Pro-cycling thread

If I had to label a cunt each one on here that offers casual racism towards italians I’d probably have a hard time keeping track of them...
Luckily for me I can distinguish bad humor and heath of the moment from real beliefs.

are Italians a race?

I thought racism means discrimination or prejudice against a race or ethnicity?

Why do you think changing teams will help?

Being under the employ of Team Sky means the level of vitriol you get increases by a level of magnitude, and anything naughty you have ever done will be brought up on every cyclingnews article forever.

Are you saying this = this ?

There is no excuse whatsoever.
He was young? No.
He was stupid? No.
He was a victim of racism? No.

I didn't get the equation between a childish meme and the logo of a recent activist organisation, but first of all I never tried to justificate anything that we presume or assume Moscon said to Reza.

I just think that everybody in this world has said (or thought if that counts) something horrible in their life, and I like to give them the chance to think twice before shouting what they think is normal to say in their small, isolated, closed up, ignorant environments... for what we know he could have had wrong examples too... family? wrong friends? not knowing any better?
Racism disgusts me and has no place in this world, but to fight against it, death sentences at the first trial without examining the case is not the best option.

This^
I used to be relatively quite prejudiced and "racist" into my late teens. I blame it on upbringing, lack of exposure to other ethnicities and my own inability to really challenge the status quo. I startened listening to music that challenged these beliefs, went to university, moved to a big city - broadened my understanding of the world and now understand how idiotic And simple I was. Would I want people to judge me based my once held beliefs and acts that from 20 years ago without allowing for any change or enlightenment? No - that would be too closed minded wouldn't it.
However - Moscon is probably still as racist as he was prior to the sensitivity course. Slightly less so perhaps. But give people credit for having the ability to change.

in other news - this is v good, as ever

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/09/race-won-2017-elite-mens-world-championships-bergen-norway/

great recap :)

It would take him out if the firing line. Look at Albasini.

I blame it on upbringing, lack of exposure to other ethnicities and my own inability to really challenge the status quo.

Just to bring some more background, before he landed to Team Sky two years ago, Moscon was spending his spare time picking apples in his family farm in Trentino (region in the Eastern Alps).
Tractors are is biggest passion, yes, tractors.

Ha. Would rep.

I started writing a couple of posts re the Moscon thing and then thought 'no - I sound like a cunt' or 'it's all been said before'. Maybe some others should adopt the same thinking and we can move on.

Oh look - I sound like a cunt.

+1 to this. I think we all have a version of this story to tell.

Racists are just misunderstood kids. The rascals!

No, but we're all young and stupid at some point, and we all (or at least we should) eventually grow and and realise there's more to life than we saw growing up.

Not allowing people to change says more about you than them tbh

Not allowing people to change says more about you than them tbh

'So much for the tolerant left.'

If I still lived where I grew up I'd almost certainly be a massive racist.

Things ain't always black and white.

;)

Highly doubt this'll go anywhere, as internet discussions tend not to, but this isn't about politics.

But if you don't get it, I can't explain it

'Black people' aren't a 'race' so what does that matter? You don't think Italians can be the subject of racism?

In a biologically taxonomic sense, there is only one 'race' of humans. The genetic variations between someone from Scotland, say, and somebody in Gambia, say, are no more or less than between said Scottish person and someone in, say, Bulgaria.

'Race' is a shorthand for 'ethnicity', which means the culture and the distinct traditions of particular social group.

My problem with Moscon is that there was zero contrition.

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/conscience-clean-gianni-moscon-moving-racism-incident-return-racing-336066

Sky's statement that he 'recognises that his behaviour was wrong' doesn't match up with Moscon's words on the matter. Yeah he's young but he still comes across as a racist tosser who really doesn't give a shit that he's a racist tosser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t30JzS0LHpk