Check this out Blog: Bicycling and Systemic Racism

 Adrian Perez 

Mr. Roddy 

GPHC 

12 December 2020

How Race and Bicycling are connected 


Race and Bicycling. Two things I felt had no connection with each other. But actually, they do have some correlation. The story I read about was of this queer black woman, who many identify as a male.  She was working on LGBTQ issues by leading a program for an organization. She says she commonly experiences anti-blackness and racism. She then learned about the executive director position at Los Angeles County Bike Coalition(LACBC). She was very hesitant about working there. She loves to bike because it provides a sense of freedom which in some cases could feel uncommon for a black woman working in a toxic workplace. Also since bike lanes are a common factor of gentrification in poorer neighborhoods. She went into the interview with the mentality of making it a social justice organization. And made it very clear if they didn’t like that, they shouldn’t hire her. They then offered her the job and she accepted. Since she had such a love for biking, she made that her key tool for social justice. “Bicycling cannot solve systemic racism in the United States. But systemic racism can’t be fixed without tackling it within bicycling.” She took this into every board meeting, every speech she had to give, everywhere. The way systemic racism is viewed in connection with bicycling is this. We are currently in a pandemic which statistics show has increased the number of bikers we are seeing. In some communities, they are lacking essential things for biking. This is the way systemic racism is inter winded that I could find. Also, the fact that when a black man or a person of color is biking in a white neighborhood, people generally are scared or frightened. I myself truly do believe tackling bicycling could help systemic racism.


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