Organisers of RideLondon have come under criticism after it emerged that a photograph on their website had been photoshopped to include a black woman participating in the event, with a leading blogger and cycling author saying “they should be embarrassed” about it.
The image, which had apparently been manipulated to try and make the event appear more diverse, has since been deleted from the RideLondon website, reports The Sunday Times.
The photograph above, published by the newspaper shows part of the image. The full picture showed a group of male riders, with female riders from ethnic minorities on either side.
But while two men shown in the image took part in the event in 2018, one of the women only did so the previous year.
Event director Hugh Brasher confirmed that the image had been created from three separate photographs and was aimed at highlighting the diversity of people who take part in events including the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 sportive.
He said: “Three images have been combined to create this composite image: the female cyclists on the bottom left and bottom right were added to the central image of the two male riders bumping fists as they come down The Mall.
“All images are from riders who have participated in sportives at Prudential RideLondon and there was absolutely no intention to mislead.’
“It is not our usual practice to use composite images and this image has been removed from our website.”
He continued: “We know that cycling needs to do more to encourage people from all backgrounds to get involved and that is one of the key aims of Prudential RideLondon.
“We believe that we have led the way for mass participation cycling events.
“More than 100,000 cyclists take part over the weekend in a range of different events that cater for everyone.”
He added: “Prudential RideLondon FreeCycle had 43 per cent women participants in 2018, the 46-mile sportive had 38 per cent women, the 19-mile sportive had 39 per cent women and the 100 mile sportive had 22 per cent women.
“We believe the average percentage of women in mass participation sportives in the UK is approximately 15 per cent.
“We continue to work to inspire people from all backgrounds to get on two wheels.”
Cycling writer Jools Walker, who blogs under the name Lady Velo and is black, said that organisers “should be embarrassed” of the picture:
“All I can imagine is a group of white marketing executives looking at this image and thinking: there’s a problem,” she said.
“But instead of trying to address why people from these groups don’t see cycling as inclusive, they decide to photoshop in ethnic minority women — badly. They should be embarrassed.”
92 thoughts on “RideLondon admits photoshopping picture of black woman”
Why do organisations bother
Why do organisations bother to do this ? Who cares that it’s not ‘inclusive’ ?
Why does it have to be ?
Who cares what ‘colour’ the participants are or what weird bedroom preferences they have ? It’s a sportive, ridden by choice and often for charity.
This country will soon implode with politically correct nonsense.
Shipley wrote:
“weird bedroom preferences”? Where did that come from? Your odd personal obsessions are showing.
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
Personal irritations more like……BAME, LGBTQI+ blah blah blah.
It’s a ruddy bike ride !!!!!
Shipley wrote:
I’m not sure that “BAME” is usually considered to be a “bedroom preference”… Or certainly not in the same way as ” LGBTQ &c”
Shipley wrote:
who cares that it’s not inclusive? How about the people being excluded.
Cycling is great, it’s a shame it’s populated by so many white male bores.
you obviously care deeply enough to be offended by this.
This is country is imploding because of reactionary wingnuts who are freaking out that it’s not the1950s any more
Go back to golf
Alf0nse wrote:
Always odd that some think that the answer to racial discrimination is racial discrimination.
Sriracha wrote:
who cares that it’s not inclusive? How about the people being excluded. Cycling is great, it’s a shame it’s populated by so many white male bores.
— Sriracha Always odd that some think that the answer to racial discrimination is racial discrimination.— Alf0nse
where is the racial discrimination?
Alf0nse wrote:
No its a country imploding because of Lefty Liberals hell bent on forcing people into one view whilst hiding behind words such as diversity and pretending they are nice people.
The irony is, if the Russians invaded tomorrow, thise same lefty liberals would hide behind their Ikea sofas and hope the ‘good British working class’ would fight for them.
Liberals are scum and worse than right wingers.
Alf0nse wrote:
No its a country imploding because of Lefty Liberals hell bent on forcing people into one view whilst hiding behind words such as diversity and pretending they are nice people.
The irony is, if the Russians invaded tomorrow, thise same lefty liberals would hide behind their Ikea sofas and hope the ‘good British working class’ would fight for them.
Liberals are scum and worse than right wingers.
Alf0nse wrote:
No its a country imploding because of Lefty Liberals hell bent on forcing people into one view whilst hiding behind words such as diversity and pretending they are nice people.
The irony is, if the Russians invaded tomorrow, thise same lefty liberals would hide behind their Ikea sofas and hope the ‘good British working class’ would fight for them.
Liberals are scum and worse than right wingers.
Alf0nse wrote:
No its a country imploding because of Lefty Liberals hell bent on forcing people into one view whilst hiding behind words such as diversity and pretending they are nice people.
