about; of the things we go through every single day of our lives; the fact that we always have to be mindful of the way we dress, talk, walk and behave around authority...all these things white people don't have to think about. All of those personal examples...all of that pain, anguish and frustration, and you think comparing someone riding a bike (a non-human object) to real, human experience as a person of color is "the best explanation" that you've heard thus far?

Wow, that stings.

k&r

We let you use the same roads as everyone else.

It’s the law, which is poorly enforced when cyclists are hit by cars, the fact that gas is subsidized by the government and bike tires aren’t, and just the general mindset of a culture

stories of your fellow brethren/sistren, then we have a long way to go in term of race relations. A long way indeed.

It's more about being conscious than anything else

tie into this analogy?

But I do not find this to be true. I am not a bike rider, by the way.

Typically everyone stops at lights, cars and cyclists and joggers. On rare occasions I see cars and cyclists and joggers run red lights, but it doesn't happen very often. Perhaps people are annoyed that the cyclists seem to be enjoying it more.

My boyfriend who is a cyclists said that. I have seen so many of them breaking laws that I would get a ticket for as an owner of a car.

on a bike you can stop or turn on a dime, you have a much better awareness of traffic and surroundings, and its hard for a biker to do anything stupid enough to harm other people. On the other hand, cars are half-blind, take a long time to bring their heft to a stop or turn, and have enough force mow down a whole crowd or to kill at will.

Technically, we all are bound by the same laws, but everyone knows the laws are there to keep people safe from the big dumb cars, and to keep the big dumb cars safe from each other.

As a cyclist I follow and respect the laws for the most part, and most of the choices I make that lead to not following the laws (jumping onto the sidewalk on occasion, crossing streets where its safest, etc) come out of long experience of what's the safest action in any given situation. I do stop at red lights, and it annoys me when other riders don't, but I slow rather than stop at stop signs, as do the vast majority of car drivers (here at least).

Oh yes of course you're right, cyclists are road Nazis.

when riding in a group, take up the entire road, rarely follow traffic regulations, and NEVER EVER signal their intentions?

Cyclists want their bikes to be considered vehicles, yet they don't want to follow all the rules that apply to vehicles. If cyclists actually followed the rules of the road, I am sure drivers wouldn't be so negative towards them.

yet they don't want to act like people should. If they just dressed and talked like people are supposed to, stopped listening to that obnoxious music, got jobs and so forth, I'm sure other people wouldn't be so negative toward them.

Sarcasm, of course, in the spirit of the OP.

There are rules that all must obey when using roadways for transport. These are in effect for the safety of all.
Spoken by a former traffic engineer.

Turning this into a dump-on-cyclists thread is derailing the intent.

FWIW I agree that all road users should obey the rules for their own safety and that of others. I also know first hand that some drivers really, truly, don't want bicycles sharing their road space even though legally cyclists are required to be on the road in most cases.

But those rules need an overhaul to create smarter laws for road sharing, like making it legal for cyclists to roll stop at STOP signs before making a right turn and instituting minimum passing distances. CA will soon require cars to be no closer than 3 ft from cyclists when overtaking them and other states have similar laws.

There's also room for more extensive driver training on the rules of the road including understanding sharrow markings (which mean that if there's a cyclist present, the cyclist has claimed the lane because it's not wide enough for both the bike and a car) and why it's important to keep clear of the bike lanes.

just as drivers of automobiles, so that there is an official record of them knowing the rules of the road.
It has to work both ways.

But since you mentioned it most adult bicyclists are or have been in the past licensed drivers.

EXACTLY!! Which is why it stinks for an analogy. No disrespect to the OP. Intentions were well meaning.

Kind of hits the nail on the head as far as the original analogy goes.

just got behind two older guys - one was riding on the side of the street and the other was in the center of the lane. They were keeping a speed such that they could carry on a conversation. I suppose this is legal but how considerate is it.

As our society is losing respect for one another and self-centered behavior is becoming the norm - life is becoming more challenging whether it is car, bicycles and even worse - being a pedestrian.

Maybe I'm biased, but I think it's the folks in cars that aren't very considerate.

So I know to expect the worst from EVERYONE, however, in recent years, I have noticed that more and more bicyclers are on the road, and they simply do not follow the rules of the road.

The guy was looking straight at me while he was doing it. I went through the green light with the rest of the traffic. He decided i was not a car so it was okay to try to cut me off while making a right turn at the intersection. He ran into my back wheel and messed it all up but i was pedaling like a wild man when i saw what was going to be happening. Since i always pay attention when cars are are around, he wasn't able to run me over all the way.

