Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to wonder why all white is alright?

241 replies

VeraStanhope · 19/08/2016 23:09

I'm not a sport buff, but I have had to sit through the GB womens' hockey matches. Wondering how they all have kept lovely slim, straight noses in what looks a brutal sport, I suddenly realised mid-final that all the players are white. Celebrating with all white support staff at the end of the match. Friend who is the sports buff says "well it is a posh sport". Shock How is that okay to accept that in 2016?

OP posts:
wowfudge · 20/08/2016 00:06

Worra couldn't agree more. I was just about to post the same thing about playing hockey at school.

Diamogs · 20/08/2016 00:06

Yes my sink school comprehensive did hockey in the 80s...every fucking winter.

Original poster
VeraStanhope · 20/08/2016 00:08

WorraLiberty - But even if it was a 'posh sport', does your friend think there are no 'posh' black people around? Confused

My sentiments exactly Smile.

OP posts:
Original poster
VeraStanhope · 20/08/2016 00:09

Diamogs [big grin]

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 20/08/2016 00:12

Yes but your shocked face in your OP, was asking how it's ok to accept that.

Rather than being shocked that your friend appears to think there is no such thing as 'posh' black people.

NicknameUsed · 20/08/2016 00:13

Another one who says that hockey isn't posh. My bog standard comp played it in the 1970s. DD's bog standard comp plays it. I imagine that all schools do hockey.

BonnieF · 20/08/2016 00:14

Even at grass-roots level, equestrian sport is almost exclusively white. (It's overwhelmingly female, too.)

Why? I'm no sociologist, but it appears to me that there are 2 main reasons :
1, Financial. Riding someone else's horse isn't particularly expensive, but owning a horse definitely is.

2, Cultural. There seems to be little or no tradition of horse riding in British black & Asian communities, which mainly live in urban areas. The horsey world has its own language, and if you don't speak it, you're an outsider.

Shenanagins · 20/08/2016 00:14

Didn't even cross my mind as I celebrated team GB's success that hockey was a posh sport as I like many others on this thread played it at school. Also in my community there were plenty of clubs and not a posh school within at least a hundred miles.

frikadela01 · 20/08/2016 00:17

Regardig hockey being posh - I played hockey in high school and am about as far removed from posh as is possible. However I think one difference may be that while we played hockey in PE, there was very little attention paid to the school team. Training was regularly cancelled and we had only a fraction of the funding the football team had. Hockey just didn't get the support from either the school or if I'm honest from most parents so none of us really committed to it.

nancy75 · 20/08/2016 00:18

most schools do hockey, along with 10 other types of sports. Most elite sportspeople are not at that level because they played once a week at school. Very often you will find that the parents are already involved in the sport in some way (Judy Murray was a tennis coach, Laura trots whole family are cyclists most horsey people grew up around horses) even when the parents don't already have an involvement most pro athletes will have started playing before they reach secondary school age.

wigglesrock · 20/08/2016 00:20

It was a "posh" sport when I was at school, it still is. We played it as a 6 week rotation in PE but no one ever played it outside school in a club or went on to play it as an adult. Same with rugby, anything to do with horses, squash, rowing, sailing, golf, cricket and to a certain degree competitive swimming - although not so much with the swimming now.

Anyone I knew in school (I'm in my 40s) or any of my kids friends that play competitive sport outside school play soccer, GAA sports (hurling, camogie, football - I'm in NI), athletics, cycling and there's a lot of boxers.

WorraLiberty · 20/08/2016 00:26

wiggles the fact it was only on a 6 week rotation and no-one ever played it outside of school, doesn't make it 'posh'.

It just means it wasn't a priority for the school and it wasn't the norm in your area.

Rugby for example is played in every single bog standard comp in my borough.

In fact tag rugby is played in every single primary.

eyebrowsonfleek · 20/08/2016 00:29

Hockey is a private school sport round here. Girls play football and netball competitively over hockey and lacrosse at our local state schools.

sailawaywithme · 20/08/2016 00:30

I agree that equality of opportunity is important, but making a team should be about ability, nothing else. As a previous poster pointed out, South Africa's rather heavy-handed attempts to introduce racial balance to professional teams has arguably done more harm than good. However well-meaning it may have been.

GingerbreadGingerbread · 20/08/2016 00:31

Sports teams should not have to represent a variety of ethnicities it should be (and is) based solely on ability. HTH.

This is a very silly thread.

mum11970 · 20/08/2016 00:32

Hockey was played in my bog standard Welsh secondary school many moons ago when I went and still is now.

originalmavis · 20/08/2016 00:32

Hockey posh? Hardly. I was made to play it at school and loathed it at the time. We even had a lacrosse team at my school. It was not posh in the least.

Grilledaubergines · 20/08/2016 00:47

Played lacrosse at high school in the 80s. No, it's not a posh sport.

KeyserSophie · 20/08/2016 00:48

It's possibly become more "posh" because fewer state schools have playing fields or have less access to playing fields, and you need a playing field, or ideally an astro pitch for hockey. If you only have tarmac, then easier to focus on netball. Plus less equipment needed, and less risk of injury in this litigious age.

PerspicaciaTick · 20/08/2016 00:48

My DD does hockey at school - 8 lessons a year. It isn't going to get her close to the Olympics, that would need her to join a local team and would start costing money - both in terms of membership and kit, but also unpaid time off work for me to take her to matches at weekends (I mostly work at weekends).

KeyserSophie · 20/08/2016 00:50

Played lacrosse at high school in the 80s. No, it's not a posh sport.

Well no sport in of itself is "posh" or "not posh" but it may become dominated by a certain demographic because of the requirements of it and the accessibility/ cost of the equipment and opportunities outside of school.

Only a tiny % of state schools play lacrosse, compared with a significant proportion of public schools.

BeJayKayven · 20/08/2016 00:54

Isn't it a tad rascist to judge teams on their colour? Many successful running teams are all black but it didn't even occur to me to think of it until I read this post.

BoneyBackJefferson · 20/08/2016 00:54

A friend of mine plays at county level.
she has
different types of stick
trainers 3 types 6 pairs (2 of each)
Hockey stick bag
then there are gloves, face masks etc.

It is not a cheap sport to do at a local level, never mind county.

But at least she isn't the goal keeper.

prh47bridge · 20/08/2016 00:57

I think the 'black people have more fast twitch muscle' thing has been debunked!

No it hasn't. Black athletes who trace their ancestry to West Africa have substantially more fast twitch muscle fibres than white athletes. That gives them a significant advantage in sprinting and is why whites are virtually absent from the top ranks of sprinting.

FlashBangOut · 20/08/2016 00:57

Sports are innately classist.

There is an underlying sneer from some parts of MN at boys playing football instead of rugby. It's the perfect example. Football is a working class sport. Why? Because it's cheap, boys and girls traditionally knocked a ball around outside from a young age, strong support for teams on local estates, a sense of community, pride in 'boys done good'. It's accessible without much money. How many kids do you see throwing a rugby ball around on a council estate?

Same with black people excelling at basketball in America. Look at some stats and see how many of them come from poor backgrounds. But lots of opportunity to play for free in their local area.

It has nothing to do with people's colour or differences in body types. It's nurture over nature everytime (mostly).