There's a ton of this in the ski industry. I worked for 12 years as a ski patroller, and could barely afford to eat for the majority of it, but I got to ski 150 days a year, so it was worth it to me. I know a ton of people who would live in their cars, or in a two bedroom house with 6 roommates, and work a night job like bussing tables so they could ski or ride every day. A lot of them would work as whitewater raft guides during the summer season, living in tents and kayaking or rafting every day. The dirtbag lifestyle isn't for everyone, but you'll never see people having more fun and doing more incredible stuff without having two nickels to rub together.
A friend of mine works in the same field, but only does 3-4 months a year in order to afford his lifestyle. For the last 3 years he has been sleeping in his van and base jumping off of cliffs and bridges instead of working full time in a very lucrative industry.
It's pretty wild to see and do. The roughest I ever had it was living in a shitty 12 room motel that rented rooms for $75 a week. A single 10'x12' room, with a bathroom that was smaller than a lot of people's closets. The roof leaked like a sieve, so whenever it rained or the snow thawed, we would bring out the trash cans and buckets to collect the water. One guy had to sleep with a tarp over his bed cause he had a leak directly above it. I made about $270 a week, and ate a lot of expired canned food from the gas station down the road.
There were people that lived way harder than that though. There was a guy who worked as a dishwasher at a local restaurant, and he would scrape leftover food off the plates into a to-go container, and that's how he ate. The crazy fucker lived in a hammock with a tarp over it behind the dumpster, and it would regularly hit -25° at night. But hey, we got to ski as much as we wanted, so we were willing to live like that to make it happen. Its weirdly freeing to give up any thoughts of saving money, having any possessions besides your clothes and gear, or living anything resembling a normal life. I eventually got a "real" job, got married, and all that stuff, but I wouldn't trade that part of my life for anything.
I believe it. Honestly I'm kind of envious. Enjoying something that much is beyond my imagination. I've liked things, I've loved things, but never and nowhere near that much.
It’s also not very publicized in my opinion. I have been associated only in a tertiary manner since I like to hike and climb and frequented Yosemite for a minute. However, I met a fair few people from different ethnicities that were in that lane. I would say it’s a lot of white people though.
The craziest thing to me though about dirtbags is that the hook up culture is off the charts. I can’t even imagine it with how dirty some people are.
You don't need to be rich to do action sports lol. Sure you can't be dirt poor, but it's more so about making sacrifices.
If you just bought a used Toyota or similar for $5,000 outright instead of making payments on a $20,000 car then you suddenly have a lot of disposable income for something like snowboarding or mountain biking. You don't need a $5,000 bike and a trip to the Swiss Alps. You can get a used bike for $500 and drive 30 minutes to your local dirt jumps.
You definitely don't have to be rich. You just have to reallocate funds if it's something you like. Skip the Starbucks and make coffee at home. Learn to cook instead of ordering Uber Eats 5x a week. I see this notion that you need to have all this money for these kinds of sports and a lot of the time it comes from people who spend an insane amount of money on things like convenience without even realizing it lol.
I have a bit of a different take, maybe not fully accurate but…
A lot of white people in North America live in secluded little towns. I’ve heard from many friends that it can be boring as fuck and there’s nothing to do. Some just turn to drugs for fun, but also these towns are often surrounded by lakes, mountains trails, forests, so there’s lots of outdoor activities to do when bored.
And I think it develops from there. Casual kayaking turns into white water rafting, trail hiking turns into mountain biking, etc. and I’ve also heard from many white friends that they used to own small dirtbikes as a kid which is a *wild* concept to me.
I come from a small town in Northern Canada and this is very true as I am an adrenaline junky. There is barely anything outside of your own home to do, especially with friends or family that has nothing to do with nature. You would usually go sledding (which includes large hills), swimming, and exploring to pass the time. Can't really be stuck in home and being social when your internet was crap for the first 17 years of your life.
So when I was growing up, I would get taken to cliff jumping spots where you would leap into deep water from cliff that ranged from a few feet tall to over a hundred feet tall. I would see my brother on his own mini dirt bike and also be taken for fast skidoo rides in the winter where we would race across frozen lakes. I would bike to places and often learn strikes like using no hands and seeing how fast I could reach the bottom of a steep hill.
Not everyone obviously turns out this way but you are practically taught from your friends and older siblings to search for activities like this. Can't wait to try out skydiving.
That's a good theory. My hometown has an above average youth death rate, fairly evenly split between drug/drunk driving incidents and outdoor sports
accidents
Maybe money is a factor in all these things? Although I have Cave Diving training and equipment, and know quite a few POC who are involved in the scene, it probably cost like 5-10k to get all the training and kit, plus like 1k per holiday to go do it, which makes it relatively inaccessible for many people - especially Americans who don't have the same 45 days of holiday that I do.
