 Poster: A snowHead
|
|
richmond, but picking up on the ethnic / cultural influences it is true that almost no players of Asian origin or descent have made it into the better football clubs. But cricket ...... now that's a different story altogether.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
I think there is a slight misunderstanding here.
My comment on people from a hot climate shiver easily in a cold environment is based on my experience. Like Kuwait_ian I work a lot in the Middle East and have many clients visiting us in UK. The majority of them are apprehensive about the cold weather and going out into the snow is not their cup of tea. It is an uphill struggle if not an impossible task to sell skiing to them. The comment is not intended to offend anybody.
The comment on the African got the best of hearing is meant to be a compliement. It may or may not have anything to do with their environment least polluted by noise.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
| kuwait_ian wrote: |
| richmond, but picking up on the ethnic / cultural influences it is true that almost no players of Asian origin or descent have made it into the better football clubs. But cricket ...... now that's a different story altogether. |
Does anyone, preferably someone who is ethnically Asian, have a view on why there are so few Asian footballers at the top (assuming that this is true, which it seems to be from casual inspection)?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
In my experience, there's a huge difference between men and women in sensitivity to temperature. In many offices you'll find a perpetual battle between the men who want the windows open in deepest mid winter, and the women who want them shut on the hottest July day. But temperature sensitivity doesn't stop women skiing - they just stuff on an extra few layers of clothes. Similarly, skinny blokes seem to prefer skiing to their hotter, plumper brethren. There are obviously deeper cultural forces at work than any genetic predisposition towards cold environments.
I find the economic arguments plausible, although not all ethnic groups are economically disadvantaged. I also understand the arguments about ethnic minority populations being concentrated away from the slopes. And the 'never done it so not going to start it' line of thinking seems likely to have some truth in it it, too.
Should the skiing industry seek to attract this under-represented group of potential customers? If so, how? Or does the existence of white enclaves not matter very much?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Perfect Timing .... a press report yesterday about Mountain High was discussing exactly this subject.
| Quote: |
Mountain High also has been a leader in what might once have been thought of as nontraditional skiers – make that snowboarders.
Spokesman John McColly said online surveys – to say nothing of your typical weekend visit to the mountain – show that winter sports are no longer just for Anglos.
He said the Hispanic and Asian communities now provide growing secondary markets to Anglos. Of the two, he said the Asian market is bigger in Southern California because there is already something of a cultural foundation for winter sports.
He said Mountain High has one of the most diverse clienteles in the nation, drawing from almost every nationality. He said surveys show middle-income Hispanic viewers are responsive to advertising in their native language and tend to become loyal customers.
"Targeted promotions in the Hispanic market," he said, "have helped Mountain High reach pools that were previously untapped and generate new customers outside its traditional realm." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Here's another data point ... As some of you know, I teach at a medium sized resort a couple of hours outside of Washington DC. Our ski school has about 220 instructors on staff (mostly part-timers). Because of our location, we have a surprising number of foreign visitors and hence have a very ethnically diverse clientelle. That is starting to be reflected in our staff, including one ski school supervisor (out of a total of about 6) who is black and a superb boarder. If I had to guestimate a number, I would say that roughly half of my students are non-white. Within that group, probably 60% are Asian, 20% Latino, 15% from the Middle East, and 5% Black.
My best (ie, most rapidly advancing) student this year was a young black woman, but as someone pointed out earlier in the thread, because she was so covered up with clothing, I had absolutely no idea she was black until the lesson was over and she lifted her goggles.
Tom / PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I had ignored saikee's earlier comments as being faintly ridiculous; It's reasurring to note I'm not in the minority opinion on that. It may be worth bearing in mind that in my experience it get's bloody cold at night in many parts of Africa due to a lack of clouds.
