dime_novel_hero: 2018-present (Default)
[personal profile] dime_novel_hero
An admin on a Cowboy Action Shooting forum had the following post
I've always wondered how we can get more minority participation in the game. We've been blessed with some wonderful shooters such as Isom Dart, Buffalo Soldier, Non-Stop, Light Load, Little Red, Hop Sing, Tatonka, and others that escape my decrepit memory.

But, these shooters are still a small minority of a minority. We need more Asian, Latino, Black, and Native American representation in our game. We will not get into a discussion of current events, politics, or other topics that raise vitriol among us. But, we need to educate those we meet on the rich heritage of minority involvement on the frontier in the post-Civil War period... and the pure fun of the sport!

Educate and invite!

And there it is, right there where it is so obvious that he doesn’t see it. He answers his own question, in part at least, when he says “no politics. There can be no discussion of minority participation in a white-guy dominated sport WITHOUT addressing politics.

But then, when I said just that (and pretty much only that) the post was deleted, adding to the clear lack of self awareness that means that the question of why minorities don’t participate more will likely never be answered.

We can also add a bit of White Man’s Burden to that issue as well because while he doesn’t understand how to get more minority participation, he follows on with what he thinks is the answer: education. The assumption that minorities simply don’t know how much minorities were a part of the old west and that just telling them will be enough to convince them to join in “the pure fun of the sport.”

I can pretty much assure you that minorities know, much more thoroughly than the cowboy action white guys ever will, what it was like to be a minority in the post-Civil War American west.

Having had my merest comment about the existence of politics deleted, I posted “Has any actually talked to minority representatives about why they might not participate rather than just assuming they need to be more educated?”

Crickets.

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dime_novel_hero: 2018-present (Default)
Zebulon Vitruvius Pike

May 2025

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