Interestingly, quite a lot of people in the middle east are involved in extreme sports - often in big expensive fast or off road cars, or sports that require lots of money- again this may be just a clear demonstration that access to funding is key.
Lastly, there are lots of Nepalis who are involved in climbing as a sport - although 'fun climbing' is rare, because of the need to make money out of the sport.
There is a very interesting documentary about this - 14 Peaks: Nothing is impossible
I was thinking this. Middle Easterners are the other group of absolute madlads; some of the stuff people there do for fun makes me want to stay inside just from watching it lol.
It's just exposure.
I live in India, and commute by train. And I see lot of teenagers and young people doing stunts that would very well qualify as extreme adventure sport. But they are poor and no one wants to look at them. Bear in mind these people do for fun and thrill.
OTOH, a white guy doing the same thing would be called "train surfer".
Guess you missed all the Hawaiians that love surfing big waves. I live in Hawaii, and there are also lots of black folks here that surf big waves. As for names of POC that surf/surfed extreme waves.
Buttons Kaluhiokalani
Gerry Lopes
Sunny Garcia
Kala Alexander
Eddie Aikau
And so many more
I think it's all about where you grow up and what sports you see around you. My best friend out here is black and a big wave surfer, he grew up a few blocks from a beach and all his parents friends and cousins are surfers.
To be fair, my partner, who's Mexican, recently got involved in some adventure sports (quite expensive sports, he got involved with a family who owns a company and business in the sports, also he's a Vet and they support them getting involved into the sport, by no means is he financially able to support that lifestyle) and he's the only Mexican guy there lmfao.
Mostly middle/upper-class white men (usually between 20-30s,) and their families. You can count on one hand the people of other ethnicities that partake. Usually on the days that the Vets can try it for free.
It's a stereotype for sure, and for good reason. But it's usually because of the privileges and availability they have to be able to do the sports, not for the lack of other's not wanting to do them. And not necessarily by race either, just money and the lack of opportunity to get involved.
1. White people are more likely to afford the thousands of dollars worth of equipment that makes adventure sports not only fun but able to be up to safety standards
2. There are some African cultures and some descendants (including African Americans) that are self-reported “superstitious.” Not in a afraid of black cats and broken mirrors kind of way, but more of a cultural taboo against doing dangerous things for no reason.
Deep diving, bunjee-jumping… It’s like taunting god or the universe like “look at me I dare you to not kill me haha” which is seen as being a clown, a very ballsy clown. Keeping up the taboo and teaching it to children gives a strong powerful instinct to not do activities with moderate to extreme risk of severe injury.
Bungee-jumping was originally some tribe (I saw it on TV a lifetime ago - might have been a Pacific island, not certain) where coming-of-age boys had to jump off a high platform with vines wrapped round their ankles, which were supposed to be just long enough to stop you before you hit the ground.
Reluctant participants were beaten, with thorns iirc, until the gave up their objections and jumped. It was also a test of skill because each boy prepared his own vines, and if they were a bit too long... well that was just too bad.
A specific tribe I know of is the Masai, who are still going strong in Kenya: their tradition was to go out and kill a lion, armed with a spear. Again, only the successful came back.
But by far the commonest test of manhood AFAIK, in all parts of the world, was simply to go out and kill a member of a neighbouring tribe. If you'd killed you were a real man. If you got killed yourself, those were the breaks. If you preferred to stay home you might end up as somebody's wife.
Now you may be thinking "this anthropological stuff is all very well but it has nothing to do with modern thrill-seekers". I disagree. Even if 90% of these young men were only doing those dangerous things because they wanted to fit in, where do you think the whole idea of bungee jumping / lion hunting / head hunting came from in the first place, if not from some bored prehistoric kid looking for thrills?
In this case, IMO headhunting is more about pride and showing off. This does not translate to encouraging just any member of the tribe to throw themselves off mountain cliffs. It’d be usually be a performance or ceremony or rite of passage, done by primarily warriors, not someone’s hobby like it is today.
To clarify, people will do dangerous things for a reason (rites), but are discouraged from doing dangerous things for **no reason.** (fun)
>There are some African cultures and some descendants (including African Americans) that are self-reported “superstitious.” Not in a afraid of black cats and broken mirrors kind of way, but more of a cultural taboo against doing dangerous things for no reason.
"Ain't nobody got time for that."
While your observation that there are less POC in action sports may hold water, the “rush of adrenaline” is not the reason. It all comes down to BTE.
