Happy Easter!
I know that today is also in the middle of Ramadan and is the third day of Passover. But I'm going with Easter, not because I was raised Catholic. Rather, Easter is just a good excuse to post cute and silly images of cycling chicks (who aren't me) and bunnies on bikes.
Enjoy!
A decade ago, a driver nearly hit me when she made a careless turn. (I think she was distracted.) I yelled a few things they don't teach immigrants in English classes and flashed a one-fingered peace sign. She rolled down her window and lectured me on how I "should be riding on the bike lane." Never mind that the lane was on another street and wouldn't have taken me where I was going.
To this day, too many drivers and seem beholden to the same notion. I was once stopped by a cop when I turned out of a bike lane onto a side street. Said cop claimed that I went through a light--which I wasn't--and that I "should stay in the lane." Never mind that I turned off the lane to go where I needed to go and that, in any event, even if I had gone through the light when there was no cross-traffic--or ahead of a driver who would turn right when the light turned green--I (and the driver) would be safer than if I'd strictly followed the signal. When I pointed that out, the cop said, "I ride a bicycle, too," in a tone of reminded me of people who tell me about a gay brother, sister or friend before doing or saying something to hurt me.
If bicyclists could ride only in bike lanes, we couldn't go anywhere--unless, of course, the lane goes right to the doors of our homes, schools, workplaces or favorite stores, cafes, museums or anyplace else we go.
Erin Riediger understands as much. The Manitoba-based architect and host of Plain Bicycle Podcast veered from the bike lane into the traffic lane so she could turn onto a side street. A man walked in front of her bike, struck her and said, "The bike lane is over there."
Fortunately, she wasn't hurt, at least not physically. She posted a series of Tweets about the incident and most of the responses were sympathetic. However, as almost invariably happens on Twitter, trolls clambered from under their rocks. One upbraided her for "wasting her time" with those posts (If she was "wasting her time," wha does that say about the troll?), she should have "called the cops"--which she did. Others posted stuff that nobody should be subjected to.
Still other twits (what I call trolls on Twitter) lectured her about how she should have handled the incident or stayed in the bike lane. Then there were the ones who used the occasion to rant about how cyclists should have licenses, insurance, etc.--which many, if not most, of us have--never mind that those things have nothing to do with the real issue at hand: someone--a woman--was assaulted--by a man--when she rode her bike.
A woman was assaulted by a man as she rode her bicycle. She was within the law; he wasn't. Those are the facts of this case; they have nothing to do with licenses, insurance or anything else that's bothering trolls with too much time on their hands.
Today I am invoking the Howard Cosell Rule. Today’s post, therefore, will not relate to my rides or bikes, and may not be connected to much else in the cycling world. But what I’m about to mention is just too important to ignore.
The athlete I’m about to mention has something in common with Simone Biles, Colin Kaepernick, Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali and “Major Taylor. Like them, he was a pioneer, not only in his sport, but in the struggle to be recognized and understood as full-fledged human beings. In other words, they (have) had as much impact away from the field, court or track as they had on it.
On this date 75 years ago, a second baseman took his position at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. At 28 years old, he was older than most rookies. But that wasn’t because he was a “late bloomer.” Rather, his debut in Major League Baseball was delayed by his World War II military service, where he experienced the very thing that kept him from playing for the Dodgers earlier than he did.
When he was drafted into the Army, he applied for Officers’ Candidate School, for which he was qualified. His application was delayed for several months. When he was finally accepted, he led soldiers who, like him, were racially segregated from other soldiers as they fought for the freedom of people in faraway countries.
What this man had in common with the other athletes I mentioned, with the exception of Billie Jean King, is that he was Black. So, upon returning to the United States, he played a year for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues and another for the Montréal Royals, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ top minor-league team.
When Jackie Robinson took to the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on 15 April 1947, he was the first known Black major-league player* since Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884. Robinson’s debut also came half a century after “Major” Taylor, the record-setting cyclist, became the first Black world champion in any sport.
Consider this: When Robinson played his first game as a Dodger, the United States armed forces had yet to integrate. Yes, you read that right: Black soldiers could still be sent to fight for freedoms they couldn’t enjoy themselves. And, a year later, Strom Thurmond would run for President on a platform of “Segregation Forever!”
All right, this post does relate to cycling in at least one way: In spite of his accomplishments on and off the field, Jackie Robinson, like Taylor before him, had to endure insults, indignities and even death threats. And, in a sort of parallel, Robinson had to go to other leagues, as Taylor had to go to other countries , for professional opportunities commensurate with their talents and work ethic.
So, if Jackie Robinson doesn’t deserve a mention on this or any other forum, I don’t know who does.
*—For all of the respect I have for Jackie Robinson, I am willing to entertain the notion that he wasn’t the first Black major league player since Walker. It’s entirely possible that some Black player who “passed” as White—including, it’s been rumored, Babe Ruth—could have played in the major leagues.
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