Re: [Paddlewise] Sensitivity, etc.

> Ralph
>is just talking about reaching out and saying come on, you're all
>welcome.


Well, yes.  I think (hope) we all agree -- race, gender, religion, sexual
orientation, hair color (or absence of hair, thank you), and shoe size are
all irrelevant, and we're all one on the water.

But there was also this incipient "debate" about the underlying causes etc.
Endless debates about why certain groups of people don't seem to appear in
certain sports. . . .  well, they are a waste of time, IMO.  Every so often
the issue comes up in sailing circles, as well, and there is always a huge
fight that develops.  The fight is never over the question of whether
minorities *should* be welcome, or included, or encouraged in the sport.
The fight is always over how it came to be that they don't seem to *be* in
the sport.  There are just too many social theories, too many truths, too
many ugly facts, too much speculation. . . it's just too big an issue to
think that we can tackle it without disagreement, even emotional
disagreement. . . which is not worth it, given what we can accomplish by
such "debate" (very little).  And it really doesn't much matter.  It's not
up to us to come up with the final correct analysis of "the race issue" in
the US.  It's simply up to us to welcome all comers into the sport.  IMO,
that should be about all we can hope to do.  My suggestion is to drop this
issue now, not because it's "taboo", but because it's just likely to lead to
hurt feelings and disagreement where there need not be any.

Mark


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