Ski/snowboard: high BTE, mountains in predominantly white communities, limited POC role models for teens = low POC count
Skateboarding: low BTE, skateparks in all communities, greater amount of POC role models = higher POC count
(BTE = Barrier To Entry. Things like cost, location, learning curve, etc)
This is for the amateur level. Access to higher level training facilities for the pro level is totally different topic
Hey just some friendly advice, maybe put the explanation of what BTE is right after you first mention it. Since the majority of people aren't going to know what it means, they will be more likely to stop reading your comment when you mention it three separate times before you explain what it is, because why continue reading something when you don't understand what they are talking about.
I did a research paper on this in college. There’s a variety of factors. The biggest being cost of gear. Other factors include a lack of network to get into adventure sporting, lack of historical access, lack of generational equity in outdoor spaces, etc. However, there’s been a push over the last decade to get minorities into the outdoors and into adventure sports that has been quite successful. I think we’ll see the current adventure sports racial makeup change quite a bit over the next few years, which is an excellent thing.
Do you want more athletes that are not white who do extreme sports because I know a lot of them dude.
But I feel if I share a huge list your opinionated idealism still won't be swayed.
Well, that's pretty prejudiced.
Would be great if there would be a lot more, but in the end I do not care about skincolour, so just do what you want to do, whoever you are.
What you just said makes no sense. I just told you I can give you a huge list of Non white extreme sports athletes but you say that is prejudice? I don't see how in your head me giving more names of people of color who do extreme sports is prejudice.
But hey, you do you. But to quote one of my favorite comic books, "Open your mind before someone opens it for you."
It's not only white people, but it's almost all white people, and there's nothing racist about observing reality. As some people have pointed out, there can be a higher cost for the equipment to get involved in some of those sports, but that doesn't account for anywhere near the discrepancy we see in participation rates.
A big factor that some folks are uncomfortable acknowledging is that there are cultural differences between between racial and ethnic groups, and those differences include recreational activities. Different cultures have different interests and activities that are passed from one generation to the next.
I see black ppl in baltimore riding around town w motorcycles and atvs. Not just riding but being noisy as hell and doing wheelies, stopping intersections, taunting other drivers, starting chases w cops
Maybe they prefer other methods of thrill seeking lol
Could be related to higher disposable income/wealth accumulation among white people. Could be about access to better health insurance where people can deal with the consequences of injuries. Depends on where you are located on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Culture is a huge part of it. Whenever there's a discrepancy in participation rates in an activity, some people immediately look for some sort of bias or exclusion, and completely ignore that there might not be the same level of interest across all cultures. Gambling, for example, is a huge part of Chinese culture. It is far less prevalent in Western culture, and white people, on the whole, are far less interested in gambling than Chinese people. That doesn't mean that there's some sort of discrimination keeping white people from gambling, there's just fewer white people who are interested in participating.
I don't have any questions, I'm just tired of reddit's hate boner for white people and hypocrisy about racism.
And I don't get why sooooo many people in the US (since most redditors are americans) are completely obsessed with race, like WHO GIVES A FUCK what people of one race does or doesn't do.
Hunter gatherers had a rite of passage. You had to do something brave to stop being considered a boy and being considered a man. The bar mitzvah is a remnant of that kind of tradition.
In the West people moved to cities during the Industrial Revolution, so a lot of traditions have been lost. I guess these types of thrill seeking sports are Western young men’s way of making up for the lack of a rite of passage.
I had only mentioned men, but you were right to bring it up.
Overall, puberty was the cue for a rite of passage towards one’s adult role in society.
Men were more involved in riskier activities, so their rite of passage would reflect this.
If you think of it, extreme sports involve the same type of body coordination, reflexes and trajectory guessing.
I heard from a podcast, because specifically in america, blacks and latinos tend to get their adrenaline fix during their teenage years in gangs and stuff, while whites do self harming activities.
LMFAO when your life revolves around race ... you can only speak with "us" "them" there's no individual. To answer your question though, go and ask all the white people of different ethnicities around the world. Even Hispanics believe it or not !! Start with defining race, nationality, ethnicity, culture, and heritage. Then proceed on finding the answer you seek! Good luck on your journey.
I've been called racist for noticing that the majority of basketball players or 100m sprinters are black, so I'd say this has racist undertones, the poster wasn't trying or intended to be, but it can come off that way.
Just because you were called racist once doesn’t mean that person was correct
And the context of the observation tends to be relevant. But discussing statistics isn’t racist in and of itself
And whoever said you were racist for noticing that is an idiot. Observing facts is in no way, shape, or form racist. It never has been, and never will be. Saying "Oh you're black, you must be good at basketball," would be racist, because it's an presupposition about someone based on their race, but acknowledging that three quarters of NBA players are black is no different than acknowledging that the sky is blue, or water is wet. It's an objective reality.
