AIBU to wonder why all white is alright?

[VeraStanhope]

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". How is that okay to accept that in 2016?

It's an interesting point. I went to a 'posh'-ish school, all-girls grammar, and our hockey team was often top of the schools league. But this was a school in Greater London and the demographic was around 50% asian, 45% white, 5% other. Our hockey team was still predominanrly white. I don't think it was that us non-white kids were worse at hockey (apart from me - I sucked at all sport) but maybe more that the parents of the non-white kids encouraged them to spend all their extra-curricular time on studying, not sport. I reckon it's a cultural thing.

Haven't RTFT but I've just watched women's 4x4 relay and all the winning contestants were black.

Surely It's no different is it - they're just the best athletes for the job regardless of their colour or race.

Treacle - if the schools are using swimming pools that means they are providing the children in your borough or county with swimming lessons. A good thing.

Re: hockey. From the replies it seems to be more a class/ type of education thing than a colour thing. Yes comps may teach hockey but they don't go in for county hockey etc, whereas private schools do. Obviously there a BAME pupils at private school but not so large percentage-wise.
Many race issues boil down to class and money rather than race IMO. There are increasing numbers of underprivileged children from all ethnicities in the UK.

Charley yes, all the primary schools do swimming lessons from age 9 onwards.

I agree with that too N0ne. Your point about it being a cultural thing.

Oh the Japanese are doing pretty well in the sprinting and running this year. Someone mentioned it not being their 'thing.'

Countries participating in the last two winter Olympics: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Winter_Olympics#Participating_National_Olympic_Committees

The medals were of course skewed towards the traditionally strong winter sports countries, but a wide range of countries participated.

What would be the weather/region specific sports that aren't already included in one or other games? Sumo or kabaddi I can think of off the top of my head.

I'm sorry, I don't think it's clear what colour the replay team was. Can anyone clarify?

Hockey loving family here, DH parents met as Captains of their respective teams at a hockey club. One of the GB team is a club member of that club which MIL was thrilled about. DH played until he was around 30 and I also played a bit as an adult. DS is a really good hockey player but doesn't like it sadly.

DH went to one of the best public schools in the country and I went to a comp plus I'm mixed race so make of our little social demograph in sport what you will.

I never want any kind of positive discrimination when picking a team. Yep maybe look at why people are not attracted in the first place but don't team pick to get a balance of minorities. Just pick the best.

Anyone seen the film fast girls that's about athletes from different monetary and ethnic backgrounds. Highly recommend it.

But those genetic reasons would on theory give them an advantage in any sport which involves speed so why aren't they out performing white women in hockey?

Having more fast twitch muscle fibres gives an advantage when sprinting but that is only a very small part of hockey. Players spend very little of their time sprinting and, when they do, the sprints are generally very short. Being a fast runner can be useful but it is not the most important attribute needed for hockey players.

So posh means white. Doesn't seem much of a justification to me. Yes it is played at posh schools...meaning no non-whites go there?

Are you serious witsender? Do you know any establishment families? They are white.

Just as in Nigeria or Gambia the Establishment families are all black?

I coach grassroots, state high school and district hockey so see all sides. The kids start out at the same level early on.

The gap widens when they go through primary school and the private school kids go to schools with a 'Hockey Director', and after school training with former internationalists.

The state school kids get c10 hours per year with a generalist active schools/pe teacher.

By the time they get to district the gap is widening and coaches face the dilemma of picking players on ability (private school kids) or potential (state).

Unfortunately in addition to the district coaches often being private school staff, pressure from above - and from parents - often leads to the former.

Hockey across the country isn't elitist in itself, sadly at the higher levels it by and large remains that way. Only once we change the system to encourage potential will things change.

Of course there are posh and rich black people in the UK! But look at % of UK ethnic minorities in general, then % at posh private school, and then % good / interested in / encouraged by parents at hockey (or certain other sports), then % of entire population in a hockey team. Surely it's not that hard to comprehend why Olympic hockey team is currently mainly English white?

panegyricS1 asks "How can a working class kid (of any colour) financially access a rowing club, for example?"
Rowing in my city is pretty accessible. The club I am involved with runs free rowing sessions for several local state schools. Junior membership costs £10 per month, and we have a subsidy schemes where financial situation would otherwise be a barrier to participation. Obviously this won't be the case across most of the country, where there aren't so many rowing clubs, but I suspect rowing could be a lot cheaper to take up than many people would assume.

I do agree with those who have said its down to parental support and money.

For example and expanding on treacles point above re swimming. Despite being down at our local pool as soon as it opened to put in the application for swimming lessons we didn't get a place - unless you count mid-week during the day which doesn't help if you work full-time.

In our instance this is not a problem as oh was a top club swimmer in his youth and is very capable of teaching our dc to swim, but what would have happened if this wasn't the case.

Furthermore my oh often reflects on what would have happened if he was young now as despite having incredibly supportive parents (driving to the pool for 6am sessions everyday, plus driving to competitions all over the region on a weekly basis) once he got to leaving school pursuing the level of training required really didn't fit with uni/work.

I do believe that with lottery funding things will help eventually at grassroots level but it will not change the fact about all the support athletes require to get to elite levels.

I never thought of women's hockey as posh probably because we had to play it at school. For some reason I have always thought of men's hockey as posh. I can't quite work out why.

Yes parrots, and they can't play hockey for team GB. I'm
Not really sure what your point is: some of us are saying hockey is elitist (or posh) and witsender is taking exception to the idea that there aren't posh black people. Well get in the real world.

dont
Are you serious witsender? Do you know any establishment families? They are white.
Of course establishment familes here would be at least 87% likely to be white.
Great |Britain (or UK) is predominately a country populated by white European people which is a fact of its history and its culture reflects that.
In an African country establishment familes (those with power and money) will mostly be black

Ffs. I was questioning why this (your) attitude is OK.

"It's ok that there are no black people playing hockey at the Olympics because none really play it. Posh sport innit."

Othering in the extreme.

Presumably it was the best team. People see racism where it doesn't exist. What I find more worrying is the fact the Brazilians thought it was ok to downgrade the Paralympics to pay for the olympics. That is a clear case of discrimination

Presumably it was the best team. People see racism where it doesn't exist.

I don't think it's about racism, more about why certain sports attract people from particular ethnicities. OP's friend said hockey is a "posh" sport (although many on here disagree. I definitely think it's quite a MC sport but perhaps it's different in more rural areas), so the question is more why does "posh"=white? Of course we know that more often that not, it does, but why?

On another note? Does anyone fancy a hockey thread where we can console one another on our attempts to reach Olympic standard?!

Sorry wit how is that my attitude, or the attitude of any poster here? I not excusing anything, that is why hockey is white. The establishment is white (not at least 87%- font make me laugh- do you seriously think the establishment were affected by immigration from the 50s??!)

It's not right, but it is the reality. It's nothing to do with othering which is quite frankly a mad up MN concept that is trotted out continuously

It really isn't a made up concept, look elsewhere.

I couldn't understand why you seemed so aggressive about my feeling that it was extraordinarily dismissive to say it is fine that black people don't play hockey because only posh people do. It is so offensive. As you appear to agree with me that whilst that is the case (I went to a very posh school, and whilst I am sure that the demographic has changed somewhat since I left it probably is still white in the majority) it is not 'right', I'm not sure quite why you launched at me when I said it?