I appreciate the work Jim does to moderate the forum. I haven't owned a Rivendell in 10 years but all my bikes reflect preferences I gained because of Rivendell's influence, and I still use many parts and accessories that Riv sells.
I think drawing a line on the metric of civility, tones, and respect is very reasonable. I remember members requesting moderators to shut down a thread on helmet debate. The fact is, we can get pretty worked up on bike-exclusive issues like low/high trail; long/short chainstays, etc. Disagreement ain't bad, we just don't want to call each other names! I appreciate Grant's newest blahg entry, as he makes plain that bicycles are inextricably linked to human history and activities, and racial and other social justice are no exceptions. In the worst pandemic we have faced for 100 years, even public health experts support protest and assembly because racial injustice to them is a "public health" issue. Personally, I can speak to how my experience with biking are tied to the issue of race. I love doing long-distance rides; brevets, mixed-terrain ramblings, short and long tours, S24Os. Even in places that are considered "diverse" and "progressive" I have experienced hostility that are thrown my way because I am not white, anywhere from race-tinted jokes and names, fake accents, sometimes those comes in combination with things thrown my way; one time a passenger of a truck swung a plastic soda bottle at me as they drove by, while saying some racial epithets. Riding our bikes to beautiful and remote places is liberating, but this type of activities also makes us vulnerable. On a tour, bike trip, or long rides, in addition to all the usual bike-related logistics, I always wonder, and sometimes look into, whether a locale is 1) friendly to cyclists; 2) does it have a reputation of treating POCs poorly. Obviously, we are still sheltering in place and I don't have plans to do any bike travel right now, but the anti-asian/anti-chinese sentiments and attacks that came with pandemic give me more pause on traveling to some locations. My point is, we talk a lot about life circumstances when it intercept cycling/bikes: commute; city infrastructure; traffic; bike-friendly services/locales; aging and health. For people of color, especially the African American community, race intercepts/cuts deeper and affects us just as much, if not more than some or all of these other categories that are OK to talk about on this list. Many of these other issues are "political" and/or controversial, too. Whether local transportation and urban planning policies (funding for bike-specific infrastructure; lowering the speed limit, etc.) appropriately address the needs of non-car modes are deeply political and can be divisive, and no one bats an eye if a lister shares the experience that residents of a particular neighborhood are especially anti-bikes (as shown by anti-bike signs or laying tacks on the road, etc.). A year or so ago, someone set up a booby trap on a popular bike path in Portland (OR) and seriously injured a cyclist. The perpetrator was arrested and later put on trial. I don't think anyone would object talking about that on this list, so why is racial injustice any different, after all, it serious endanger some people, including when they are riding bikes (or jogging, as in the case of Armaud Arbery). We never had any problem when Grant and sometimes even other listers announce a charitable cause, why should we block Jan from announcing his? After all, even if we are allergic to "racial" stuff, (as I mentioned earlier) public health experts support the protesters congregating despite the pandemic because racial injustice is a serious "public health" issue. How is soliciting contribution for a public health cause any different than other cause that other listers solicit for? I am not opposed to banning and removing certain threads, and I think negativity/uncivility/lack of respect is a good criterion for that, not the fact that we are talking about something related to race or other social justice issues. with respect, Franklyn Berkeley, CA On Tuesday, June 2, 2020 at 10:58:12 PM UTC-7, Cyclofiend Jim wrote: > > I appreciate the honesty of your feedback. > > It may have been absolutely the wrong move. We are all decidedly > imperfect. > > My decision was related more to the tone of the responses (both public and > moderated) which seemed to be quickly going off-course. it seemed to be > boiling up, which is happening quite a bit of late. > > - Jim > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b5b537a1-c454-4942-9a91-ccf331cbe9bf%40googlegroups.com.
