Sophie Gochman op-ed and follow ups.

[Bogey2]

I was annoyed the minute she related the AIDS issue to race issues. Talk about clueless.

[AAHunterGal]

Here’s my response. Written before the Missy Clark article, but updated to reflect it:

https://www.thingsilearnedfromhorses…ange-will.html

[IPEsq]

The equestrian world can’t even adapt to the needs of the white 99% in 2020 in terms of financial barriers to entry, so of course minorities have a hard time entering the sport. But you also can’t deny where the sport came from culturally in this country… it was not exactly open to all unless you count the grooms/muckers (who not all that many years ago used to be staffed by and large by African Americans before cheaper undocumented labor, also non-white, began to spread–that shift has happened in my lifetime and I am a very young person in comparison to the history of the civil rights struggle in the US).

Even on this board, you see people give the advice of: you just have to be the working student slave and pay your dues (whatever that means) and one day you can make it as a rider/trainer even if you don’t come from money. But if you replace in that scenario white, horse crazy teen with black, motivated barn worker, do you think their opportunities/potential are really equal?

As far as people rioting and taking a public stand of outrage, I was confused by this… Should horse shows be the sites of protests against police brutality? In my area, the protests are happening near government and police buildings. Whether or not horse people are taking to the streets seems a bit much to get outraged over. So to that extent, having Missy suggest something analogous to how horse people acted with respect to AIDS does make sense–maybe offer some alternative means for taking action that would also address our sport’s specific problems, like starting a fund relating to the sport. Or inviting wealthy horse people to contribute to a cause out there advocating for changes in the laws or police protocols. But I think it was written in a way that did not convey this message.

[Tiramit]

Each time this particular topic comes up in the equestrian world comes up I’m reminded of Kathy Kusner’s amazing Horses in the Hood program. I remember this article from its earliest beginnings in 1998: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-dec-20-tm-55785-story.html

She contrived Horses in the Hood after Psycho Joe, another member of the Renaissance Runners group to which she belongs, asked her why there were no African American competitors in the Olympic equestrian events he had just watched. “This was not a question,” she recalls, “this was a statement.”

South-Central is not entirely devoid of horses. In Willowbrook, some people still keep pleasure horses, and a small stable operates nearby, with another riding program in Compton, where Junior Posse teaches equestrian skills to as many as 20 kids at a time. Horses in the Hood will be even bigger, Kusner promises, and for kids and grownups alike.

“And maybe, just maybe, Horses in the Hood can do for minorities and horsemanship what Tiger Woods did for minorities and golf, and perhaps one day it’ll be a kid from Watts standing up there in riding boots and helmet in front of those five Olympic rings.”

The main website: http://www.horsesinthehood.org

[541hunter]

@NoSuchPerson

I agree. But that’s a separate issue. You’re expanding the discussion beyond the parameters that were initially set, which was an assertion that people of color do not participate in this sport because H/J professionals and riders are racists and keep them out. My contention is that if person of color rolls up with Georgina Bloomberg’s budget, pretty much any BNT is going to open the door, roll out the welcome mat, and treat her with every courtesy and consideration extended to anyone else.

How is that a separate issue? We as a community (especially the h/j community) include some of the wealthiest, most well-connected people in the country. We hold so much power within our ranks. The more of us who speak up about the structural racism that has kept and continues to keep wealth out of the hands of Black people (and other POC), the more we can pressure our equestrian peers to actually make a difference. But our industry shies away from the topic of race and racial inequalities. We don’t like to talk about anything that might be considered political. Why is that? The outdoor hiking etc. industry is addressing the racism in their history and making attempts to become more welcoming. So is running. So why do we feel it’s not our organization’s place?

My wild, totally out-there theory (that’s sarcasm, by the way) is that we harbor a crapton of racists in our midst, and we don’t want to talk about race because we’re afraid of what we’ll discover.

And side note, if you listen to Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other non-white equestrians, lots of them will tell you about how money did absolutely nothing to dispel racist epithets, microagressions, and harassment in the horse world. Yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow too. We’ve been a racist industry for a long time and while we can’t change the past, it’s certainly our responsibility to work hard now to make it 100% clear to BIPOC with an interest in horses that they are welcomed with open arms.

And yep, that means fighting for their rights and freedoms outside the horse world, too.

*Edited to add another recent blog post about a Black equestrian’s experience in the H/J world.

[dnv]

Good on Sophie. very well said for 17. agree with Texarcana that passion is lost with age. At least she recognizes her advantages.

[poltroon]

I really appreciate what Horses in the Hood is able to do on a shoestring of a budget. It was neat to be reminded that the COTH forums got together to give them a donation in the past, to honor Kathy Havens/cactuskate. Their program is thoughtful and carefully designed to meet the needs of the kids.

But I know Kathy Kusner had much bigger dreams for those kids, that they’d be able to have horses in their own neighborhood and have horse contact year round. I wish they had the funding to return to that plan.

[Bristol_Bay]

I love how Missy Clark asks the in gate guy if he’d ever felt discriminated against, and takes his “no” as proof of something. Let’s see what happens when he decides he wants to manage the shows.

Just clueless.

[Bristol_Bay]

@541hunter

*Edited to add another recent blog post about a Black equestrian’s experience in the H/J world.

Thank you for posting this.

[Texarkana]

@Bristol Bay

I love how Missy Clark asks the in gate guy if he’d ever felt discriminated against, and takes his “no” as proof of something. Let’s see what happens when he decides he wants to manage the shows.

Just clueless.

The equivalent of,”I’m not racist, some of my best friends are black. But…”

Because there is always a “but.”

With a few more hours to mull it over, the Missy Clark article is sitting worse with me. While my initial impression was that she was trying to counter what she felt were teenage misconceptions, I’m now recognizing how her flippant remarks about race perpetuate a toxic undercurrent.

