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Thread: Ethnic minority runners?

  1. #1
    Master Travs's Avatar
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    Ethnic minority runners?

    Wonder if anybody has any views on the lack of participation in fell racing (and general fell running?) from black/Asian/other "minorities" in the UK...?

    I know there has been the odd fellrunner from an Asian background, and certainly quite a number of Eastern European names pop up in all sorts of fell races. And the long-distance/ultra races seem to attract a huge variety of nationalities... At the UTS100 i think almost 50% of the nationalities listed were not from the UK, and at the 10 Peaks again last year, a decent number of European names.

    Will it ever change? It seems hard enough to attract young English runners to the fells, never mind youngsters where perhaps their culture may not even regard mountain running as a viable consideration.

    No issue either way on my part. I guess it's hardly the kind of high-profile sport which will attract people in their thousands out of the cities...

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    Master DrPatrickBarry's Avatar
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    Asian's are probably over represented in cricket and blacks in football and atheletics, besides that, they are probably under-represented in many sporting and non-sporting activites.

    It is great when I see asians or blacks out on the hills enjoying the beautiful countryside we have in the north of England but unfortunately is it a very rare occasion that I meet any.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    Wonder if anybody has any views on the lack of participation in fell racing (and general fell running?) from black/Asian/other "minorities" in the UK...?

    I know there has been the odd fellrunner from an Asian background, and certainly quite a number of Eastern European names pop up in all sorts of fell races. And the long-distance/ultra races seem to attract a huge variety of nationalities... At the UTS100 i think almost 50% of the nationalities listed were not from the UK, and at the 10 Peaks again last year, a decent number of European names.

    Will it ever change? It seems hard enough to attract young English runners to the fells, never mind youngsters where perhaps their culture may not even regard mountain running as a viable consideration.

    No issue either way on my part. I guess it's hardly the kind of high-profile sport which will attract people in their thousands out of the cities...

    I knew it wouldn't be long before someone gave this nest of vipers a poke.I think we should carry on as we are, allowing whoever wants to Fell Race to do so. Once the PC brigade get wind of "lack of participation" by minorities of whatever kind it will make the GPS furore look like a tea party.
    As it happens, a few weeks ago I had just finished a fell race, in which I was no doubt a "minority" when I overheard another runner say to his pal "that Welsh twat finished ahead of me". It made my day. Perhaps I should have been offended, become a victim, made a complaint and given Baroness Shami Chakrabarti a ring for advice!

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    Moderator noel's Avatar
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    I think there's an important difference between under-representation due to prejudice and bias (ie, certain groups being excluded), and under-representation that is not (ie, certain groups choosing not to take part). I think fell running is pretty open to anyone.

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    Master Travs's Avatar
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    Agree Noel.

    I certainly don't think it's an issue or anything to particularly worry about.

    Just thought it made a vaguely interesting topic. We could of course take the facebook route and just have endless posts about GPS, shoes and jackets.

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    I don't think the lack of representation is a reflection on fell running more that those ethnic groups are very under represented in all non-traditional sports/activities. I saw very few black or asian climbers for instance and while you might see a few Asian families out fell walking it's not at the levels that you might expect given the ethnic mix of the general population.

    I don't see it as a problem, if someone wants to take part in a race then there's nothing stopping them (ignoring races requiring experience etc.). It's as likely that most simply don't know about fell running. Similarly if you asked around your office how many, of whatever background, would know about fell running?
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    Master bigfella's Avatar
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    Some years ago I recall that the Lake District national park had to stop offering free guided walks as there were insufficient participants from ethnic minorities, I can't remember the exact details.
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    I don’t get that at all. It doesn’t make any sense. (I don’t mean your writing doesn’t make sense, but the supposed rationale doesn’t make any sense.)
    Quote Originally Posted by bigfella View Post
    Some years ago I recall that the Lake District national park had to stop offering free guided walks as there were insufficient participants from ethnic minorities, I can't remember the exact details.

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    Agree Noel. This is a total non-story. It might as well be a story about how there is no evidence (or even suggestion as far as I’m aware) that fell running has any problem with prejudice (or any more so than society at large). To make a story out of how different sports / activities / interests / vocations / whatever have different profiles in terms of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc is to my mind pointless and meaningless.
    Quote Originally Posted by noel View Post
    I think there's an important difference between under-representation due to prejudice and bias (ie, certain groups being excluded), and under-representation that is not (ie, certain groups choosing not to take part). I think fell running is pretty open to anyone.

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    Master DrPatrickBarry's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by benshep View Post
    but the supposed rationale doesn’t make any sense
    I guess if only one subset of the population is availing of the "free service" then that is adversly effecting the other sections of society.

    The same is happening in schools, they cannot be favouring boys (via funding,etc) sport over girls sport, even though they would be much more boys wanting to partake and at a higher level.

    Basicaly more money for boy's sport means less money for girls sport, which then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, with less girls getting interested in sport.

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