diversity

Si, Se Bici: Yes, Latinx People Ride Bicycles

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 6 Comments

Texas used to be part of Mexico, and 40% of its inhabitants are Hispanic. for our neighbor to the immediate south, Mexico, which celebrated its independence from Spain on September 16. The day before was Independence Day in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month in the US. Since I’ve written about Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans in relation to cycling, it’s high time I highlighted Hispanics who bike.

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Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month… and Bicycles

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

May is Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and coincidentally it’s Bike Month. Having written a number of times about racism in general, attending two Black Lives Matter movement bike rides / protests, and also about Native Americans, I’d be remiss if I didn’t touch on this community. As a white person, I certainly have no right to speak for them (and I’m not). But I can certainly show a few faces and amplify their voices one tiny bit. It’s always worth being curious, seeking understanding, and being part of the wider world by doing more than just eating ethnic cuisine if and when the opportunity arises. Here are a few things I learned, and let’s meet a few great cyclists as well.

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The Women I Saw Today

~ A Dude Abikes ~ Leave a comment

International Women’s Day was back on March 8, part of Women’s History Month. But isn’t every day women’s day? When noodling about for today’s topic, I realized the incredible variety and diversity of female human people I crossed paths with today. As a lifelong male who happens to play on Team Straight, I’ve devoted my fair share of time contemplating the opposite sex. I’ve been single a while, so apparently I haven’t learned very much. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate them. So while this is predominantly a bicycle and assorted lifestyle blog, today’s post is about da ladeez.

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Texas Bike Advocate Summit & Cyclists in Suits Lobby Day

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

The last three days I spent participating in these two events were a slice of bicyclist advocate heaven. Although I’m not being literal (read my post In Bike I Trust: The Faith of an Agnostic Athiest Cyclist for my thoughts on all that), it was a smorgasboard of education, networking, lobbying, and of course, bike riding. The first-ever event hosted by the board, staff and volunteers of Bike Texas brought 40 people together from many parts of Texas. I volunteered to attend as one of three representatives of Bike Austin. The summit was held Saturday-Sunday and the lobby day was today, Monday. If you’ve read this far, you may as well keep going to read the rest. You know you wanna!

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Is Voting Revolutionary in This Election Cycle? Biking to Work the Polls in Austin, Texas

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

After riding my bicyle to three different locations over the last seven days in a row to work as a clerk for the county elections office during early voting, I have some observations.  Chief among them is that having a job again is both gratifying and exhausting, kind of fun but kind of annoying.  Another is that Austin is still a place that still has a whole lot of white people in it, especially due the high rents of downtown, which limits some people of color. But where there is diversity, it is quite varied.  Third, for the most part Austinites are a very well-behaved, clever and mellow bunch.

Fourth, voting is one of few times where people of all political stripes come together to exercise their right to participate in democracy, and that’s a beautiful thing whether you agree with voting or not.  And a fifth is that while voting is something that some people deride, some ignore, and others celebrate, it’s still a fascinating experience to be part of the process.  There are more things you might learn as I did if you just click on that little Continue Reading button.  It’s like voting!  Please vote to read the rest of this blog!  Vote for A Dude Abikes! Continue reading →

We Are the World, Not Narrow-Minded, Nationalistic Neo-Nazis!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

It’s Independence Day, or July 4th, in the United States of America.  A day when we are supposed to pause as a nation to reflect upon our history, throwing off our British oppressors, and founding a new nation that cherished the ideals of freedom, democracy, equality and much more.  But usually people set off fireworks, cook alot of meat, drink alot of beer, and don’t think anything of it.  And woe be to anyone like A Dude who declares himself a citizen of the world.  After all, the location of my birthplace was a completely random event.  I could be Swedish, Afghani, Congolese, Inuit, or even from New Jersey.  The horror!

Today’s blog was going to be a review of my statistics about my blog.  And that just seemed frivolous, as things do when you’re having deep thoughts.  So as I went on my 25-mile ride, with people setting off fireworks all around me, I couldn’t help but think about the dichotomy, contradiction even, between those historic ideals and present, very ugly realities.  With the backdrop of the World Cup on my mind, and given how few people still actually read my words, I decided to throw in my two cents about how wrong it is to treat immigrants like second-class citizens, and the dangerous path toward neo-fascism the U.S. appears to be on.

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O Jogo Bonito: The Beautiful Game of Soccer (aka Football) and Yes, Bicycling

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 1 Comment

Back on February 5, I wrote a post titled “What the Super Bowl Can Teach Us About Sports Cycle-ology”.  The quadrennial soccer / football spectacle that is the month-long World Cup began June 14th, which very many people who are not living in a cave know.  After watching all 14 games over the last five days, I’ve been thinking about the lessons soccer aka football can teach bicyclists.  (I’m from the US, so I’ll call it soccer.)

THIS POST IS SPOILER FREE IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALL THE FIRST 15 GAMES! 

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What Two African Muslims Taught Me About Ramadan, Bicycling and Blogging

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 5 Comments

Ramadan is the month-long holiday of day-time fasting, prayer and other practices observed by people of the Muslim faith.  It ended yesterday, making today Eid al-Fitr.  What does that have to do with me and bicycling?  I’m glad you asked, so I’ll tell you.  Recently I wrote about self-compassion.  And then I met a man on a bike ride who was only riding at night.  When asked why, he said it was because he was observing Ramadan.  No water or food until nightfall, and then biking?  To me that was impressive because it showed some serious dedication to both his religion and his sport.  He’s a Nigerian living in Texas.

What does Ramadan mean
Source:   Oregon Public Broadcasting You Tube channel

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in Kenya, a fellow blogger posted a story about encountering a poor woman on the street.  She too is an African Muslim who was observing Ramadan.  But despite the blogger being charitable and giving away some of her money, the beggar still berated her, and told her it was not enough.  One of the teachings of Islam is to be additionally generous during this month, and so she grappled with doing that but not receiving the gratitude she expected.  The two encounters were too coincidental not to share.

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News Flash: People of Color and Women Ride Bicycles, Too, Dammit!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 15 Comments

Bikes Are Colorblind, They Just Want to Be Ridden

It’s Black History Month in the United States of America, so it would be bad form for a progressive to not pay homage to that (which I did earlier when mentioning the impact of the Black Panther movie) Some people have the mistaken belief that only rich white men in Spandex ride bicycles. They are wrong.

Where I live, I frequently see people of color riding bicycles, usually at night, apparently commuting home from work. They usually don’t have lights or helmets or fancy bikes. But they are cyclists just the same, risking their lives to go about their lives, which includes transporting themselves with their own people power. Leonel Hernandez, who died last month, was one of them.

Today, within the space of 10 minutes, I met a black dude named Ivory and a couple from Thailand named Nukul and Rung, each on a bike. You really meet the coolest people on bikes — of whatever color, status or nationality. You never would probably barely even see them from your motorized steel pollution cage.

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