I suspect that the reason Tuck Thong and I both ski has a lot to do with being a similar age and socio-economic background (as I suspect with a number of others on the board), and precious little to do with colour.
richmond, apparently now it's all the namby pamby southern-europeans who don't like the cold tuesday nights away at Middlesborough?! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| arcticfox wrote: |
| richmond, apparently now it's all the namby pamby southern-europeans who don't like the cold tuesday nights away at Middlesborough?! |
Who does?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
Hey soft southern shandy drinkers, Rule number 1: Only slag off somewhere you can spell. MIDDLESBROUGH
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
Frosty the Snowman, I remember accompanying some "soft southerners" to an FA Cup tie at the Riverside back in '97... and a few minutes from the end we were that close to winning. When Hednesford Town - non leaguers - took the lead, the silence was deafening. Sorry, OT again!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So close PG, bur yet so far. 3-2 to the Boro I believe.
arcticfox, Great web page, have put in my favourites to read fully later. Northeast England is rubbish. Please do not visit. You would not like it, besides my 20 mile journey to work maytake longer than 20 mins if more people come
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
arcticfox, I meant, who does like M'boro on a cold Tuesday night (or any other time for that matter)?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Robbie, more about the Brotherhood events here from azcentral and some statistics from USA
| Quote: |
| The NBS, a 10,000-member alliance of black ski clubs - the largest ski organization in the world - brings 4,000 or more skiers to a different resort every year, pumping as much as $5 million into the local economy during the weeklong event, which this year runs through Saturday |
| Quote: |
Black skiers represented about 1.2 percent of all 57.1 million visits to ski resorts during the 2003-04 season, said David Becher, a research analyst with RRC Associates in Boulder, a market research firm that does work for the ski industry.
Becher said the percentage of black skiers on the slopes has been between 1 percent and 2 percent since the firm started collecting data a few years ago.
About 2,000 registered NBS members came to Vail for this year's summit, and an estimated 2,000 more "renegades" - people who attend NBS events but are not members - came, too, said Andrea Yowman, the current NBS president.
By bringing blackes from around the country, the summit transforms its host resort from a tangle of slopes, restaurants and hotels dense with white faces into something else: a ski resort where being black doesn't mean being alone. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
I find I'm more often too hot than too cold when skiing. Doesn't seem like a likely reason to me.
The "problem" of white slopes seems more serious in the US and Canada if the population is really 25-30% non-white (Black seems a wierd thing to call a chinese person, for instance: perhaps non caucasian might be clearer if that is what is meant). After all, in England the non Caucasian population is 6% (1.6% of African origin and about twice that Asian) - [Though I read those figures 15 years ago and it may have gone up a bit since]. I wonder what the figures are in Austria and Switzerland! Practically zero I imagine.
Mind you, the US has this really strange defenition of "black" that classes it like a disease: a drop of "black" blood and you are Black. If you HAVE to be one or the other (and why this should be I don't know) then 51% Caucasian should surely make you White.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
By the way, my contribution refers back a long way because my computer refused to upload it (little wheel going round and round and round)
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
It's more an attitude of mind really. I ski with a friend who is probably technically black, but it simply isn't an issue for him. He's just a skier. (good too, damn him!) 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
On a wild tangent (cause I came back to this thread late) - skin colour does have an interesting part to play in how one's body copes with sunlight - altho, as Tuck Thong, rightly points out, it has nothing to do with human ability to cope with various weather conditions.
Anyway. Melanin-rich skin is better at preventing melanomas, right? (i.e. the darker the ski colour, the more melanin and hence the more sunlight the skin can bear before skin cancer occurs). Theory goes that when the first humans migrated north from sunny Africa to less sunny Europe (think Southampton on a normal day), dark skin colour became a hinderence as it prevented sufficent sunlight from reaching the skins' layers wot rely on sunlight to synthesize vitamin D. So lighter-skinned people living "oop norf" flourished and skin colour there lightened over the millenia and hence yr person of traditional European descent has skin that is a hell of a lot lighter coloured, and significantly worse at protecting from sunlight than someone of traditional African descent. In sunny Australia, so the theory goes, in say 10thousand years or so, the skin of white Australians of European descent will dissapear as these ethnicities genetically adapt by developing higher melanin levels in order to cope with the sun conditions. Eventually Australians of European descent won't be "white-skinned" so much as....well, dark-skinned.
