Red Bull Formation Announces 12 Confirmed Athletes for 2022 Event

 Yup, C.J. Selig is not a smart person, and that's being generous and assuming it wasn't purposeful.

"Just try harder." Original advice that C.J. I'm sure those athletes never thought to try hard...

 @ViolaVesperlin: I certainly can't back the viewpoint from Selig, as I'm not in marketing. But Selig made no reference or insinuations about racial differences, so I don't see why the CBC/Naidu response pivots directly to the topic of race.

Not my words, but put in a better way than I could construe: "Naidu even lies when she says this; "The article refutes all systemic barriers that centuries of colonialism have established, suggesting that the reason we don't see women of colour in upper echelons of outdoor sports is due to their own poor choices and a lack of hard work or work ethic." Selig doesn't bring colour into the argument at all and Naidu fabricates reasons that simply did not exist in Selig's article. That type of thing harms social justice, it doesn't help it." - Synco, NSMB forum.

 @mammal: you don't have to mention anyone persons ethnicity specifically for a statement or action to be deemed racist. Racism isn't limited to only name calling.

 @ralbisurez: can you explain to me where Selig's article was being racist then, because I failing to see any racism there.
web.archive.org/web/20220222190937/www.wfmbike.com/stories/2022/2/11/hf0t4s96s22u50yqwazx4g5ul73sbd?fbclid=IwAR1CSws147QaturNuVwaXzSAjkQ6-ml3CgCB3-tSbsoc85LKsN6Se50mOzg

 @mammal: Then again...
Syncro will calmly argue both ends and the middle of any topic, you can pull out a quote from that guy offering compelling support or opposition on anything.

 @ViolaVesperlin: Sure, he's a good debater. I agree with his point there. Do you think Selig's article is being racist?

 @mammal: The article has that aroma, though i doubt intentionally. It may be that C.J is genuinely clueless enough that telling up and coming athletes they just need to "work at Pizza Hut and try hard" etc came from a sincere place, but even then it definitely sounds like advice from someone of privilege unable to recognize the realities that many struggle through.

 @mammal: What @ViolaVesperlin says is basically correct. There is a lot of privilege in the statements made in that article. No one who comes from an inherently under privileged background can get by working at Pizza Hut but also have enough money for a sick bike, travel money to all these places to practice and have someone shoot them doing rad stuff, and have a good enough phone and vehicle to do all that with. Those are things that get overlooked. And a lot of the people in these underprivileged life circumstances are there due to systemic racism. It's easy to tell someone that they can accomplish anything if they just put their heads down and get to work when things like financial means are easily accessible to you because of your privilege. But just looking at the surface of the article that's easy to miss.

 She was giving an example of someone she knew that put a lot of work in behind the scenes before getting recognition, it has nothing to do with whether some people can't get by working at pizza hut. I don't think she nailed the points she was trying to make by any means, but I think it's a huge stretch to say her suggestions are racist.

 @ralbisurez: that would be a class problem, not race.

 The fact of the matter is we (myself, the women above, and much of the cycling + outdoor community) have a ton of privilege - our starting line has the finish line in sight. We have passports that enable us to travel; we have relationships + opportunities, access, expensive bikes, disposable income, many are white, speak English, have some degree of generational wealth, etc. That is a privilege that most folks in the world don’t have. From a global systems perspective, everything is centered around us - that doesn’t mean things are not hard, and we don’t have to work for them, but we have a HUGEEE advantage. The article was offensive because most of the world can’t just ‘work harder’ to get somewhere or achieve something. Not only are there massive systemic barriers (a few laid out above), but there are actual physical roadblocks that keep folks from being able to chase their dreams.

 @DylanH93: I don't disagree with it being part class problem. But as @KatieHolden mentioned a part is generational wealth. A lot of generational wealth was achievable because of racism. Probably more than most people realize. (slavery in America at its peak brought all those who took advantage of it billions of dollars. And back then that was way more than what a billion is today. That doesn't get taught very much but is worth learning about.) Another problem is that a lot of people either don't want to or haven't taken the time to get a little more educated on the topics of racism. It's more than just calling people names. That is a part of how the article is racist.

 @KatieHolden: So your saying the article isn't being racist. Instead, it's coming from a position of privilege unrecognized by the writer? I can fully agree with that.