Since and after that I never ever trust anyone that is driving in a car. With my trusty mountain bike, i stay on the sidewalk when ever possible, ride against the traffic when ever possible and go around the back side of them when they are stopped at smaller residential intersections. I know i was lucky the first time and that is not going to happen again to me if i can help it.

Two hairline fractures in my right hip. I had to have a walker because I couldn't walk on my right leg until it healed. She saw me too.

And gets back to idea the writer (OP) had about people thinking they moved into a different strata of being a human when they start operating a car. And parallel to us whiteys operating in whitey set up culture.

And, of course, the huge difference is, if I do not know where you are going and you hit me, I am hurt very bad.

And on the other hand, if you don't know where I am going and you hit me, in that case, I am again hurt very bad.

I get tired of so many drivers assuming I am going to run the stop sign (even though I would like to). If they would go when they have the right of way, then I could run the stop sign and sail harmlessly behind them, but because they sit there I have to stop, because now I do not know when they are going to move their weapon of mass destruction.

BS.

And nevermind that cyclists have the right to the full lane.

how do you see your assertion extending the analogy?

What about the bicyclist starting to understand race privilege from the side of POCs made you think to extend it to bicyclists doing something illegal?

and then proceeding through the intersection once it turns green. But I have literally never seen that. Maybe it's a regional thing?

Since you asked, why yes most cyclists where I live wait at red lights because they're not interested in getting killed.

At least where I live.

That's what you're not explaining.

(i.e. cyclists, who ignore red lights, at least where I live) and you don't see how that is a problematic analogy?

I suspect that the blogger cited in the OP meant well, but didn't fully think it through.

First subtly as we pointed out, now making the statement plain.

You think you're clever because you brought the idea into the thread, and have tried to get it stated plainly without getting in trouble- so you make the statement but attempt to say it was the OP who said it.

But what should we assume of the guy who said Barack Obama wouldn't have been elected if he wasn't black? Oh yes you did.

which is why I asked over and over again for you to clarify what you meant.
It's obvious that the OP blogger doesn't equate cyclists with persistent law breakers.
It's also a fact that drivers are law breakers so there's not analogy failure since law breaking is a constant.

I don't know about where you live, but around here, car drivers NEVER exceed the speed limit.

I live on some oceanfront property in Kansas, and I am trying to sell it.

If I'm at a red light in an empty intersection and my bike isn't heavy enough to trip the switch that changes the light, what am I supposed to do--wait 15 minutes for a car to come along to trip the switch?

You think you're subtle. You almost are.

In order to malign nonwhites and discourage white people here from trying to end racial privilege?

You are not posting from the USA and you're on a liberal discussion board encouraging whites to not make this society fairer to nonwhites.

How do you benefit there by us not working to make our society fairer and why else do you do it?

And why won't you answer the question? I've been asking it for days and you won't. Is your answer as indefensible as your behavior?

and its a common practice to most of the cyclists in my area. Stop signs, not so much; I slow down and look both ways and usually continue through, but that's pretty close to what car drivers do as well. Its called a "california stop" around here. What most drivers don't take into account is that if a cyclist is slowed down and prepared to brake, he can stop within a few feet pretty easily.

We are watching.

I had to screech to a halt - when I had green lights - twice in the space of three blocks a while back when cyclists shot through red lights. The first one flipped me the bird for good measure.

would fit into the analysis of white privilege.

It is a one sided exaggeration intended to paint everyone in the less privileged category in the worst light based on the behavior of a few (even though the same behavior is engaged in by a few in the privileged category as well), and it is intended to derail conversation because - of course - "those people" deserve it.

It's something one who has ridden a bike can relate to.

It tries to address a key problem with white privilege: if you're white, it's hard to relate because you haven't experienced being black.

That reminded me of an effort in the early 60s and one before that:

Black Like Me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me

Black Like Me is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin first published in 1961. Griffin was a white native of Dallas, Texas and the book describes his six-week experience travelling on Greyhound buses (occasionally hitchhiking) throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia passing as a black man.
...
Griffin became a national celebrity for a time. In a 1975 essay included in later editions of the book, he described the hostility and threats to him and his family that emerged in his hometown of Mansfield, Texas. He moved to Mexico for a number of years for safety.