Told you it was tangential. Makes absolutely no difference to skiing ability or take-up rates tho. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
Evolution works by killing off less fit individuals in greater numbers than the more fit before they finish breeding. I can't really see this happening in Australia nowadays, unless the ozone layer gets much thinner.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowball, ah, but there's also sexual selection. In theory, people might not choose mates who they thought would die off before the kids were fully raised. I doubt it has much relevance to the case in point though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Manda, another problem with North European skin is a tendancy to discolour in the sun. I presently have a disconcerting oval of freckle-free skin around my eyes, and another freckle-free zone where my balaclava started. Meanwhile, my cheeks and nose look like they've been covered in tea leaves. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 different guys I ski/board with are non-white: one black, one asian, one south american. With that being said, certainly skiing is mostly white, but the same is true for most cold weather sports (hockey, curling, etc.). Warmer weather sports (soccer, basketball, etc.) tend to be less white. Probably just tradition carrying on from before people left their home countries much.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Jonny Jones wrote: |
Skiing in Big Sky, Montana, last week, I failed to spot anyone in the resort who was obviously non-white except, as is often the case, the resort employees. Given that only 75% of the USA's population is white, this seems a little strange.
Working from memory, I seem to recall a similar pattern in the Alps. Why should skiing appeal so unequally to different ethnic groups? |
So what ? Who cares ?
Well Trevor Phillips maybe, but he also worries about the absence of black shepherds. I think he is a professional sh*t stirrer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
A friend of mine who is from Jamaica said the answer to this question is simple, 'It's too bl@@dy cold!'
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
I climb with a half Kenyan girl - and she's been skiing with me - but she is a bit nesh and really hates the cold. Think it's more due to her being all 'girly' though
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
StanBowles,
Some Austrians who are far-right are against people from Eastern & Eastern European countries setting up home in Austrian (e.g. Turks, Polish, Czech, Hungary). Even then it's more an emigration issue which doesn't overflow onto the ski slopes (plenty of these countries visit Austria to ski).
Your family will have no problem here.
edit - opps just realized how old his post was, must of missed it first time round.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
slikedges, She usually splits and goes off and plays hop-scotch or something.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
I too missed this thread first time round. A similar SCGB thread started by Stephen Neal (definitely black) lead to the suggestion it was perceived racial prejudice in Europe that was to blame.
But here it has been suggested on more than one occasions that non-whites can't handle the cold. I wonder if there is any scientific evidence for this? Observation would suggest otherwise. Britain is a cold wet and windy place. I don't notice those of African or Indian origin having any more difficulty coping than anyone else. And then there is The National Brotherhood of Skiers. No wimps there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
I once stayed in a hotel at the Canyons, Utah which had been almost entirely taken over by the Brotherhood of Skiers. Me and a mate were indeed the only pasty white bodies in the hot tub - we stood out like a day-glo ski suit. So, that week it was not predominantly a white sport. For a laugh I asked a group of them in that hot tub what I needed to do to join the Brotherhood and this was met by an embarrassing silence followed, eventually, by howls of laughter! I don't think they wanted us as members.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| JohnHill wrote: |
| I once stayed in a hotel at the Canyons, Utah which had been almost entirely taken over by the Brotherhood of Skiers. Me and a mate were indeed the only pasty white bodies in the hot tub - we stood out like a day-glo ski suit. So, that week it was not predominantly a white sport. For a laugh I asked a group of them in that hot tub what I needed to do to join the Brotherhood and this was met by an embarrassing silence followed, eventually, by howls of laughter! I don't think they wanted us as members. |
Hmmm, I think it's not so great that they made you feel that way. If I were in the hot tub with the Brotherhood of White Skiers I would feel very uncomfortable...
.. but not because I'm black, it would be because I'm a boader. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
froboarder, and "boaders" don't like water anyway. We weren't uncomfortable, but they were. A bizarre moment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
. I went out with a girl from Redcar once whose brother was a season ticket holder. Was merely the first northern premiership team that came into my head (probably for that reason).