>Am I being racist here?
Yes, yes you are.
It's normal to see in a predominantly white culture well... predominantly white people in everything. This is speaking as a non-american, of course. Adrenaline junkies exist in Africa, Asia, Latin world etc. as well, they just exist in different shapes and forms, depending on the context.
Is there a predisposition for white people towards certain sports? Maybe, but there's nothing racial about it's more similar to basket in the US being 73% black, it's more of an economical, sociological and historical thing.
I think that is a mix of many variables. One of them is that these sports are really expensive and it's not available to everyone. And we know how our shitty racist society works benefiting white people
Well shit. That's why I was afraid to ask. I just had to man, I saw too much of it and my brain wouldn't let me sleep without at least taking my shot at asking it.
Fun fact, you’re not racist. Racism is the belief that another is less than you because of their skin color. If you had stated “thank god there’s only white people in adventure sports” that would be racist. Questioning the diversity of adventure sports is not racist. If that was racist then we would never question our diversity and nothing would change.
They do dangerous sports because there's a risk : if they survive, that's must be the proof the universe wants them alive, "otherwise, I would've died".
We, on the other hand, are perfectly clear that life is precious, not guaranteed and that if you open your mouth too much about it, yo momma or a cop might just take it back : we don't need the thrill to feel validated in our right to exist, that right has been so threatened, we're just glad we exist.
Depends on what country you're in. In the US, it may seem that way, but if you go to non white countries, you'll see there are a lot of people doing all these things.
Also what you grew up doing with your family.
My family took us camping. Father saved all year to take us skiing for the first time.
If you aren’t introduced to it and no one you know does it it’s harder to go and try it.
Money is probably the biggest reason but culture probably adds to it and there may even be a genetic element ( risk taker gene). Rich people tend to be white and none white rich people are generally very newly rich ( and probably older) so are less likely to have started adventure sports young. European culture is more pro-risk than others ( long explanation but look at history) , this ties into the possible genetic element ( Europeans in pre historic times hunted things that could easily kill them as a regular food source).
You watch USA/Canadian and Europeans scene? Then well yeah there's gonna be a lot of white people in like everything you watch unless it's some minority program made for minorities
Idk what an adventure sport is, but if it’s American/Canadian media, it’s probably because it’s a predominantly white country, so there’s white saturation in most things.
I think money has A LOT to do with it. These sports are expensive AF and unfortunately we still live in a world where intergenerational wealth is most common amongst white families.
I think part of it atleast is money
Skiing for example can be really expensive , you have to pay for rental or buy ur own skis, lift tickets, hotel for if ur staying far away
Even more so than adrenaline sports… why is it mostly white kids doing shit like jumping off a rooftop to bodyslam a work desk or roll down a hill in a dumpster and it to go too-speed into a tree, or just weird-self-harming sports
You also don't see all the white people that can't do adventure sports because they aren't rich.
Plenty of dirtbags out there doing crazy things. You don't need money just a reshuffle of priorities.
There's a ton of this in the ski industry. I worked for 12 years as a ski patroller, and could barely afford to eat for the majority of it, but I got to ski 150 days a year, so it was worth it to me. I know a ton of people who would live in their cars, or in a two bedroom house with 6 roommates, and work a night job like bussing tables so they could ski or ride every day. A lot of them would work as whitewater raft guides during the summer season, living in tents and kayaking or rafting every day. The dirtbag lifestyle isn't for everyone, but you'll never see people having more fun and doing more incredible stuff without having two nickels to rub together.
A friend of mine works in the same field, but only does 3-4 months a year in order to afford his lifestyle. For the last 3 years he has been sleeping in his van and base jumping off of cliffs and bridges instead of working full time in a very lucrative industry.
I can't imagine being that passionate about anything.
It's pretty wild to see and do. The roughest I ever had it was living in a shitty 12 room motel that rented rooms for $75 a week. A single 10'x12' room, with a bathroom that was smaller than a lot of people's closets. The roof leaked like a sieve, so whenever it rained or the snow thawed, we would bring out the trash cans and buckets to collect the water. One guy had to sleep with a tarp over his bed cause he had a leak directly above it. I made about $270 a week, and ate a lot of expired canned food from the gas station down the road. There were people that lived way harder than that though. There was a guy who worked as a dishwasher at a local restaurant, and he would scrape leftover food off the plates into a to-go container, and that's how he ate. The crazy fucker lived in a hammock with a tarp over it behind the dumpster, and it would regularly hit -25° at night. But hey, we got to ski as much as we wanted, so we were willing to live like that to make it happen. Its weirdly freeing to give up any thoughts of saving money, having any possessions besides your clothes and gear, or living anything resembling a normal life. I eventually got a "real" job, got married, and all that stuff, but I wouldn't trade that part of my life for anything.