In May 1948, Sprigle, using the name "James Crawford", took a thirty day, four thousand mile trip through the Deep South pretending to be black. He was supported in this investigation by the NAACP and accompanied by John Wesley Dobbs. He wrote a series of articles based on the journey, which appeared on the front page of the Post-Gazette under the title I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days. The articles formed the basis of Sprigle's 1949 book In the Land of Jim Crow. Sprigle's work predated the more famous John Howard Griffin's similar investigation, reported in Griffin's book Black Like Me, by over a decade

(WHAT DID I DO TO BE SO) BLACK AND BLUE (aka BLACK AND BLUE)
(Thomas "Fats" Waller / Harry Brooks / Andy Razaf)

Out in the street, shufflin' feet
Couples passin' two by two
While here am I, left high and dry
Black, and 'cause I'm black I'm blue

Browns and yellers, all have fellers
Gentlemen prefer them light
Wish I could fade, can't make the grade
Nothing but dark days in sight

Cold, empty bed, springs hard as lead
Pains in my head, feel like old Ned
What did I do to be so black and blue?

No joys for me, no company
Even the mouse ran from my house
All my life through I've been so black and blue

I'm white inside, it don't help my case
'Cause I can't hide, what is on my face, oh!

I'm so forlorn, life's just a thorn
My heart is torn, why was I born?
What did I do to be so black and blue?

'Cause you're black, folks think you lack
They laugh at you, and scorn you too
What did I do to be so black and blue?

When you are near, they laugh and sneer
Set you aside and you're denied
What did I do to be so black and blue?

How sad I am, each day I feel worse
My mark of Ham seems to be a curse, oh

How will it end? ain't got a friend
My only sin is my skin
What did I do to be so black and blue?

It should be an OP and every word understood by ALL.

Alienation and loneliness are terrible things. That's why his music is so great -- it ties us to something greater through art and to each other as kindred spirits.

I went to the Detroit Jazz Festival last night. Everywhere, I could hear Louis Armstrong and enjoyed the company of thousands and thousands of his dear friends.

Also the way people rend to be prejudiced toward cyclists and repeatedly tell tales about bad experiences to show that ALL cyclists should be viewed as suspicious.

but I would be surprised if almost ALL bicyclists did NOT run stop signs on empty streets. I would be suspicious of a cyclist who didn't break that law.

And signalling for turns isn't that common either, but unlike motorists who sit in steel boxes and can signal with a flip of a lever (and still many of them do not bother) for a cyclist who is looking in every direction (and sometimes I have to remember when I am driving a car that I do NOT have to look over my shoulder before making a left turn.) and it would require taking a hand off the wheel which can reduce stability.

The discussion about groups and individuals with those groups brings to mind the question of the responsibility of individuals for group actions they are not part of or disagree with but are taken in their name. The example would be the rules of the road the privilege autos over bikes. I especially found the snowplowing example thought provoking. As a car driver in s northern town I benefit from this action that both my and the bike rider's taxes support while the bike rider is inconvenienced. We also have ordnances about side walk shoveling but they are not enforced nor paid for by the city so auto's are again privileged over pedestrians. This is an interesting discussion about social organization and what behaviors and institutions warrant support.

Not every white person has a car. The system really is not designed for white people. A casual glance at all the white people living in poverty should have shown this blogger that.

There are also plenty of "potholes" and "gravel" for white people to navigate as well.

This is the latest example. (Note: I am white)

Since in three presidential contests I took the side of the black guy over the white people (at least after Edwards dropped out). And actually even before that I voted for Jackson over Dukakis in the 1988 Wisconsin primary.

Just for the record.

And by the way, is the white race being attacked here? If so, then why shouldn't a white person defend his own race?

The analogy is driver: cyclist is like white person: POC.

In our actual society every white person is not in the virtual position of car driver. Our social system is not designed for white people the same way our highway system (not including bike paths and bike lanes and rails to trails) is designed for cars.

That should be obvious by the sheer number of white people who are at the bottom.

So while there are many whites at the bottom, there is still an advantage in terms of likelihood that one will be low income.

Poverty Rates by Race/Ethnicity estimate for 2012

All US: 20% ( i.e. 20 out of every 100 Americans)
Whites: 13%
Blacks: 35%
Hispanics: 33%
All others: 22%

You think the odds make any difference to the 13%.

And as I have tried to explain repeatedly many white people are on bicycles and many black people have cars, some actually have very nice cars - metaphorically and actually.

but they are still white. They aren't going to be followed around in the stores because they're white, for example. They may be followed around because their clothes suggest that they don't have the income to shop in Hoity Town, but that would happen to low income blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, etc if they were wearing similar clothing.

And FWIW I know first hand what it feels like to be very low income and white in America. It sucks. Poverty sucks regardless of race.

well done by you and, the OP.

White people are the ones who can learn what they are doing that keeps things this way.

But I 'get' the point. If there's a shred of knowledge/awareness/empathy out there, there should be no issue.

Being a kind person to EVERYONE will work; why is that so difficult?

I never ride in the road with traffic, way too dangerous with half the drivers' noses stuck in their smart phones around here.