Open Letter on Diversity in Our Sport

[oldschoolskier]

I came to learn early on in life, if I’m blind you sound and feel the same, if I’m deaf I can’t hear your accent, religion no matter what you call it is an explanation for what we can’t explain and provides explanationcomfort and meaning (not going to prescribe how you see it, just how I see it) and so on.

I just wish everyone would step back and look at things this way. It can be eye opening and enlightening. Could save a lot of grief.

 

[McEl]

Old School Skier said, “I just wish everyone would step back and look at things this way. It can be eye opening and enlightening. Could save a lot of grief.”

While that is one view of how to deal with it (and there is much to recommend it) many professionally trained people who study people (e.g., sociologists, psychologists, therapists, etc.) have different views and perspectives of how to deal with ‘it’, and that often involves examining the nature of the individual and the influences on the person.

The question then becomes, What is ‘it’.
Dozens of books and professional journals could be referenced to describe ‘it’. There is one that does a fair job of summarizing the multifaceted elements of the mental condition that comprises ‘it’ in different individuals. The short article is similar to a movement analysis that briefly drills down to the root causes of observed behavior. I suggest that serious students of this subject can start their journey of enlightenment by reading this article as an introduction to many aspects of ‘it’:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...ompassion/201709/the-psychology-behind-racism
McEl

 

[ForeverSki]

Old School Skier said, “I just wish everyone would step back and look at things this way. It can be eye opening and enlightening. Could save a lot of grief.”

I heard on the local radio (WTOP in DC) a book titled “White Fragility” has become the most popular book borrowed from DC libraries. Both the DC and Fairfax County public libraries are allowing unlimited copies of the ebook. The book is written by a white author for a white audience. Amazon.com describes it as “exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.”

 

[crgildart]

I heard on the local radio (WTOP in DC) a book titled “White Fragility” has become the most popular book borrowed from DC libraries. Both the DC and Fairfax County public libraries are allowing unlimited copies of the ebook. The book is written by a white author for a white audience. Amazon.com describes it as “exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.”

#whitesplaining

 

[David Chaus]

Old School Skier said, “I just wish everyone would step back and look at things this way. It can be eye opening and enlightening. Could save a lot of grief.”

While that is one view of how to deal with it (and there is much to recommend it) many professionally trained people who study people (e.g., sociologists, psychologists, therapists, etc.) have different views and perspectives of how to deal with ‘it’, and that often involves examining the nature of the individual and the influences on the person.

The question then becomes, What is ‘it’.
Dozens of books and professional journals could be referenced to describe ‘it’. There is one that does a fair job of summarizing the multifaceted elements of the mental condition that comprises ‘it’ in different individuals. The short article is similar to a movement analysis that briefly drills down to the root causes of observed behavior. I suggest that serious students of this subject can start their journey of enlightenment by reading this article as an introduction to many aspects of ‘it’:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...ompassion/201709/the-psychology-behind-racism
McEl

Just FYI, I wouldn’t call Psychology Today a professional journal. The target audience is more the general population. I'm not dismissing the value of the publication or any of the articles, but it’s far from an authoritative journal of record for my profession.

That said, I do support any introduction to the process of being more aware of our biases.

 

[ski otter 2]

Interesting, my gut level, first reaction was that it was. I get this combo hot beverage all the time at lodges and call it a mocha.

First time I heard of helicopters referred to as 'ghetto birds', I had to put it together that they were called that because of the neigherhoods they were flying over. It wasn't all that long ago, maybe 8 years?

No, it's right now, and for decades: I live in a black neighborhood in Denver, and two to three nights a week, Huey helicopters with searchlights and infrared scopes are out flying low overhead, late into the night- ongoing "war games" - against the people there? Fairly loud also. (I know they have infrared, because in the pitch dark, me dressed in neutral colors, they will wheel in the air and hone in on me in my yard, or even turn on the searchlight. In my own yard. Loud. (Do they have guns and megaphone at the ready, depending on how I respond? Just don't know. But scary.)

 

[ski otter 2]

I heard on the local radio (WTOP in DC) a book titled “White Fragility” has become the most popular book borrowed from DC libraries. Both the DC and Fairfax County public libraries are allowing unlimited copies of the ebook. The book is written by a white author for a white audience. Amazon.com describes it as “exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.”

This author was on "Democracy Now" in a conversation with Amy Goodman there, for over half an hour. Maybe mixed, because she was a professional psychologist, but still impressive. Very patient with a step by step process for white people to recover.

She (and Amy) had good examples of what they called "white fragility," white denial. For example, how aggressively defensive, scary defensive, many white people can get denying they are racist, or denying the U.S.A. is racist. One example they played in full was the video that went viral recently of a white woman in Central Park threatening a black birdwatcher there with calling the cops to false report him for threatening her, when he had just asked she put her dog back on its leash because it was disturbing the birds he was birdwatching. Whatever her politics, she obviously knew what a threat it was to his very life, routinely, for her to call the cops and false report him, which she did, captured on his video, which in spite of his fear, he just kept recording, even when she demanded he "turn that off," turn that off or she would false-report him. Fortunately, her call had the opposite result.