The irony is, if the Russians invaded tomorrow, thise same lefty liberals would hide behind their Ikea sofas and hope the ‘good British working class’ would fight for them.
Liberals are scum and worse than right wingers.
IAMSPARTICUS wrote:
who cares that it’s not inclusive? How about the people being excluded.
Cycling is great, it’s a shame it’s populated by so many white male bores.
you obviously care deeply enough to be offended by this.
This is country is imploding because of reactionary wingnuts who are freaking out that it’s not the1950s any more
Go back to golf
— Alf0nse No its a country imploding because of Lefty Liberals hell bent on forcing people into one view whilst hiding behind words such as diversity and pretending they are nice people. The irony is, if the Russians invaded tomorrow, thise same lefty liberals would hide behind their Ikea sofas and hope the ‘good British working class’ would fight for them. Liberals are scum and worse than right wingers.— Shipley
Woah.
Triggered by the g-word?
This is the sort of thing said by someone who would nail a man to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change.
stomec wrote:
Not at all. I hate golf.
But I hate liberals more. I cant be doing with them as they create more division.
Let people be and stop forcing agendas, most people get along anyway and dont need forced photoshop images promoting something that doesnt need promoting in the first place.
If black people want to ride bikes they will. They arent idiots. They dont need false images put in front of them to persuade them.
Its the liberal agenda BEHIND that image that I cant stand, not the actual message.
Shipley wrote:
I prefer my bedrooms to be perfectly normal, not weird in any way, but then, I haven’t ridden a sportive.
Shipley wrote:
They do it because of seven decades of feminism. This ‘movement’ is based on the quite hilarious notion that there is, at a national and international level, a concerted effort on the part of men, to exclude women and to keep women ‘oppressed’. This is despite the demonstrable leniency shown to women by the criminal justice systems of most first world countries, as well as the preference shown to women in higher education. And then there are the quotas. My wife (who works in the public sector) was required to sit in on a panel interviewing candidates for a new position. She has little to no knowledge of the subject matter on which the candidate was being questioned, but that was of little consequence, because it is now a requirement that there be at least one women on the interview panel. Said panel can be all-female. But it cannot be all-male.
In time, ‘feminism’ will come to be recognised as the quite batty conspiracy theory that it is, and those who believe its ludicrous tenets, recognised as suffering from a bona fide mental illness.
Legs_Eleven_Worcester wrote:
stomec wrote:
Well, that’s [i]me[/i] told, then…
Legs_Eleven_Worcester wrote:
If only that were true but you’ve laughed it off rather than acknowledging that what you wrote was crassly ignorant and sexist. Feminism exists because for decades – centuries in fact – women have been, and still are, oppressed and silenced and ignored and marginalised. Even today in the UK you still have things like the gender pay gap and God forbid you look at some other countries round the world where women aren’t allowed out without a male chaperone, not allowed to drive or vote or work or show their face in public or do anything other than settle down and marry a man and shag him as and when he wants.
You have laws (almost invariably made by men) that prevent women having control over their own bodies (abortion laws being one high-profile example), that penalise women for taking a career break to have a family, that prevent women from holding certain jobs or positions (less so in the UK now thankfully but still very prevalent elsewhere in the world). It’s only very recently that all roles in the Forces became open to women (and while we’re on the subject of minorities, it’s only since 2000 that LGBT men and women have been allowed to serve in the Armed Forces).
So yes, that’s why feminism (and LGBTQ, BAME etc) exists, it’s precisely because there was and still is, sexist / rascist / misogynist / homophobic conduct within society.
And I can see why RideLondon created the picture even though the way they did it was possibly a bit “nice idea, wrong execution”.
Legs_Eleven_Worcester wrote:
I’m disappointed you’ve given in so easily – a real troll would have strung this out for far longer. Better luck next time.
Bit disappointed, expected
Bit disappointed, expected some comedy ‘blacked-up’ photoshop.
How long does it take for
How long does it take for these groups to realise that its better to provide a genuine image and put their hand up to admit “could try better” on the whole diversity thing, rather than photo shopping an image to pretend there’s no problem. Especially given how frequently and how quickly these things get caught out…?
brooksby wrote:
I don’t know their motivations, but maybe they do realise there is a problem with diversity, they want to do better, and one of the ways they hope to do that is by making the event look welcoming to people of various backgrounds who may browse their website wondering if it was an event for them?
We know from here un-referenced studies that presenting photos of only one demographic doing activities tends to cause other groups to self select out of activities to some extent. Maybe they were trying to counteract this?