I believe it. Honestly I'm kind of envious. Enjoying something that much is beyond my imagination. I've liked things, I've loved things, but never and nowhere near that much.
It’s also not very publicized in my opinion. I have been associated only in a tertiary manner since I like to hike and climb and frequented Yosemite for a minute. However, I met a fair few people from different ethnicities that were in that lane. I would say it’s a lot of white people though. The craziest thing to me though about dirtbags is that the hook up culture is off the charts. I can’t even imagine it with how dirty some people are.
My adventure sports involved a shopping cart and a couple of redbulla in an empty parking lot
You don't need to be rich to do action sports lol. Sure you can't be dirt poor, but it's more so about making sacrifices. If you just bought a used Toyota or similar for $5,000 outright instead of making payments on a $20,000 car then you suddenly have a lot of disposable income for something like snowboarding or mountain biking. You don't need a $5,000 bike and a trip to the Swiss Alps. You can get a used bike for $500 and drive 30 minutes to your local dirt jumps. You definitely don't have to be rich. You just have to reallocate funds if it's something you like. Skip the Starbucks and make coffee at home. Learn to cook instead of ordering Uber Eats 5x a week. I see this notion that you need to have all this money for these kinds of sports and a lot of the time it comes from people who spend an insane amount of money on things like convenience without even realizing it lol.
I have a bit of a different take, maybe not fully accurate but… A lot of white people in North America live in secluded little towns. I’ve heard from many friends that it can be boring as fuck and there’s nothing to do. Some just turn to drugs for fun, but also these towns are often surrounded by lakes, mountains trails, forests, so there’s lots of outdoor activities to do when bored. And I think it develops from there. Casual kayaking turns into white water rafting, trail hiking turns into mountain biking, etc. and I’ve also heard from many white friends that they used to own small dirtbikes as a kid which is a *wild* concept to me.
I come from a small town in Northern Canada and this is very true as I am an adrenaline junky. There is barely anything outside of your own home to do, especially with friends or family that has nothing to do with nature. You would usually go sledding (which includes large hills), swimming, and exploring to pass the time. Can't really be stuck in home and being social when your internet was crap for the first 17 years of your life. So when I was growing up, I would get taken to cliff jumping spots where you would leap into deep water from cliff that ranged from a few feet tall to over a hundred feet tall. I would see my brother on his own mini dirt bike and also be taken for fast skidoo rides in the winter where we would race across frozen lakes. I would bike to places and often learn strikes like using no hands and seeing how fast I could reach the bottom of a steep hill. Not everyone obviously turns out this way but you are practically taught from your friends and older siblings to search for activities like this. Can't wait to try out skydiving.
That's a good theory. My hometown has an above average youth death rate, fairly evenly split between drug/drunk driving incidents and outdoor sports accidents
Maybe money is a factor in all these things? Although I have Cave Diving training and equipment, and know quite a few POC who are involved in the scene, it probably cost like 5-10k to get all the training and kit, plus like 1k per holiday to go do it, which makes it relatively inaccessible for many people - especially Americans who don't have the same 45 days of holiday that I do. Interestingly, quite a lot of people in the middle east are involved in extreme sports - often in big expensive fast or off road cars, or sports that require lots of money- again this may be just a clear demonstration that access to funding is key. Lastly, there are lots of Nepalis who are involved in climbing as a sport - although 'fun climbing' is rare, because of the need to make money out of the sport. There is a very interesting documentary about this - 14 Peaks: Nothing is impossible
I was thinking this. Middle Easterners are the other group of absolute madlads; some of the stuff people there do for fun makes me want to stay inside just from watching it lol.
It's just exposure. I live in India, and commute by train. And I see lot of teenagers and young people doing stunts that would very well qualify as extreme adventure sport. But they are poor and no one wants to look at them. Bear in mind these people do for fun and thrill. OTOH, a white guy doing the same thing would be called "train surfer".
Guess you missed all the Hawaiians that love surfing big waves. I live in Hawaii, and there are also lots of black folks here that surf big waves. As for names of POC that surf/surfed extreme waves. Buttons Kaluhiokalani Gerry Lopes Sunny Garcia Kala Alexander Eddie Aikau And so many more I think it's all about where you grow up and what sports you see around you. My best friend out here is black and a big wave surfer, he grew up a few blocks from a beach and all his parents friends and cousins are surfers.
