Only until recently has the issue of racial diversity within the sport of cycling been risen as a potential problem in terms of the social experience of consumption of many cyclists. In the US as well as abroad, cycling is and has been perceived as an overwhelmingly white sport. In Chicago, for example, there was a Chicago Tribune report that found that the number of biking-related tickets were significantly higher in African-American and Latino areas than in largely white areas (Hylton, 2017). In Chicago, the majority of cycling infrastructure such as bike lanes are in white areas. The fact that Black neighborhoods are being targeted for the majority of tickets suggests that these areas are being disproportionately ticketed for the same offenses, or, at minimum, that there is more limited access to bike lanes and bike racks to minimize the incidence of street violations (Hylton, 2017).

In an essay by a serious amateur Black British cyclist entitled “The Unbearable Whiteness of Cycling,” the author reported that he often experienced micro-aggressions when biking with his largely all-white cycling club, and frequently had racial epithets lobbed at him when he was cycling with his largely Black cycling group (Hylton, 2017). Fears of harassment from police or fellow cyclists can have a chilling effect on non-whites adopting the hobby, in addition to the not inconsiderable cost of the sport. Cycling already has a significant diversity problem, even in relatively diverse and cycling friendly cities such as London—86% of male cyclists in the city and 94% female London cyclists are white (Hylton, 2017). Because cycling is a social activity, the fact that there is so little racial diversity within the hobby can have a chilling cyclical effect, in which individuals who are from historically discriminated-against groups assume that the sport is not welcoming, because they see so few images of themselves in the cycling media and advertisements.

References

Hylton, K. (2017). The unbearable whiteness of cycling. The Conversation. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-cycling-76256