I can make no comment on if it was the right approach, or if it worked and all of this post is pure speculation, but perhaps they were motivated by good intentions.
cqexbesd wrote:
Fair enough: I hadn’t considered that.
brooksby wrote:
Yes, perhaps we might conclude that they did the wrong thing for the right reasons. Or something like that.
cqexbesd wrote:
I agree. But there’s the problem. Which then is the ‘correct’ approach:
1) a photo which fairly reflects the current situation
2) a photo staged or selected or commissioned to reflect the desired situation
3) a photoshop to simulate the desired situation
I think those who seek offence could find it in any of the above. I’m not sure that adding any ‘disclaimer’ to the photo would change that either.
Sriracha wrote:
I don’t know their motivations, but maybe they do realise there is a problem with diversity, they want to do better, and one of the ways they hope to do that is by making the event look welcoming to people of various backgrounds who may browse their website wondering if it was an event for them?
We know from here un-referenced studies that presenting photos of only one demographic doing activities tends to cause other groups to self select out of activities to some extent. Maybe they were trying to counteract this?
I can make no comment on if it was the right approach, or if it worked and all of this post is pure speculation, but perhaps they were motivated by good intentions.
— cqexbesd I agree. But there’s the problem. Which then is the ‘correct’ approach: 1) a photo which fairly reflects the current situation 2) a photo staged or selected or commissioned to reflect the desired situation 3) a photoshop to simulate the desired situation I think those who seek offence could find it in any of the above. I’m not sure that adding any ‘disclaimer’ to the photo would change that either.— brooksby
Surely the correct approach is to have a diverse and inclusive management structure that is visible and interacts with various groups to encourage participation. Backed up with regular minuted meetings that show positive actions being taken to encourage inclusivity. A sceptic could see this as recognition that insufficient progress has been made and that this is an attempt to gloss over matters without taking any actual positive action.
cqexbesd wrote:
But they ought to have realised from past examples that doing it this way rarely works out well. Besides, I suspect any demographic skewing is a concequence of more practical considerations than just pictures on adverts. Just distorting the pictures might be seen as a way of covering up the real problems.
Is a weird thing though – if this had been an artist’s constructed image rather than a photo, the same thing could have been done without any such fuss. And these days the difference between a photo and an entirely constructed image is slowly disappearing.
Could they have not shopped
Could they have not shopped her helmet to be less wonky at the same time?
Every lie we tell incurs a
Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth
“This is country is imploding
“This is country is imploding because of reactionary wingnuts who are freaking out that it’s not the1950s any more
Go back to golf “
That made me larf, but I don’t know why. I need someone to explain. Anyone…
“there was absolutely no
“there was absolutely no intention to mislead.” – cos obvs photoshop = truuth
wombles!
thehill wrote:
there’s no intrinsic falsehood in publishing composites. What was misleading in this case was not telling people, or making it absolutley obvious, that the picture was a composite.
I tend to believe them when they say they had no intention to mislead – I suspect that they were just a bit incompetent, naive and insensitive about it.
He continued: “We know that
He continued: “We know that cycling needs to do more to encourage people from all backgrounds to get involved and that is one of the key aims of Prudential RideLondon.
I can’t understand why we have to do more to encourage people from all backgrounds, when I started cycling nobody encouraged me. I just did it. If people want to cycle, they will. They don’t need to be encouraged.
biker phil wrote:
Same here. We mucked about on BMXes because it was fun, then we got road bikes because the public transport was cr*ap and we couldn’t afford cars.
Recent studies in the UK and The Netherlands found that BAME people gave pretty much the same reasons as anyone else for not cycling – perceived lack of safety being the most common. However, BAME people were far more likely to answer that a perceived lack of status put them off cycling; they particularly associated utility cycling with poverty – an association that put them off swinging a leg over a bike, whether the respondent was poor or not.
Of course, that perception will also have a cause – lack of BAME pros, for example. Cycling as an aspirational pursuit is a pretty recent thing (post-2012?) but doesn’t seem to have had any effect on BAME participation rates.
biker phil wrote:
that just tells us that you are blinkered and know nothing about people who are different to you.
ConcordeCX wrote:
Explain how him saying that, means he is blinkered and knows nothing about other people?
My God….such a typical, lefty snowflake response from a typical bleeding heart liberal. Let me guess…you are white…with a beard….hang out at fancy coffee shops with your multi cultural friends who all hate Trump whilst sipping on Expresso….thinking you’re more inlcusive and better than anyone else and anyone elses opinion to yours means you think you have the moral high ground to instantly put them down.
Your response is typical of liberal mind-controlled media plebs who can’t see truth anymore. You’re so brainwashed by a media agenda its remarkable.
The fact is no one gives flying what you think. The photoshopped image is wrong for all sorts if reasons not least of which is that its PC gone mad . You can’t FORCE people to become cyclists whatever their colour. If they want to do it then they’ll do it. This false ‘the UK is multicultural’ BS haa got to stop. Just like the TV adverts show every UK family is now made up of a white woman and black man. Ive black friends who actually find that offensive as none of them have white wives.