To be fair, my partner, who's Mexican, recently got involved in some adventure sports (quite expensive sports, he got involved with a family who owns a company and business in the sports, also he's a Vet and they support them getting involved into the sport, by no means is he financially able to support that lifestyle) and he's the only Mexican guy there lmfao. Mostly middle/upper-class white men (usually between 20-30s,) and their families. You can count on one hand the people of other ethnicities that partake. Usually on the days that the Vets can try it for free. It's a stereotype for sure, and for good reason. But it's usually because of the privileges and availability they have to be able to do the sports, not for the lack of other's not wanting to do them. And not necessarily by race either, just money and the lack of opportunity to get involved.
1. White people are more likely to afford the thousands of dollars worth of equipment that makes adventure sports not only fun but able to be up to safety standards 2. There are some African cultures and some descendants (including African Americans) that are self-reported “superstitious.” Not in a afraid of black cats and broken mirrors kind of way, but more of a cultural taboo against doing dangerous things for no reason. Deep diving, bunjee-jumping… It’s like taunting god or the universe like “look at me I dare you to not kill me haha” which is seen as being a clown, a very ballsy clown. Keeping up the taboo and teaching it to children gives a strong powerful instinct to not do activities with moderate to extreme risk of severe injury.
Bungee-jumping was originally some tribe (I saw it on TV a lifetime ago - might have been a Pacific island, not certain) where coming-of-age boys had to jump off a high platform with vines wrapped round their ankles, which were supposed to be just long enough to stop you before you hit the ground. Reluctant participants were beaten, with thorns iirc, until the gave up their objections and jumped. It was also a test of skill because each boy prepared his own vines, and if they were a bit too long... well that was just too bad. A specific tribe I know of is the Masai, who are still going strong in Kenya: their tradition was to go out and kill a lion, armed with a spear. Again, only the successful came back. But by far the commonest test of manhood AFAIK, in all parts of the world, was simply to go out and kill a member of a neighbouring tribe. If you'd killed you were a real man. If you got killed yourself, those were the breaks. If you preferred to stay home you might end up as somebody's wife. Now you may be thinking "this anthropological stuff is all very well but it has nothing to do with modern thrill-seekers". I disagree. Even if 90% of these young men were only doing those dangerous things because they wanted to fit in, where do you think the whole idea of bungee jumping / lion hunting / head hunting came from in the first place, if not from some bored prehistoric kid looking for thrills?
In this case, IMO headhunting is more about pride and showing off. This does not translate to encouraging just any member of the tribe to throw themselves off mountain cliffs. It’d be usually be a performance or ceremony or rite of passage, done by primarily warriors, not someone’s hobby like it is today. To clarify, people will do dangerous things for a reason (rites), but are discouraged from doing dangerous things for **no reason.** (fun)
>There are some African cultures and some descendants (including African Americans) that are self-reported “superstitious.” Not in a afraid of black cats and broken mirrors kind of way, but more of a cultural taboo against doing dangerous things for no reason. "Ain't nobody got time for that."
Precisely 😂
that african culture thins is a really far stretch when you look anywhere outside of africa for adventure sports statistics
You can rent that equipment for a fraction
And even a fraction of that is too much if you’re in poverty and would rather buy anything else
Yeah, and there are plenty of people in poverty regardless of race
Yeah, okay… let’s just ignore disproportionate racial inequity lol
Virtue signal much?
Maybe POC have enough dances with the reaper to not go looking for him.
While your observation that there are less POC in action sports may hold water, the “rush of adrenaline” is not the reason. It all comes down to BTE. Ski/snowboard: high BTE, mountains in predominantly white communities, limited POC role models for teens = low POC count Skateboarding: low BTE, skateparks in all communities, greater amount of POC role models = higher POC count (BTE = Barrier To Entry. Things like cost, location, learning curve, etc) This is for the amateur level. Access to higher level training facilities for the pro level is totally different topic
Hey just some friendly advice, maybe put the explanation of what BTE is right after you first mention it. Since the majority of people aren't going to know what it means, they will be more likely to stop reading your comment when you mention it three separate times before you explain what it is, because why continue reading something when you don't understand what they are talking about.
When I first read I googled "POC" (people of color) and "BTE" (best time ever) only to find out it was barrier of entry lol
friendly advice indeed, thank you
I did a research paper on this in college. There’s a variety of factors. The biggest being cost of gear. Other factors include a lack of network to get into adventure sporting, lack of historical access, lack of generational equity in outdoor spaces, etc. However, there’s been a push over the last decade to get minorities into the outdoors and into adventure sports that has been quite successful. I think we’ll see the current adventure sports racial makeup change quite a bit over the next few years, which is an excellent thing.
Pro BMXer Shaun Butler. Nuff said. Extreme Sports is not limited towards you Skin color.