 

[LiquidFeet]

No, it's right now, and for decades: I live in a black neighborhood in Denver, and two to three nights a week, Huey helicopters with searchlights and infrared scopes are out flying low overhead, late into the night- ongoing "war games" - against the people there? Fairly loud also. (I know they have infrared, because in the pitch dark, me dressed in neutral colors, they will wheel in the air and hone in on me in my yard, or even turn on the searchlight. In my own yard. Loud. (Do they have guns and megaphone at the ready, depending on how I respond? Just don't know. But scary.)

This is horrifying.

For 16 years I lived in a mostly black town (I'm white). I raised my kids there and sent them to public schools there. My street was white, as were the streets next to it, but my area was the exception. The town had a lively entertainment district that attracted college students on weekends. It was a colorful place to live. It had in the past been primarily Jewish. Lebovitz Jews still lived there on streets near mine. Conservative and reformed Jews had moved out to the county in the late 60s, leaving many homes to be bought by black families wanting to move out of the inner city.

I taught at a white suburban high school which was a 45 minute drive farther out into the county, where most of the residents were white. My high school's white students would not come to my town for entertainment on weekends because they were afraid of violence and gangs and who-knows-what. This was simply because these white kids who lived in suburbia knew my town to be "black," not because it had any reputation for rampant crime. It wasn't a violent kind of place and had no such reputation.

I did not hear of police brutality in that town, but no doubt it happened. I lived in a bubble, as did many whites. I think that bubble is getting burst open now.

 

[karlo]

how aggressively defensive, scary defensive, many white people can get denying they are racist

“Racist” has a very negative associations, like KKK or George Wallace, or segregation. So, I can understand why folks would get defensive. Terms like bias, or unconscious bias, or systemic bias, invites discussion. IMO

a white woman in Central Park threatening a black birdwatcher

Though one can easily discover them, I think it’s great that you didn’t mention names. Doing so makes it easier to say, ‘oh, it’s just that individual who has a problem‘, when in fact the problem is still too prevalent. It’s not just that too many would still make false accusations like that, but also far too often there are still authorities that will assume that such accusations are correct unless proven otherwise.

 

[Yo Momma]

 

[Snowfan]

I use the KISS system. Php_2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

 

[Steve]

Instead of the word "racist" think of the word "prejudice." It means to prejudge.

We ALL do that, sometimes based on valid knowledge we have of a person, sometimes based on things that we've been socialized to feel. Even if we reject stereotypes, they're still in us.

 

[SBrown]

Instead of the word "racist" think of the word "prejudice." It means to prejudge.

We ALL do that, sometimes based on valid knowledge we have of a person, sometimes based on things that we've been socialized to feel. Even if we reject stereotypes, they're still in us.

And I think this is so key, the first step.
We are human. We aren't perfect. That is ok. We just need to acknowledge it and move forward from there. Racism/prejudice/bigotry isn't an American thing, a white thing, a Southern thing. It's a human thing. I feel like if we can all accept that, it makes it easier to address.

 

[Steve]

Yes @SBrown so true. I grew up with parents who were civil rights activists, and my father had black clients at the house often. I was taught, and believe in equality.

That doesn't mean I don't have prejudiced thoughts at times.

 

[RiderRay]

Let's get over what happened generations ago and work together so that no matter what the color, religion or ethnicity of a person, we all receive the rights that the Constitution of this great country guarantees us.

Mod edit

 

[jimmy]

Yes @SBrown so true. I grew up with parents who were civil rights activists, and my father had black clients at the house often. I was taught, and believe in equality.

That doesn't mean I don't have prejudiced thoughts at times.

Thanks Steve. Why isn’t there more equality in ski racing? Money, logistics; potentially some great athletes are excluded from the competition.

 

[RiderRay]

I absolutely agree that all of what you say is wrong. My oldest son, who is 39 now, was targeted by our local sheriff's department for no reason when he was 16 and they made our life hell for years. He told me one time that "They're not going to stop until they kill me". So I know that kind of fear and injustice.

What I'm asking is why you're not just as upset about the other lives?

 

[crgildart]

It didn’t happen just last week it happens all the time @crgildart.

Thanks Steve. Why isn’t there more equality in ski racing? Money, logistics; potentially some great athletes are excluded from the competition.

Right but being killed by those we pay to protect us is quite a bit different than criminals killing eachother. White supremacy and it's impact on law enforcement is the core of BLM movement.

 

[crgildart]

I absolutely agree that all of what you say is wrong. My oldest son, who is 39 now, was targeted by our local sheriff's department for no reason when he was 16 and they made our life hell for years. He told me one time that "They're not going to stop until they kill me". So I know that kind of fear and injustice.

What I'm asking is why you're not just as upset about the other lives?

And a LOT of BLM activists aren't black. Perhaps you should join them since you seem to have similar views about corruption in law enforcement.

 

[karlo]

Let's get over what happened generations ago and work together so that no matter what the color, religion or ethnicity of a person, we all receive the rights that the Constitution of this great country guarantees us.

That’s exactly what the protests are about, dealing with remnants of what happened generations ago. We have to carry water on both shoulders and deal with both issues