So get off your liberal high horse and start seeing whats really going on. Idiot.
IAMSPARTICUS wrote:
that just tells us that you are blinkered and know nothing about people who are different to you.
— ConcordeCX Explain how him saying that, means he is blinkered and knows nothing about other people? My God….such a typical, lefty snowflake response from a typical bleeding heart liberal. Let me guess…you are white…with a beard….hang out at fancy coffee shops with your multi cultural friends who all hate Trump whilst sipping on Expresso….thinking you’re more inlcusive and better than anyone else and anyone elses opinion to yours means you think you have the moral high ground to instantly put them down. Your response is typical of liberal mind-controlled media plebs who can’t see truth anymore. You’re so brainwashed by a media agenda its remarkable. The fact is no one gives flying what you think. The photoshopped image is wrong for all sorts if reasons not least of which is that its PC gone mad . You can’t FORCE people to become cyclists whatever their colour. If they want to do it then they’ll do it. This false ‘the UK is multicultural’ BS haa got to stop. Just like the TV adverts show every UK family is now made up of a white woman and black man. Ive black friends who actually find that offensive as none of them have white wives. So get off your liberal high horse and start seeing whats really going on. Idiot.— biker phil
Typical troll
IAMSPARTICUS wrote:
that just tells us that you are blinkered and know nothing about people who are different to you.
— ConcordeCX Explain how him saying that, means he is blinkered and knows nothing about other people? My God….such a typical, lefty snowflake response from a typical bleeding heart liberal. Let me guess…you are white…with a beard….hang out at fancy coffee shops with your multi cultural friends who all hate Trump whilst sipping on Expresso….thinking you’re more inlcusive and better than anyone else and anyone elses opinion to yours means you think you have the moral high ground to instantly put them down. Your response is typical of liberal mind-controlled media plebs who can’t see truth anymore. You’re so brainwashed by a media agenda its remarkable. The fact is no one gives flying what you think. The photoshopped image is wrong for all sorts if reasons not least of which is that its PC gone mad . You can’t FORCE people to become cyclists whatever their colour. If they want to do it then they’ll do it. This false ‘the UK is multicultural’ BS haa got to stop. Just like the TV adverts show every UK family is now made up of a white woman and black man. Ive black friends who actually find that offensive as none of them have white wives. So get off your liberal high horse and start seeing whats really going on. Idiot.— biker phil
I get that you are fixated on the idea you are some poor downtroddden victim becuase, er, well, God knows why…because you see black people in adverts or something?
Clearly a claim to victimhood is very important to you, even if you can’t explain what it actually consists of (there are occassionally mixed-race couples on adverts, apparently, and this causes you great pain). There’s some industrial-strength irony in you calling others ‘snowflakes’ even as you bang on about what a poor victim you are.
Russia isn’t going to invade. Though liberal-haters like you tend to support politicians who are funded by Russians.
If you hate Britain so much maybe go live in Russia?
IAMSPARTICUS wrote:
that just tells us that you are blinkered and know nothing about people who are different to you.
— ConcordeCX Explain how him saying that, means he is blinkered and knows nothing about other people? My God….such a typical, lefty snowflake response from a typical bleeding heart liberal. Let me guess…you are white…with a beard….hang out at fancy coffee shops with your multi cultural friends who all hate Trump whilst sipping on Expresso….thinking you’re more inlcusive and better than anyone else and anyone elses opinion to yours means you think you have the moral high ground to instantly put them down. Your response is typical of liberal mind-controlled media plebs who can’t see truth anymore. You’re so brainwashed by a media agenda its remarkable. The fact is no one gives flying what you think. The photoshopped image is wrong for all sorts if reasons not least of which is that its PC gone mad . You can’t FORCE people to become cyclists whatever their colour. If they want to do it then they’ll do it. This false ‘the UK is multicultural’ BS haa got to stop. Just like the TV adverts show every UK family is now made up of a white woman and black man. Ive black friends who actually find that offensive as none of them have white wives. So get off your liberal high horse and start seeing whats really going on. Idiot.— biker phil
“expresso”.
Rapha Nadal wrote:
To be fair, though it is common to scoff at people who use the term ‘expresso’, there are sensible reasons to use it and it has entered dictionaries as a word in english.
The difficulty comes from whether the Italian ‘espresso’ is meaning ‘pressed out’ or ‘quickly made’. Espresso is cited as a past participle of esprimere, from Latin exprimere which is where we get the english ‘express’ which means both ‘to press out’ and also ‘quickly’. The Italian usage of espresso is probably closer to ‘quickly made to order’, so there is a good argument for using ‘expresso’.
Wait a minute, which forum am I on again?
biker phil wrote:
Biker Phil…are you by any chance a white bloke?