 @mammal: The fact that it is unrecognized or acknowledged by the writer or by Adidas is racist in and of itself. There has been no admittance of it being an unrecognized action. Instead of learning from it being pointed out it's totally being ignored. Those are the things that bipoc people pick up on that many white people seem to overlook. Just like anything in life you make mistakes, you acknowledge it, heal from it and apply your learned knowledge from there on out. But ignoring it or coming up with justifications for how something isn't racist is a very racist behavior. When people educate themselves on racism you start to pick up on all that. I've had to do that to learn how to put some of the things that have personally happened to me into words. Experiences that didn't sit well and I couldn't put my finger on why they didn't sit well. I've had to educate myself on racism to see that clearly. Everyone should do a bit of knowledge building instead of just telling bipoc how and why certain actions aren't racist. A lot of bipoc won't even take the time to respond to statements like this because we've heard people making up excuses as to why things aren't racist all our lives in one way or another. And it's not our job to tell anyone to go educate themselves on the topic.

 This article wasn’t racist due to the fact that it clearly wasn’t written about access to the sport. It was a response to semi-professionals who choose to blame these invited riders instead of trying to better themselves when they aren’t receiving recognition. It took one read-through to understand this. The way Anita Naidu stripped the article of context in order to manipulate it into something about access and privilege in order to present it as racist was disgraceful.

 @Rudy2455: Agreed.

 @Rudy2455: Agree with you 100%. After reading that article I looked at Anita Naidu's instagram - Straight airing jumps at Whistler and no major race results is not good enough to get yourself invited to an event like Red Bull Formation. IMO, compared to the other female non sponsored riders I have seen around here, she is lucky enough to be a sponsored rider.

 @Rudy2455 and @Kamperk87 if you take the time to educate yourselves on racism and read the article again you will see it from a different perspective. Read some books on the subject. And I don't think Anita is trying to compete at and Red Bull events so I'm not really sure why that is even worth mentioning. Riders don't get sponsored just because they race and provide results. They get support for a wide variety of reasons. There is the in your face context and there is also subtext in any written piece. Anita refers to the subtext. You can't be a marketing manager, write a piece on something and expect people not to read the subtext and only the surface context. Ignoring the fact that there are racial undertones doesn't change anything or make it better. Unfortunately that is how many people opt to deal with being called out. Burying your head in the sand doesn't work anymore.

 @ralbisurez: I am a (Non-White) Project Manager running $100 million plus projects while dealing with owners, consultants and majority of subtrade owners/foreman who are white - So I am more than educated on dealing with racism. I have dealt with racism my whole life but have never let it hold me back and have never used it as an excuse to achieve my career and life goals - If anything I have used it as motivation to work that much harder.

 @Kamperk87: I'm not letting racism hold me back either. Not sure how I would be able to use racism to help me achieve anything. It is motivating and I use it for that a lot, but it also doesn't hurt to occasionally help shed some light on topics of racism from a brown point of view for those who might not be able to see things from the shoes of another person who see's things different from them. Not sure if you mentioned the amount of money the projects you work on to make yourself sound more credible but if you're well off because of the work you are able to accomplish with white people thats great. I'm not necessarily sure how that translates to you being educated on racism. Is it because of you experiencing racism in your line of work? Experiencing racism and educating yourself on racism are two very different things. I've got a lifetime of experiencing racism but only a few years of actually educating myself on it. Pretty sure I mentioned that in one of my earlier comments. Now that I've been putting in the work to do that things look very different.

 STFU

 Pretty original there mate

 Jess is still on the mend from her big accident last fall - she is back racing but hasn't been able to train on big jumps or features yet. She is young, super talented, and has a long, successful career ahead of her...no reason to rush!

 @benblewitt1123: get em

 because it's not a competition. It's a completely different animal. The organizers of this event choose to make it different.

 You're so right, they will act like little babies and cry about it in a comment section, like a bunch of snowflakes.

 Cause a male only event that's been around for years isn't inclusive enough for idiots like you

 @Saucycheese: what male only events are you referencing?

Any person (male or female) with the ability to qualify for Rampage, Crankworks etc is eligible.

 @meathooker: really? Cause I never saw a formal invite for missy giove, Casey brown, Rachel Atherton, etc and ive been following since 2002

 Rampage already exists...

 Keith, you were excluded form Formation purely based on your riding ability not your gender. Well, that's what I heard anyway.

 how many years has rampage been going on? how many women have been invited? it's not a competition against genders, it's merely an effort to elevate women's free ride progression.

 You've missed selection Ike you've missed the point .