CaptainObvious110 t1_jaalrq4 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 1:23 AM

Reply to comment by Due-Page384 in Highway to nowhere and dirt bikes by brYzmz

This is text communication so sometimes things that are intended don't come across as intended. Happens to me all the time.

Also, to be honest I would have assumed that the bikes were stolen as well and I think that's a reasonable assumption to make as well. Doesn't have to be a matter of race at all, in this case though all of the young men I've seen doing this whether here in Baltimore or in DC are black.

Needless to say that if they were white or hispanic the issue would still be the same.

TheCaptainDamnIt t1_jaez2k5 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 11:16 PM

> I would have assumed that the bikes were stolen as well and I think that's a reasonable assumption to make as well.

No it's not.

>Needless to say that if they were white or hispanic the issue would still be the same.

No it isn't. I've been riding for 40 years, from dirt bikes to street bikes to cruisers. When I was a kid I did all the same things these kids are doing now on public streets. Hell I rode my dirt bike to elementary school. I've had many angry screaming people come out to yell at me in the street over that I was doing, and you know what none of them ever accused me of... stealing my bike. I did however see a kid who legitimately borrowed a friends bike get stoped by the school administrator who demanded he tell him 'where he got his bike from'. But that kid was darker than me.

I've been at bike nights showing off my bike and would get questions about wether or not I did my own build, while my ridding acquaintance sitting next to me got questions of 'where'd you get this'. You can guess the difference between to two of us.

I've run from the cops breaking up street races a couple of times. And each time cops waved me through the permitter they had set up, while the stopped the rest to check their paperwork. You can guess the difference once again.

I could go on and on with examples I've actually seen. But there is definitely a general assumption made that black riders steal their bikes and it is not the "same" and made for the rest of us.