There is nothing wrong with being a white bloke at all. But if you look at the sport as an outsider, it’s generally a bunch of white blokes on bikes. This is in itself encouraging for white blokes, but could be a little discouraging for all the other people who aren’t.
Alf0nse wrote:
I don’t really get this argument – Perhaps it’s a culture thing but who is doing it is irrelevant – it’s the activity itself that matters to me.
Htc wrote:
I don’t understand what you are trying to say.
Are you arguing that you are uniquely unaffected by socialisation and the world around you? You are an entireyl self-directed, self-created autonomous individual, unlike just about everyone else who ever existed in world history?
If not, what _are_ you saying?
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
Htc wrote:
ok think of it this way: does proactively trying to encourage people from different backgrounds damage cycling or reduce your enjoyment?
it not what is your objection?
Alf0nse wrote:
I don’t have any objection to encouraging more people to cycle but the idea that because an activity is mostly done by one demographic that it’s discouraging or a barrier to entry is absurd. Barriers are mostly of self-constructs to avoid something that the majority of people still see as negativity impacting their status.
Htc wrote:
if you don’t understand something that is an important matter to a whole load of other people, try to see it from their perspective, perhaps by asking them about it, or by doing a bit of research. If you’re still not getting it, try asking yourself if you are part of the problem. If you then still don’t get it, you are the problem.
They’ll learn from this, and
They’ll learn from this, and do better. This year’s edition will be a corker if this photograph of some participants at a coffee stop during training ride for the big event is anything to go by:
Should have just included
Should have just included random riders and random years etched on their helmets or does he bubble combined on a poster. Then nobody would complain for at least 2 minutes…
Cycling has always been a
Cycling has always been a white mans sport in the uk . Look at the you tube and the likes of Francis Cade or cycling cam or any of the others etc .they are so up thier own arse with pretentious BS it inspires no one , no one can relate to their BS , I mean I have been to countless tours , I’ve riden up cols all over Europe and own and ride 2 sub 4 kilo bikes , I love riding my bikes ,busting my arse . and I hate all those wankers ,I have not a thing in common with them and they never inspire me , I just think how uninspiring they are ,who gives a shit about how long ceramic bearings can spin . You need role models to inspire and there just are not any cycling ethnic high profile role models in the UK . Let’s be honest cycling is now a complete bore fest to watch as well . If only MIke Tyson had took up cycling instead of boxing .
Xena wrote:
How high profile do you want? Is Shanaze Reade not such an achiever and inspiration?
muhasib wrote:
Cycling has always been a white mans sport in the uk . Look at the you tube and the likes of Francis Cade or cycling cam or any of the others etc .they are so up thier own arse with pretentious BS it inspires no one , no one can relate to their BS , I mean I have been to countless tours , I’ve riden up cols all over Europe and own and ride 2 sub 4 kilo bikes , I love riding my bikes ,busting my arse . and I hate all those wankers ,I have not a thing in common with them and they never inspire me , I just think how uninspiring they are ,who gives a shit about how long ceramic bearings can spin . You need role models to inspire and there just are not any cycling ethnic high profile role models in the UK . Let’s be honest cycling is now a complete bore fest to watch as well . If only MIke Tyson had took up cycling instead of boxing .
— muhasib How high profile do you want? Is Shanaze Reade not such an achiever and inspiration?— Xena
No , most people outside BMX or track cycling have no idea who she is . She is not high profile . And how the fuck is she going to inspire a young boy -potential tour winner from the streets of hackney . She ain’t .
Most people could not tell you who won the tour d France last year ? No one cares ,not interested.
Cycling had. peak with Armstrong then another with the worse tour win ever Wiggins and the Olympic BS . Then it’s gone faded away in to dust . Who is going to get excited about Froome and co time trialing up a mountain looking at their stems. No one except Ned “fanboy” boulting . It’s fucking boring . Enjoy the tour though
Quote:
^^ This I reckon.
Done well, photoshop (or equivalent) can greatly enhance a picture or convey a message more appropriately than the original image – after all pretty much everything on Instagram has been tweaked, filtered etc to look better…
Every marketing image is touched up – sometimes very subtly, sometimes completely re-made.
They made two mistakes; one was doing it badly – maybe they gave it to the office intern; the second was not simply saying underneath – “this is a composite image created using several riders merged into one frame”.
Maybe certain people do don’t
Maybe certain people do don’t certain things . …because they don’t want to….not ‘exclusion’.
Maybe certain groups don’t like spending their leisure time cycling or it just comes below other things.
