maricopa County inmates can still volunteer for a chain gang to earn credit toward a high school diploma”
All in the first paragraph on wikipedia. Chain gangs included people of all colors and creeds. Get over it the name is totally usable in this context. I hope they don’t change the name.
johngough wrote:
It’s the wrong name in accordance with thier incorrect discription of a chaingang though!
“We named our cycling club Chain Gang as a nod to the well-known and often used term in the cycling community referring to a group of cyclists riding in lines behind a leader, allowing for a slipstream effect.
“A chain gang is a group of
“A chain gang is a group of prisoners chained together”
They are still used in Arizona – “in Maricopa County inmates can still volunteer for a chain gang to earn credit toward a high school diploma”
All in the first paragraph on wikipedia. Chain gangs included people of all colors and creeds. Get over it the name is totally usable in this context. I hope they don’t change the name.
Emily Jane. I hope a man
Emily Jane. I hope a man holds a door open for you.
I hope these people don’t
I hope these people don’t listen to The Pretenders…
“We named our cycling club
“We named our cycling club Chain Gang as a nod to the well-known and often used term in the cycling community referring to a group of cyclists riding in lines behind a leader, allowing for a slipstream effect.”.
WRONG!
KINGHORN wrote:
In what way ?
Well they’ve got a shedload
Well they’ve got a shedload of free PR from this.
The cash registers must be kerchinking and the shareholders must be ecstatic.
I just think it’s a real shame that all these people would suddenly choose to join a BrewDog cycling club, rather than joining one of the thousands of existing local cycling clubs. Anyway their kit looks awful.
ridelikeapro wrote:
I knew them before and they hadn’t gotten a cent from me, they’re still not gettin’ a goddam cent from me.
If one has a penchant for
If one has a penchant for “craft” beer, it can be very accurately simulated by adding some lemon cordial to a pint of Stella.
srchar wrote:
Brilliant, this comment made me laugh out loud
.
I must say I like the nanny
I must say I like the nanny state!