Keep it up bro and to the other logical dudes of letsrun. This type of elite level logician stuff is half the reason I come to this forum.
Keep it up bro and to the other logical dudes of letsrun. This type of elite level logician stuff is half the reason I come to this forum.
"That’s because running has become democratized. Instead of it being a sport only for very fit, very fast, skinny white dudes, it’s for almost everyone. Just go to a race, whether it’s your local 5K or a major city marathon, and you’ll see a range of ages, shapes and sizes that are much more representative of what the population actually looks like than if you did the same thing in 1990, or even 2000.
That is starting to be reflected in the sponsorship world and who the brands pay with real money (not just free swag) so that they can make running their job.
That is not to say that running is perfect. At the recreational level, it’s still overwhelmingly white. It’s also about that time of year when I’ll start being lectured about how charity runners have ruined the Boston Marathon because they didn’t “really” qualify.
And maybe it’s a stretch to expect people to be inspired by running brands using the stories of non-elite runners for marketing purposes.
But I bet even skeptics would agree that the efforts of some of the sponsored runners I wrote about are pretty inspiring — for example, Justin Gallegos is lobbying for a change in Paralympic rules to accommodate runners with cerebral palsy and Mina Guli is aiming to run 100 marathons in 100 days to raise awareness of global water issues."
This is what has many posters on this thread upset?
___________________________________
Yes, this is why people are upset. There is an implicit argument that running should be "democratized" while pushing a narrow view of what democracy means--in this case equality of outcome versus equality of opportunity. More accurately, inequality of outcome is uncritically presented as inequality of opportunity, which may or may not be the case. People have strong disagreements about whether successful democracy means having an equal shot or whether it means having equal outcomes.
We can make fun of the strong reaction, the cherry-picking of the sentence about race, etc., but I think you're wrong to dismiss the reactions on this thread (whether they're sincere or not is a different question) as overreactions--except for maybe the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and the usual LRC message board racism. This is a microcosm of larger political debates happening in this country.
Yeah.. somehow it's a surprise to someone that hobby jogging is overwhelmingly white... it's like they've never been to a road race before. to me it's just plain good business to try and encourage more participation. if an event director can increase participation 10-15% why not? The OIA (outdoor industry lobby group) has been actively trying to increase minority participation for a few years now, it's all about broadening the business.
Seems pretty true...
My other thought is that the piece rambles. Not sure what the point was. The line about it being white seems tossed in for no reason.
Luv2Run wrote:
Seems pretty true...
My other thought is that the piece rambles. Not sure what the point was. The line about it being white seems tossed in for no reason.
Funny thing, the New York Times staff is overwhelmingly white.
They fired Jayson Blair over practically nothing, just making stuff up and plagiarizing others work.
I don't think that I'm wrong to dismiss the reactions as overreactions. An author makes an aside that recreational running doesn't seem to garner the interests of all groups and it created a thread that devolved into posts about Obama's Chicago crime policies and Israeli soldiers, among other things. I find that very much to be an overreaction to the quote I posted.
Good job summarizing what this conversation is about. This is a conversation about how monolithically diverse every area of society needs to be. It's one thing to say participation in democratic government should be equally available to every one. There's no real debate on that. It's another thing to say that every single aspect of society (even people's private choices of what hobbies they have) needs to be diversified (democratized as the NYT author puts it). If white males are the predominate players of video games, well then we must assume that's a problem and the result of underlying systemic racism. If white women are the predominate owners of minivans, well that's a problem and the result of underlying systemic racism. You get the idea. It's a militant progressive mentality that must look for disparity everywhere and must politicize every aspect of everyone's life. It's the fundamental lie that "the personal is political." It's an evangelical progressive impulse that is unable to just let people be people. It's unable to let different people have different preferences and different association with each other. Discrimination, disparity, agitation for social change is applied to every singe area of life. It is actually the complete antithesis of tolerance, that disguises itself as a fight for tolerance. It's such an over-arching attitude of some people that it is blithely slipped in to a stupid hobby jogger blog.
The conversation on this tread is about some people recognizing this evangelical progressive mentality and calling it out as stupid. But then of course, all the people who are consumed by this mentality, have to call all those people racist. It's amazing absurdity on display.