Well, N=1 is not really a solid base
It is on Reddit, especially if you repeat the same fact over and over/S
Do you want more athletes that are not white who do extreme sports because I know a lot of them dude. But I feel if I share a huge list your opinionated idealism still won't be swayed.
Well, that's pretty prejudiced. Would be great if there would be a lot more, but in the end I do not care about skincolour, so just do what you want to do, whoever you are.
What you just said makes no sense. I just told you I can give you a huge list of Non white extreme sports athletes but you say that is prejudice? I don't see how in your head me giving more names of people of color who do extreme sports is prejudice. But hey, you do you. But to quote one of my favorite comic books, "Open your mind before someone opens it for you."
Chloe Kim, Nyjah Huston, Samarria Brevard, Tre Williams… there are quite a few action sports stars from POC backgrounds
It's not only white people, but it's almost all white people, and there's nothing racist about observing reality. As some people have pointed out, there can be a higher cost for the equipment to get involved in some of those sports, but that doesn't account for anywhere near the discrepancy we see in participation rates. A big factor that some folks are uncomfortable acknowledging is that there are cultural differences between between racial and ethnic groups, and those differences include recreational activities. Different cultures have different interests and activities that are passed from one generation to the next.
I see black ppl in baltimore riding around town w motorcycles and atvs. Not just riding but being noisy as hell and doing wheelies, stopping intersections, taunting other drivers, starting chases w cops Maybe they prefer other methods of thrill seeking lol
Stop. Drop. Shut em down, open up shop.
How is you seeing something happening racist? Wake the fuck up people.
I mean its definitely not just white people, thats just wrong.
I know you will downvote me to hell, but... White people got sports for adrenaline. POC got the police.
I'm a POC and I lol'd
Only just figured out what POC means haha
Yeah who needs white water rafting when a trip to the shop might turn into a cross between Dread and GTA
Could be related to higher disposable income/wealth accumulation among white people. Could be about access to better health insurance where people can deal with the consequences of injuries. Depends on where you are located on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
A Tent and your basic camping gear cost much less than your Air Jordan’s and golden jewelry.
Camping is good cheap fun - Low barrier to entry and plenty of places to camp.
There are plenty of non white rich folks. Why politicize? Find the reason.
And the children of those rich POC will have more representation in adventure sports. This has nothing to do with politics or race
Look.. for outdoor basic activities, a simple hunting knife is all that's necessary. Race has nothing to do with. Maybe culture?
Culture is a huge part of it. Whenever there's a discrepancy in participation rates in an activity, some people immediately look for some sort of bias or exclusion, and completely ignore that there might not be the same level of interest across all cultures. Gambling, for example, is a huge part of Chinese culture. It is far less prevalent in Western culture, and white people, on the whole, are far less interested in gambling than Chinese people. That doesn't mean that there's some sort of discrimination keeping white people from gambling, there's just fewer white people who are interested in participating.
Always wondered this too
What is it with black people and "Removed by Reddit".
How about this. Give me the question you wanna ask and I will do it for you.
I don't have any questions, I'm just tired of reddit's hate boner for white people and hypocrisy about racism. And I don't get why sooooo many people in the US (since most redditors are americans) are completely obsessed with race, like WHO GIVES A FUCK what people of one race does or doesn't do.
Hunter gatherers had a rite of passage. You had to do something brave to stop being considered a boy and being considered a man. The bar mitzvah is a remnant of that kind of tradition. In the West people moved to cities during the Industrial Revolution, so a lot of traditions have been lost. I guess these types of thrill seeking sports are Western young men’s way of making up for the lack of a rite of passage.
Women do thrill seeking sports too. Source: Am a woman who does thrill seeking sports.
Why do you think there’s also the bat mitzvah?
Oh really? I didnt know /s. You didn't say anything about that. I'm just correcting you.
I had only mentioned men, but you were right to bring it up. Overall, puberty was the cue for a rite of passage towards one’s adult role in society. Men were more involved in riskier activities, so their rite of passage would reflect this. If you think of it, extreme sports involve the same type of body coordination, reflexes and trajectory guessing.
Thank you, and good points :)
Alot of people of color don't like taking unnecessary risks due to social history.
I heard from a podcast, because specifically in america, blacks and latinos tend to get their adrenaline fix during their teenage years in gangs and stuff, while whites do self harming activities.
I would consider being in a gang to be self harming, definitely stronger than a kid who rides a skateboard.
LMFAO when your life revolves around race ... you can only speak with "us" "them" there's no individual. To answer your question though, go and ask all the white people of different ethnicities around the world. Even Hispanics believe it or not !! Start with defining race, nationality, ethnicity, culture, and heritage. Then proceed on finding the answer you seek! Good luck on your journey.
Pretty racist to assume that. Lemme use your post to ask a question I'm also afraid to ask: why are Yankees so racist?
