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robkinuk
3/19/2018 7:30am
3/19/2018 7:30am
Edited Date/Time
3/20/2018 6:15pm
I know, another Stewart thread but bear with me................
When James Stewart burst onto the scene last decade, a lot of journalists and commentators said James would be great for Motocross, as a black athlete, he would open our sport up to a whole new demographic and attract them into MX and Supercross.
Did this happen in America?
Did you notice a lot more Afro American families racing at local tracks, or in the stands spectating at a Supercross?
Now that James has retired or no longer a championship contender, have the numbers of black racers or families involved started to fall away?
Please be respectful in answering and refrain from any racist comments, I just genuinely interested to know if a role model can have such a positive impact on our sport.
When James Stewart burst onto the scene last decade, a lot of journalists and commentators said James would be great for Motocross, as a black athlete, he would open our sport up to a whole new demographic and attract them into MX and Supercross.
Did this happen in America?
Did you notice a lot more Afro American families racing at local tracks, or in the stands spectating at a Supercross?
Now that James has retired or no longer a championship contender, have the numbers of black racers or families involved started to fall away?
Please be respectful in answering and refrain from any racist comments, I just genuinely interested to know if a role model can have such a positive impact on our sport.
As far as bringing minirities into the sport I don’t think it did much. I was reading in other threads about NASCAR being such a rednect sport but I tell you I see a lot more blacks at a NASCAR race than I do at MX/SX races. I can honestly say other than Malcolm I did not see 1 black at the last San Diego SX. Local tracks, it is very rare to see any minorities.
The Shop
Did we notice alot more brothers and sistas at the races when james came along hellyeah, as bad as this sounds, it was pretty neat, because when i was little... we didn't see any others of the same demographics at races... like the mcgrath years etc, I can only recall seeing one other little black kid at the races like once then (mc era), and we had raced bmx together.
I have not noticed a fall in numbers who ride, My cousins and other family members ride and one works for yamaha.
There was an increase in numbers on the local scene specifically milestone and elsinore when james was in his prime.. But i cant speak for now, as i don't go to the tracks enough to know or see who is there.
( Did he make an impact for minorities, My vote is yes) Because before he was on the pro scene at all... i had to deal with "Why do you like a white sport" etc from my hispanic & blk friends.... Then when james started winning the whole " I thought you were the only black person who did that speech".... blargh
Stewart joined Nike in '09, Dungey joined in late '05.
Sadly few of them have the same enthusiasm for Motocross which is the purist and more superior form of the sport, as we all know...
I knew about Bill Blair 359, and he ride well.
Nice dude.(The other rider take the wrong way)
The last videos are from his son Bronson, they are from a few years ago, I do not know if they will continue in MX
Back on topic, I think James helped the sport a lot. He brought a lot of good attention to it. I think a huge reason why we had full gates 15-20 years ago is because of James Stewart and Travis Pastrana. Guys like Carmichael and McGrath had much better racing careers than those two but they brought the outside interest.
There is this weird obsession with "growing the sport" that I'll never understand. Our sport is what it is. For a casual fan it is very boring. Today's world likes drama...and unless you are following the podcasts or read stuff on here you wouldn't even know about hardly any of it.
The rider's and their agents should be working on interviews for late night TV. Highlight the unique sides of our sport. Jumping a motorcycle is amazing and something we take for granted.
I honestly think the aggression and sprint speed we see in Arenacross would have a better chance of appealing to more people. People aren't going to sit and watch 3 hours of racing....2 of which don't even count for anything.
Feld/Fox Sports... should be doing a better job of giving real back stories of these riders. Not the fluff pieces of them making eggs with their cats. Actually Racer X, Transworld, Vital etc could do more. Throughout the week there is rarely a story I care to read on most of the pages. There's the highlights, post race interviews/conferences and maybe some technical tidbits. I enjoy all of those but there is rarely an individual story on a particular rider. I can't imagine every weekend for every rider goes super smooth. We need a narrative.
Being a Monday you will get more race results, but if I'm doing the content for these sites, Results is one page and you can scroll through it all..I don't need the entire homepage dedicated to that. Give me something to read or listen to that is worthwhile. And stop trying to force me to buy a magazine..that ship has sailed.
This actor that I do not remember the name, I know that as an actor I like it, and seeing it in this photo caught my attention, I only knew about Steve Mcqueen.
I'm sure he did not get influenced because he's before Bubba, maybe the influence was Steve Mcqueen.
In one way or another this being involved in the MX has to be by a bad influence
Pit Row
If one had a pie chart of all motocross participants broken down by ethnicity, the black piece of the pie would be small. It would be about the same size of the "give it to charity" piece if you asked lottery winners what they are going to do with the money. That's a Mitch Hedberg joke, kids.
We should welcome everyone to the sport, but the sport is exclusive due to cost. Four-strokes made things exponentially worse and the sport cost-prohibitive.
The racer that made moto great was Jeremy McGrath. The sport exploded in the late 1990s, and many of us got into it because we wanted to ride like MC. JS7, RC, CR, DV, RV, RD, and the like rode that wave to make millions.
Also making millions are motocross promoters, OEMs, aftermarket companies, and such who rode the MC wave.
McGrath increased motocross GDP exponentially.
We're all Americans (except for the illegals).
Why not just stick with AMERICAN?
The sport does need another marketable personality. Anderson of a couple years ago was that guy. He is pretty buckled down now and I don't see him going back. Roczen last year was exactly what we needed. Confident with style and personality to spare. He will come back to that status again but never at the same level. Not because of any physical inability...more so mentally. While he is mentally strong..there is just no way to completely put those crashes out of his mind.
The only other rider who has tried to take a jab at making things interesting is Baggett. I like the guy, but when he gets mouthy it comes across like WWE or something scripted. I think he realizes there is value in getting your name out there...and clicking up podiums or top 5s alone isn't going to do it.
I hope in the coming years we have something between Barcia and Anderson. I think those two could make things interesting.
picture Malcolm and Weston in JGR polo's discussing the weekends racing and toss in a couple short segments of the racing action
follow it next week with another team and the same format , link in the Toyota / Nike / go pro / monster / red bull ETC sponsorships
show family time in the pit party area as well.
all would catch the eye of the TV viewer , then aim for prime time TV
[af-roh-uh-mer-i-kuh n]
noun, adjective
African American
From dictionary.....
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