Welcome to plane earth. We have humans here. Sometimes when humans are having a conversation, the topic can veer off on various tangential topics. Enjoy.
et phone home wrote:
breit leit wrote:
I don't think that I'm wrong to dismiss the reactions as overreactions. An author makes an aside that recreational running doesn't seem to garner the interests of all groups and it created a thread that devolved into posts about Obama's Chicago crime policies and Israeli soldiers, among other things. I find that very much to be an overreaction to the quote I posted.
Welcome to plane earth. We have humans here. Sometimes when humans are having a conversation, the topic can veer off on various tangential topics. Enjoy.
*planet earth
(nothing ruins your own joke like a typo ---dammit)
Luv2Run wrote:
Seems pretty true...
My other thought is that the piece rambles. Not sure what the point was. The line about it being white seems tossed in for no reason.
Yeah, it seemed to an article about nothing at all. Maybe she was coming up against a deadline.
I haven't checked the Daily Stormer, but the offended LRers seem to be the only people in the country that had any reaction to the article.
et phone home wrote:
et phone home wrote:
Welcome to plane earth. We have humans here. Sometimes when humans are having a conversation, the topic can veer off on various tangential topics. Enjoy.
*planet earth
(nothing ruins your own joke like a typo ---dammit)
The earth is flat, so plane is correct.
So we're just ignoring professional Running in favor of pointing out the racial disparity at the recreational ranks? I'm so confused by the point of saying that.
0/10
We still all bent out of shape about the fact that most rec. runners are white in this country?
Looks like the author of this newsletter (not article) changed the phrasing to more accurately reflect her point. The newsletter now says "That is not to say that running is totally democratized. At the recreational level, it’s still overwhelmingly white." Relax letstrunners, the persecution and eventual elimination of white people in this country has been prevented by your heroic actions (typing responses and slamming your fist on your desk are actions). You convinced the author that distance running being a hobby done by mostly white people doesnt mean it's not perfect. Now you can chill out until this evening when Hannity finds something else for you to be angry about. But dont be angry about Trump's proposal to increase government spending higher than ever before, he's still a conservative doing what you sent him there to do.
And Sprinting is overwhelmingly black.
Instant gratification vs delayed gratification. Track is a microcosm of society.
I'm glad to see not everyone is susceptible to propaganda and brainwashing. There are two types of people, objective and subjective.
just a matter of preference wrote:
"That is not to say that running is perfect. At the recreational level, it’s still overwhelmingly white."
Why is being overwhelmingly white an imperfection? I could understand this argument if this was a result of discrimination of some kind, but discrimination really isn't a possible cause of running being "overwhelmingly white." Literally anyone can walk out their front door and go for a run. That some people choose to run while others do not is just a matter of preference, and is not inherently good or bad.
I completely agree. It's a patronizing statement. Believe it or not, black people do make choices about which sports to participate in. In America, many make the choice, for a range of reasons, to pursue football and basketball, because they hope for a payoff. It's not as thought there's a huge front-end startup cost. Running is like soccer or basketball: it's an intrinsically low-cost, intrinsically democratic sport.
By "running," of course, the NYT reporter means "distance running." At the recreational level, at least in JHS, HS, and college, the sprints are overwhelmingly black, not white.
But yes: to call (distance) running in America "imperfect," in effect, because a lot of white people like it and black people by and large choose not to participate in it is just kooky.
lol,,nice parody.
If this was a potluck, your paragraph is the turd salad.....why even bring it?
you think the Civil war era republicans stance on transgenders is relevant? Can you cite a source as evidence of their stance??
I think you left out a few key pillars of fascism.....nationalism, militarism, 'strong man' leader demanding worship, justifying international military aggression,...............but cherry picking facts is about the only way you can warp your brain around your logically inconsistent stance, isn't it? Have you ever tried just think straight, rather than doing mental gymnastics to make sure everything fit your predetermined agenda?
Lincoln era Republicans were a liberal party. No sane person with any historical knowledge doubts that.
I’m a D2 female runner. Our coach explicitly told us not to visit LetsRun forums.
Great interview with Steve Cram - says Jakob has no chance of WRs this year
RENATO can you talk about the preparation of Emile Cairess 2:06
adizero Road to Records with Yomif Kejelcha, Agnes Ngetich, Hobbs Kessler & many more is Saturday
2024 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion
Hats off to my dad. He just ran a 1:42 Half Marathon and turns 75 in 2 months!