Rick_Rude wrote:
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/barriers-to-cycling-for-ethnic-minorities-and-deprived-groups-summary.pdf
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/sport/2018/06/5-reasons-why-you-should-care-about-lack-bme-cyclists-london
https://www.lrsport.org/uploads/barriers-to-sports-participation-for-women-girls-17.pdf
https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/campaigns-guide/women-cycling
I have come to realise over
I have come to realise over the years that as a heterosexual, non disabled, white male from a middle class / privileged background that I am simply very naive of racism, sexism, classism or indeed any form of discrimination that exists because people are different. Personally I have a slight autism which makes it incredibly difficult to recognise people or remember names. Apparently this is quite common for blokes, but I have difficulty when members of my own family have a haircut! Anyway, for me, I’m happy when someone with a stand out trait joins a group that I am a member of; work, cycling, my limited social activities, because it means I have a chance of remembering them. I think that these groups are welcoming to outsiders and I certainly have no issues. However I am aware that this is not always the case and that people who are different may have had bad experiences in the past when trying to engage with a group who don’t look like them. Therefore it is important to show diversity and encourage the initial approach.
There have certainly been cases in the past of colour washing, I seem to recall something to do with Ford a few years back swapping out white and coloured colleagues in a group photo, depending on which market the photo was being published in. A company my wife worked for made a huge effort to round up their few ethnic minorities for a marketing photo when the reality was a very white male dominated culture and recruitment pattern, all rather cynical.
It’s a tricky line to tread when an organisation wants to promote it’s diversity goals but the membership does not currently reflect that ambition. Do the wrong thing or be a bit insensitive and the professionally offended will jump down your throat, completely missing the intent of what the message was meant to convey. Just be honest. In this case a tag line to the effect of it being a montaged image was all that was needed, backed up with an open policy about encouraging frank discussion about how to attract participants from every background. Which is where my naivety strikes because I’m assuming that this is a genuine attempt to promote inclusivity and not just a colour washing exercise to tick a diversity box for funding or some other window dressing purpose.
Well, yes, the professionally
Well, yes, the professionally offended will take offence whatever you do, but if you’re going to do (2) or (3), even if it is for what seems a positive reason, I think you need a footnote. It’s not really a disclaimer, it’s just being honest. Otherwise you end up in exactly this situation.
Recent studies in the UK and
Recent studies in the UK and The Netherlands found that BAME people gave pretty much the same reasons as anyone else for not cycling – perceived lack of safety being the most common. However, BAME people were far more likely to answer that a perceived lack of status put them off cycling; they particularly associated utility cycling with poverty – an association that put them off swinging a leg over a bike, whether the respondent was poor or not.
I think people often use safety as a excuse not to cycle when the real reason is that they arn’t able to demonstrate their status by showing off their car to everyone.
Htc wrote:
Spot on.
Last time I had to do the diversity/discrimination/managerial training courses at work, they made the point about how sensitive you had to be when dealing with some groups, due to the cultural implications of status, success and so on.
A quick glance through the office car park reveals that nearly everyone I work with that has a BAME background is driving a Mercedes or BMW – most of the white people are in the Fords and VWs. And that’s pretty much true of every office I’ve worked in.
Personally, I don’t understand why they didn’t just make it an obvious collage of participants.
Htc wrote:
Thats actually really interesting.
Although I’m not sure how applicable it is to RideLondon, which is a recreational thing rather than utility.
(Your last point is particularly interesting and, lets be honest, could also apply to cycling more generally – people who could ride to work on their ratty old hybrid but are embarrassed to be doing so because they think it makes them look poorer than the other commuters on their Brompton, or their shiny fixie, or gleaming road bike…).
Htc wrote:
Makes sense. Probably applies somewhat to class as well as race. There’s this ‘star bellied sneetch effect’ I think – I gather in China they’re shifting from a mass bike-based culture to cars, and now using a bike seems to be becoming a sign of high status for some.
Htc wrote:
Oi! Stop nicking my posts!
That’s the thing though – it doesn’t. Poor white people were found not to have the same self-image issue with pedal-powered transport as poor non-white people (on average, of course)
srchar wrote:
Well I can’t dispute that without seeing the oriignal studies referred to. While I don’t find it at all hard to believe such an effect is substantially stronger among certain ethnic groups, I am still not convinced it’s an all-or-nothing effect or that it would be zero among all demographic categories or all cultures considered ‘white’. For example, I wonder if there isn’t a generational dependence.
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
I would be amazed if there wasn’t. Will have a Google when I’m on a computer and share links.
srchar]
Oi! Stop nicking my posts!
Ha! Didn’t realise it hadn’t quoted you – I was responding to your post!
Well this seems like yet
Well this seems like yet another storm in a tea cup.. black woman cycling blogger takes offense that there’s a black woman cyclist in a picture promoting an event which 100,000 people take part in. What’s her point? Maybe she’d like to see photoshop banned.
There are some good points and issues raised in the comments here, none of which really are in context to the original story above, most of us seem to agree that we’d love to see more people cycling generally.