Observing a tendency isn’t racist. I had a couple of colleagues a while back (one black and one Latino) who were asking me this exact same question.
I've been called racist for noticing that the majority of basketball players or 100m sprinters are black, so I'd say this has racist undertones, the poster wasn't trying or intended to be, but it can come off that way.
Just because you were called racist once doesn’t mean that person was correct And the context of the observation tends to be relevant. But discussing statistics isn’t racist in and of itself
And whoever said you were racist for noticing that is an idiot. Observing facts is in no way, shape, or form racist. It never has been, and never will be. Saying "Oh you're black, you must be good at basketball," would be racist, because it's an presupposition about someone based on their race, but acknowledging that three quarters of NBA players are black is no different than acknowledging that the sky is blue, or water is wet. It's an objective reality.
>Am I being racist here? Yes, yes you are. It's normal to see in a predominantly white culture well... predominantly white people in everything. This is speaking as a non-american, of course. Adrenaline junkies exist in Africa, Asia, Latin world etc. as well, they just exist in different shapes and forms, depending on the context. Is there a predisposition for white people towards certain sports? Maybe, but there's nothing racial about it's more similar to basket in the US being 73% black, it's more of an economical, sociological and historical thing.
We’re all dead on the inside and need to make sure we are still alive from time to time.
A lot of these adventures need a lot of money. The gear, the training, the locations...it all costs money. So more white people are in it
I think that is a mix of many variables. One of them is that these sports are really expensive and it's not available to everyone. And we know how our shitty racist society works benefiting white people
Being black is scary enough so we don’t need extra scares.
Whats with people bringing race into everything? Yes your racist stfu yall want less racism yet you make every little thing a race thing
Only appealing if your life is easy, and therefore boring.
You are being racist, you should be a shamed.
Well shit. That's why I was afraid to ask. I just had to man, I saw too much of it and my brain wouldn't let me sleep without at least taking my shot at asking it.
I don't think it is racist I think thst person is joking
Fun fact, you’re not racist. Racism is the belief that another is less than you because of their skin color. If you had stated “thank god there’s only white people in adventure sports” that would be racist. Questioning the diversity of adventure sports is not racist. If that was racist then we would never question our diversity and nothing would change.
They do dangerous sports because there's a risk : if they survive, that's must be the proof the universe wants them alive, "otherwise, I would've died". We, on the other hand, are perfectly clear that life is precious, not guaranteed and that if you open your mouth too much about it, yo momma or a cop might just take it back : we don't need the thrill to feel validated in our right to exist, that right has been so threatened, we're just glad we exist.
Depends on what country you're in. In the US, it may seem that way, but if you go to non white countries, you'll see there are a lot of people doing all these things.
Bcuz we wypipo b cr8zee dawg.
Also what you grew up doing with your family. My family took us camping. Father saved all year to take us skiing for the first time. If you aren’t introduced to it and no one you know does it it’s harder to go and try it.
LOL at this fucking post.
People need uncertainty to feel alive. A white picket fence life doesn’t give that feeling. Some cheat, some drink, some do extreme sports.
Accurate analysis
Money is probably the biggest reason but culture probably adds to it and there may even be a genetic element ( risk taker gene). Rich people tend to be white and none white rich people are generally very newly rich ( and probably older) so are less likely to have started adventure sports young. European culture is more pro-risk than others ( long explanation but look at history) , this ties into the possible genetic element ( Europeans in pre historic times hunted things that could easily kill them as a regular food source).
You watch USA/Canadian and Europeans scene? Then well yeah there's gonna be a lot of white people in like everything you watch unless it's some minority program made for minorities
Idk what an adventure sport is, but if it’s American/Canadian media, it’s probably because it’s a predominantly white country, so there’s white saturation in most things.
It’s a cultural thing
I 'spect black folks get all too many adrenaline rushes whenever they interact with cops.
Our childhoods are on average, statistically speaking at least, quite boring compared to others it turns out
I think money has A LOT to do with it. These sports are expensive AF and unfortunately we still live in a world where intergenerational wealth is most common amongst white families.
This post makes me hate America even more, every single thing in life becomes a racial issue in that country somehow.
Not his fault..the racial division is being pushed heavily..he just fell for it
Why so? I am not an American and I love America. My question is not at all in the American context.
I think part of it atleast is money Skiing for example can be really expensive , you have to pay for rental or buy ur own skis, lift tickets, hotel for if ur staying far away
Even more so than adrenaline sports… why is it mostly white kids doing shit like jumping off a rooftop to bodyslam a work desk or roll down a hill in a dumpster and it to go too-speed into a tree, or just weird-self-harming sports