"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
...
On Dec 26, 7:07�am, John H. wrote:
to any who may celebrate same.
--
John H

According to Google, about 1200 people have read at least one thing or
posted something to rec.boats over the years. I would personally guess
that the number of folks participating here regularly is 25-50. Maybe
some of those folks are African American, and Kwanzaa is a recently
introduced African American (rather than traditional African) holiday
celebration. I suspect that most observers of Kwanzaa also celebrate
Christmas, but wouldn't be able to substantiate that as a fact.

Minorities in general are under-represented in the boating community.
My personal opinion is that it has more to do with economic
opportunity
than with any blatant discrimination. Owning anything larger than an
old rowboat becomes an expensive proposition, (as any boater well
knows). While there are more poor white people in America than poor
people of any other ethnicity, minorities are disproportionately
represented among the poor when compared to the various percentages of
the general population.

Reasons for the disparate economic opportunites that keep boating less
diverse than many other activities can include recent immigration to
the US. First and second generations arriving here are often less
fluent in English and therefore have less access to higher education
or better paying jobs.There will probably always be some racial
discrimination, (even if subtle), that requires many people of color
to "super achieve" in order to be afforded some of the same respect
that we in the largest ethnic group take for granted.

I'd like to see more diversity among boaters, but to become an
economically colorblind society we do need to work toward assuring
that race, religion, gender, etc are not used (in *any* manner) when
apportioning educational or economic opportunities.

Chuckle. Merry Christmas Chuck. Be careful stepping off your soap box.