Can we all just take a minute to chuckle at ‘the comic’s’ gaff from 2017.. in their weekly ‘club focus’ article they went to press with a photo which is far worse than the gaff from ride london….
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/01/cycling-weekly-apologises-token-woman-picture-caption
What’s funny is when white
What’s funny is when white people want to do what are seen as ethnic activities it’s now cultural appropriation. You can’t win. Inspired by far eastern music? Don’t you dare write any! Love jerk style food. Don’t you cook it!
of course all you whingers
of course all you whingers here would have been replaced by some equally sad so and so’s who would moan that there wasn’t such a person in the pic.
Whole thing is pathetic.
The only fair thing to do would be nothing.
All this encouragement of diversity is morally wrong. It is blatant discrimination towards a minority group rather than treating all the same.
Try being male, middle, aged, married, hetrosexual, white, employed, home owning, not living in the dump of a capital city, able bodied, not espcially “green”, able to drive , tax paying, no criminal record, with all my marbles, childless, not having any public transport or cycle routes.
Now thats a discriminated against group. Absolutely no form of help or encouragement what so ever in anything.
Fairness is treating alll the same not aiding one group at anothers expence.
of course all you whingers
of course all you whingers here would have been replaced by some equally sad so and so’s who would moan that there wasn’t such a person in the pic.
Whole thing is pathetic.
The only fair thing to do would be nothing.
All this encouragement of diversity is morally wrong. It is blatant discrimination towards a minority group rather than treating all the same.
Try being male, middle, aged, married, hetrosexual, white, employed, home owning, not living in the dump of a capital city, able bodied, not espcially “green”, able to drive , tax paying, no criminal record, with all my marbles, childless, not having any public transport or cycle routes.
Now thats a discriminated against group. Absolutely no form of help or encouragement what so ever in anything.
Fairness is treating alll the same not aiding one group at anothers expence.
mattsccm wrote:
You poor thing, it must be so awful. Ask mummy to kiss it better.
Aiding one group at another’s expense is part of the problem.
All those people who are not you but who are excluded for various reasons from cycling, or whatever, pay just as much tax as you do. Therefore all the public money that goes into cycling infrastructure, training, cycle to work schemes and so on is their money and they are not receiving the benefit – you are, and I am. The government and the councils have an absolute duty to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent for the benefit of all, yet large sections of the taxpaying population are excluded. This is one reason why government and councils spend time and money being inclusive; not the only reason or the most important one, but perhaps it’s one that you in your self-pitying, delusional prejudice might be able to grasp.
ConcordeCX wrote:
I think your response shows you up more than him.
Such a typical response from a media brain washed liberal. ” Your thoughts don’t agree with mine so I am going to put you down”
And yet the irony is you act like you care about everyone.
You need to wake uo son. You’ve had your day, Trump is President…Brexit is happening…
#getoveritfeckwit
IAMSPARTICUS wrote:
You poor thing, it must be so awful. Ask mummy to kiss it better.
Aiding one group at another’s expense is part of the problem.
All those people who are not you but who are excluded for various reasons from cycling, or whatever, pay just as much tax as you do. Therefore all the public money that goes into cycling infrastructure, training, cycle to work schemes and so on is their money and they are not receiving the benefit – you are, and I am. The government and the councils have an absolute duty to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent for the benefit of all, yet large sections of the taxpaying population are excluded. This is one reason why government and councils spend time and money being inclusive; not the only reason or the most important one, but perhaps it’s one that you in your self-pitying, delusional prejudice might be able to grasp.
— ConcordeCX I think your response shows you up more than him. Such a typical response from a media brain washed liberal. ” Your thoughts don’t agree with mine so I am going to put you down” And yet the irony is you act like you care about everyone. You need to wake uo son. You’ve had your day, Trump is President…Brexit is happening… #getoveritfeckwit— mattsccm
You really can’t cope with people disagreeing with you, can you?
IAMSPARTICUS wrote:
You poor thing, it must be so awful. Ask mummy to kiss it better.
Aiding one group at another’s expense is part of the problem.
All those people who are not you but who are excluded for various reasons from cycling, or whatever, pay just as much tax as you do. Therefore all the public money that goes into cycling infrastructure, training, cycle to work schemes and so on is their money and they are not receiving the benefit – you are, and I am. The government and the councils have an absolute duty to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent for the benefit of all, yet large sections of the taxpaying population are excluded. This is one reason why government and councils spend time and money being inclusive; not the only reason or the most important one, but perhaps it’s one that you in your self-pitying, delusional prejudice might be able to grasp.
— ConcordeCX I think your response shows you up more than him. Such a typical response from a media brain washed liberal. ” Your thoughts don’t agree with mine so I am going to put you down” And yet the irony is you act like you care about everyone. You need to wake uo son. You’ve had your day, Trump is President…Brexit is happening… #getoveritfeckwit— mattsccm
well, at least I can spell Spartacus…
ConcordeCX]
No – I can spell Spartacus!
brooksby wrote:
I can spell Spartacus!
