BwB: Update
My friend Jeanie ,
see here:
read the post BwB and called B.S. on me. She didn’t say this to my face but I gathered as much from what happened next.
Jeanie sent out the word about riding Critical Mass here in SF and I was going to ride to work anyway so I said why not. If you never heard of Critical Mass well, shame on you. In short, its when a lot of bikers “take over” the streets right at rush hour the last Friday of every month.
Sounds like fun? Then you are a biker.
Sounds like a nightmare? Then you are one of the hundreds of drivers that are trying to figure out if you would be convicted of murder, involuntary manslaughter or hailed as a hero for running over a few bikers that are purposely laying their bikes in the middle of the intersection to make you stop when you have the green and letting a 20min caravan of bikers run the red light.
On with the vindication…
Jeanie was running late and the Mass waits for no one so my buddy and I started off. We called from different intersections to give her a chance to catch up but after about 15 mins we figured that she would never find us and we’d just meet up at the bar later.
5mins after that thought….”Hey guys! I can’t believe I found you!” When I asked how she found us. She said “I read your Biking while Black blog and thought it wasn’t true but then, damn I found you…maybe you are right!”
Point, Set, Match.
DjD.
DjD. 
May 8, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Yo! You are so funny! Just wanted to clear some things up b/c I probably never really did.. First of all, I hadn’t had a chance to (ha) “call BS to your face” because I hadn’t seen you since you had written that first blog post BwB. But if I had seen you before that critical mass, you’re right, I probably would have told you that I feel like I have seen black bicyclists in SF. I can’t verify this by numbers or names unfortunately, but somehow think that if I was riding my bike around and saw a black person on a bike, I don’t think I’d fall of my bike or anything. 🙂 Which makes me think that I must’ve seen them before? SF is filled with a lot more strange things to look at! (naked men on bikes makes me wonder about their bike seat..) I totally agree with you that it’s definitely not the majority of bicyclists at all, but I guess I just didn’t think it was that alien in SF. And I definitely wouldn’t be one of the people staring at you! But I know what it’s like to be stared at (try growing up Asian in rural Pennsylvania in the 80’s), so I don’t doubt your perception.
Second, I just happened to make it to the Embarcadero right at the exact moment you guys were biking past and was so grateful that I actually found you in the masses, and I will admit your skin color was what set you apart from the people around you! And I did make a joke about your blog post. But I don’t think it’s really any stranger than say if you were say, a redhead or were really tall? But it’s totally different being on the receiving end like you are, so thank you for sharing, seriously. Maybe I’m oblivious to its unusualness b/c I love SF so much for its diversity and strangeness. Next time if i’m riding with you and see someone staring, I’m gonna say what I said in grade school in PA: “Take a picture! It lasts longer!”