Black sailors

Re: Good stuff, haddock, and ...

discussing race issues with one or two white south africans - especially thos still based in RSA- is not really recommended. Some say bizarre things like "oh yes, black are fine - but you gotta watch yourself or they'll slit your throat!" Another was quite adamant that the shanty town were a mess because , see, they'd been put up very hastily as the blacks rushed towards white areas to swing the election - total and utter rubbish. Another time, watching a boxing match, a guy from durban said "wow - good job that wasn't a white guy - only black guy could take a punch like that eh?".

One or two otherwise quite intelligent white seth efricans seem to they truly believe that there are organic differences between blacks and whites, which i think (?) was the origin of apartheid in cape town at least - the blacks were coralled to avoid spread of a disease, and held there in case the disease came back, and of course with rubbish food and close proximity etc. , disease of all kinds hardly ever went away.

The recent political changes have not simultaneously corrected some these entrenched ideas.


As regards black yoties, they're potentialy incredibily able - caribee for example.

In uk I *suppose* if black i'd feel fmore comfortable where there were at least some ethnic minorities.

Fortunately, the situation seems to be improving - rugby and (in the uk anyway) footy seems faily race-blind. A matter of time - and er NOT letting people getting away with crap like "black people don't float".
 
Re: Good stuff, haddock, and ...

"Blacks don't float"

Well thet don't have to the boat does it for them. That said it is an interesting theory. Looking at results at the olympic games I have often wondered why a black medalist in the swimming pool is almost as rare as rocking horse manure, considering their domination on the running track.

kim /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Re: Good stuff, haddock, and ...

In the community I live in there are Affro, Asian, Chinese etc. There is no real racial conflict I suppose as we are used to living near one another, I can stand up and say I have some really nice freinds of different colour. What I find a bit sad with this thread although Jules has raised a valid point, the real truth is that there are a lot of communities in Rural and coastal Britain that ARE racial. So why the pussy footing aound? The Truth be said there are few black sailors because of not people refusing to accept them......but being boaty is a whity thing over here. Affro etc people have their own interests at heart which would probably be of not much interest to people such as ourselves using this forum!
 
"What has floating or swimming got to do with it?" -
That was part of my question, and the reason the SA chap gave for their being no black sailors in SA, which is now an actively inclusive society. I can only suppose an instinctive fear of water MAY explain this, but I am interested to know the truth.
As to the reason why no olympic swimmers are black (as far as I know) this could be down to lack of training facilities in black neighbourhoods in US, but not here surely?
As someone said before it would be far too P incorrect to perform an experiment.
I'd love to hear from any Afro-Caribbean forumites.......
 
Re: Good stuff, haddock, and ...

Good point, I suspect not many of us are blinged up and play basketball (can't think of any other stereotypes).
Ok, anyone know ANY black (not Asian etc) sailors?
 
Re: Good stuff, haddock, and ...

there are a couple of dark skinned [ or what ever the correct name now is] guys around the Hamble on power boats. seen them out a few times. Ones got a rather nice 40ft something flybrigde cruiser /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I live in Leeds which is pretty mixed ethnically. I number several Asian and Afro-Carribean origin people among my friends. They can't understand why I should be so keen on sailing whether dinghies or something bigger, in fact they think I'm mad. They have no hankering for sight or experience of the sea and the notion of spending time in the isolation of any kind of countryside just holds no appeal.

The notion that just because we see few sailors from these backgrounds necessarily means something is wrong is, I think, mistaken. What it maybe means is that most of them just ain't interested.

The best thing to do is to treat them no differently from anyone else so that they have the same opportunities as everyone else and maybe in time some may take it up but if they don't, so be it. This whole business of regarding statistical imbalances as being the inevitable consequence of racism is totally wrong and should be shot down at every opportunity.

I don't know what percentage of the population of the UK are involved in sailing but I doubt it is very high so with very much smaller numbers of non-white Brits you would have very few even if their percentage were the same.

I shall continue to invite my non-white friends to sail but if they don't take me up on it I won't lose any more sleep over it than I do about my white friends not wanting to go. It's their loss not mine. More importantly, it is their choice.
 
'black' people constitute a small proportion of the population. a smaller proportion still have the economic means to go yachting. the proportion who actually do so is much lower still. so we can conclude that black people choose not to.

there must be a reason for this but i can only guess-

a perception that yachting is a 'white' preserve.
a cultural bias against outdoor activities
lack of opportunity to get started.

is there anyone on the forum who is in a position to give an informed answer?
 
Re: Good stuff, haddock, and ...

[ QUOTE ]
, the real truth is that there are a lot of communities in Rural and coastal Britain that ARE racial. So why the pussy footing aound?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not what I've found. I've lived in Leeds, Bradford, the East End and there was far more racism there than in rural Somerset where I live now. I can honestly say that I have never seen any evidence of it here.

I'm not sure if it's relevant but I also saw a lot of anti-white racism by various ethnic groups when I lived in town.
 
There is a lot of claptrap talked about socio economics and racism, but it is probably something just as simple as a question of location - in the same way as you don't hear many Brummie accents in the average yacht club. People who sail generally live by the sea. Historically coastal towns don't have a high black population.

As for swimming, no one can say that the black population is under represented in sport, but there must be a reason why there are proportionally less black swimmers but proportionally more black runners. Perhaps it comes down to certain physical attributes that are more prevalent in people from different races and colour is not the issue. Sometimes it just comes down to "that's the way it is".
 
Why does it matter? Have we reached the state of PCness that we have to have quotas of each racial and sexual minority in every area of life? Are we going to have to force white men to sprint and black men to sail? Arent we supposed to be colour blind, not colour conscious?

And I dont believe its anything much to do with money or the cost of sailing either. There are more than enough wealthy people amongst the Indian community but how many do you see sailing? Or playing football?

To each his own - and to hell with this angst!
 
Good point to wrap up the thread. Someone else described a BBC arranged Chinese outing to the hills where they couldn't wait to get back to town.
Perhaps it is really in the genes after all.
This is not a racial slur, but an observation reflected in nature that we are not all equal. The fact that it is observed by ethnic background is, perhaps, lost on those that would have us believe otherwise.
Discuss.
 
Still haven't had an answer to the question - has any one seen a black sailor? i agree with "to each his own", but I am interested as to the seeming complete lack of Afro-Caribbean guys sailing. (As per original question).
 
Re: Good stuff, haddock, and ...

Agree totally

I think perhaps there is still progress to be made in Soccer (heard John Barnes on the subject recently) but Rugby sems to be fairly racist free. And how many Olympic medals would UK have won without black athletes.

Again the blacks don't float thing - nonsense of course -- until I thought

How many swimming medals have been won by black people and I couldn't think of any.

Not even US ones - Odd
 
Re: time and money

I used to swim comptetively. It is extraordinarily time-consuming. I hear that an olympic hopeful aged 6 in ox swims six hours a day, and it is most cetrainly the case that any olypc hopefull would not really miss a single day of training. And there's no money it it really.

i supose it's an economic thing. Black or white, you can get good if you can afford the time and/or money to pursue it as a pastime. Sailing for some, balck or white, can be a profession, and if so, they can excell. Only in those sports whereit's faily cheap to get to first base (footy, rug, basketball etc in the US) and where there is financial opportunity to make a £££ career will loads of people pile in, in their thousands.

So erm, in conclusion, as far as i can see, not too many black people in the uk go sailing cos it's a waste of money and not that much fun erm......
 
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