ConcordeCX wrote:
Can you tell me who, or what, exactly – in a strictly legal sense – is excluding these “large sections of the taxpaying population” from cycling, or whatever?
The answer is “nothing”.
The point here that cycling is NOT exclusive – ANYONE can buy a bike, use it and make use of the cycling facilities provided.
There are a great many people from white backgrounds that don’t cycle and yet are contributing a hefty chunk of tax towards facilities they don’t use, so what’s your point?
Whether people cycle, or whatever, or not, is entirely personal choice, although that choice may be skewed by MANY factors, including various perceptions of the sort of people that DO go cycling, partly driven by the media and other sources.
I’ve seen similar research in other outdoor activities, for example, the BMC and use of national parks by minority groups and, a good few years ago, some research that showed that not many black people go skiing.
Any attempt to actively try and increase participation in specific groups is historically doomed to failure – you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, etc.
The only thing you can do is promote the activities as all-inclusive and that’s what they were trying to do, even if they did make something of a cock-up of the attempt.
LastBoyScout wrote:
I posted a number of links earlier. If you won’t read them then I can’t help you.
ConcordeCX wrote:
The links you posted describe a number of reasons people don’t cycle, some of which have no bearing at all on the participants ethnicity or, for that matter, sex.
Not one of them states anything about specifically “excluding” people from cycling – that’s your word.
Can we scoff at people who
Almost – I sip a cappuccino. Nobody sips an espresso. Oh and I’m not a liberal (well, I am, just not in the way you mean), having had many a forthright discussion on here about Brexit and taxation, for example. You do realise that you’re doing exactly what you claim to hate? Pigeonholing people according to how they look.
srchar wrote:
Absolutely not!
It depends on what you mean by ‘sip’, but it’s generally considered good form (by me, anyways) to consume a double espresso in three sips. You should aim to get some crema with each ‘sip’ and indeed a lot of people prefer to down an espresso in a single gulp – also acceptable.
There’s some more info here: https://www.home-barista.com/coffees/proper-way-to-drink-espresso-t3303.html
IAMSPARTICUS wrote:
[/quote]
Not sure about ‘expresso’, but I’m not sure I even know what a ‘liberal’ is – the word means very different things to different people, and it definitely has a different meaning in different countries.
But I only drink instant coffee. I don’t like the taste of all that overpriced weird stuff. Just putting that on record. I do draw the line at the weird corner-shop own-brand coffee though – that stuff tastes really strange. Second-cheapest instant brand is the way to go. For me, that’s the sweet-spot between ‘bizarre chemical taste’ and ‘overpriced pretentious crap’.
(And what the hell is a ‘multi-cultural friend’? Can you even define that term? Do you even think about what you write as you string together your second-hand cliches, all ultimately derived from mad Americans on Youtube, whether you realise it or not. Sheep.)
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
All those bacteria in your chamois.
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
Frankly, I’m shocked and dismayed.
I ask you, what is the point of riding a hideously over-priced carbon-fibre race-replica road bike and not also sipping, I repeat – sipping, some overpriced single estate, shade-grown, high altitude espresso?
I almost dropped my latest copy of the liberal agenda!
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
We can never be friends.
So old Sparticus hit the
So old Sparticus hit the ground running this morning I see. It’s always nice to have another diverse viewpoint on the boards.
Today I are learning that liberals are da worsest of evils, expresso is a term used outside of coffee and squirrels can use flame throwers.
peted76 wrote:
I don’t think they’d like you saying that. I rather got the impression that they don’t like anything diverse…
peted76 wrote:
I think that picture of the squirrel may have been photoshopped. Which I seem to recall was the initial subject of this thread.
Mungecrundle wrote:
I’ve been busying myself Photoshopping red squirrels into photos of grey squirrels taken in my local area, in the hope that it encourages more red squirrels to participate in dawn raids of my bird table.
Unfortunately, it seems harder to tempt a red squirrel to my bird table than it is to get a BAME person to do RideLondon.
srchar wrote:
I’ve been busying myself Photoshopping red squirrels into photos of grey squirrels taken in my local area, in the hope that it encourages more red squirrels to participate in dawn raids of my bird table.
Unfortunately, it seems harder to tempt a red squirrel to my bird table than it is to get a BAME person to do RideLondon.— Mungecrundle
Maybe you’re not being inclusive enough
As any fule know, all
As any fule kno, all liberals drink birds’ coffee. Even if they’re male.
I just went looking for a
I just went looking for a nice squirrel or cycling related liberals meme.. The word ‘liberal’ really is quite on trend it seems.
peted76 wrote:
.