[EmilyM]

@MustangTwist

An influential and powerful white woman in the H/J community asking one black man (who relies on this community for his paychecks) whether he feels he’s been discriminated against hardly makes for a scientific study on the issue. Just because Missy treats her grooms with respect does not mean mistreatment isn’t a prevalent issue. Just because Missy hasn’t personally witnessed racism in the H/J world doesn’t mean it’s non-existent.

This part of Missy’s OpEd made me cringe. The generational divide between her perspective and Sophie’s is palpable. I believe we know more about systemic racism as more research and information becomes mainstream. I am not entirely sure how to articulate my feelings but Missy’s OpEd made me squirm. It seemed so laced with the typical “I have a black friend so I can’t be a racist” sentiment that I had a hard time finishing it. I’ll give her marks for sentence structure ?

[Midge]

@EmilyM

I’ll give her marks for sentence structure ?

Well, there was this word salad:

Amongst the many daily benefits afforded by simply being born with white skin, those who are fortunate enough to have been born into situations where their financial equation isn’t a prohibitive factor in obtaining the best of the best in life have a definite advantage over those who haven’t been born into that segment of the population.

[FlaxenChestnut]

I notice a #blackouttuesday square was posted to the North Run Instagram page. Part of that movement was intended to encourage White people to put ourselves on mute, listen to POC voices, and learn. There was a lot of educational material about racism (in all its forms -systemic, covert, passive, etc.) shared on social media in the process. Many equestrians that have experienced racism first-hand shared their experiences. (There are many out there that the Chronicle might have tapped for Op-Ed’s on the subject of racism in the equestrian world.)

Missy clearly didn’t bother to do the work we were asked to do when posting that black square. Her opinion piece used much of the dismissive, ignorant language and logical fallacies that the movement was trying to educate us about. It was a cringe-worthy opinion piece that really highlighted her privilege. It’s probably past time for her and others in the elite equestrian community to step outside that bubble and learn how others live.

[TooManyBays]

Sophie’s piece felt tone deaf to me. She shames the equestrian community while still planning on spending thousands of dollars a week on showing. I commend her for understanding things need to change, but Just saying something is bad doesn’t help if you aren’t part of the solution. Maybe she should have spread awareness of programs that give lessons to children in underprivileged communities, or pledged to spend some of her showing money on the cause.

Missy Clark’s piece also felt tone deaf, but also like maybe she needs to pull her head out of the sand and look around. There is definitely still discrimination in the equestrian world, and if she needs examples I can give her many.

[DawgLady]

I think we can dissect opinions all day, but I keep wondering what I can DO to help level the playing field…er, arena. Would love COTH’s thoughts on that.

[TooManyBays]

@DawgLady

I think we can dissect opinions all day, but I keep wondering what I can DO to help level the playing field…er, arena. Would love COTH’s thoughts on that.

There are some great programs that provide low cost or free lessons to communities that usually wouldn’t get the chance. Amazingly, those who take their lessons tend to do much better in school and many students have gotten scholarships that have allowed them to go to college, some in equestrian related fields. IIRC, there is a polo group that recently did very well in their matches.
Riding schools should not ignore majority African American or other minority schools; put up flyers for your camps and lessons there too.
Riding schools that can should consider offering a few subsidized cost lessons to children from less wealthy areas.
Equestrian retailers should use a more diverse group of models; both in ethnicity and in size.

I’m sure there are more ideas for ways to make the community more inclusive. I think that going into the future, our sports success will depend on becoming more inclusive. Either we adapt, or we will die out. It is not only the right thing to do, our success as a whole depends on it.

[Tackpud]

@poltroon

I had to go look for Missy’s piece so I’m linking it here: https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/read-between-the-lines

I think Missy’s piece is maybe a poster child for in fact what is wrong with our sport, and why we have issues. Missy starts out defensive and spends time tearing down Sophie’s article, and talking about how from her point of view - as a white BNT - there’s not really a problem. With respect… no one thinks BNTs, which are pretty much 100% white in English horse sports in the US, have insight into the problem. If they did, I’m sure they’d be addressing it. I can understand it’s hard to see a lot of issues from that position.

She talks about how she - and the government - are not racist because she spends a lot of time getting visas for her workers. Yeah, um the reason that’s an issue especially now, but even 10 years ago, even 20 years ago, that’s racism. If you’ve spent any time following immigration policy in this country, it should be crystal clear.

“We raised money for AIDS that one time.” Nice but not really addressing the issue of racism or of some of the very real history of our sports around race. How many hunt clubs and other longtime institutions of horse sport only allowed white members as long as they could? How many of those would be comfortable places for a family of color to join today?

If someone tells you that they’re uncomfortable coming into our sport because of the color of their skin, listen to them. Their feelings are real. Most likely, their feelings are shared by a lot of people who will never tell you they’re uncomfortable and who will never even consider coming to our sport in the first place.

Our sport has to be a place for all families, all kids, all people to participate, if we want our sport to thrive. We need to do more to ensure that there are, in fact, so many black families on the showgrounds, not just at one show, but at all the shows, that you don’t know all their names.

Nailed it!

[Laurierace]

They were both ridiculous and tone deaf. I excuse Sophie because she is young and doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.

[foursocks]

As a few people have mentioned, but it seems to get lost continuously, white privilege isn’t the same as class privilege (although of course they intersect). All it means is that whatever barriers you have in front of you or that you have overcome are not due to your skin color.

The majority of African Americans are in the middle class or upper middle class, so while a disproportionate amount of black and brown people are poor compared to white people, class isn’t what prevents most POC from riding. Therefore, we have to look at the environment and actions of those within the riding world, as an obvious place to start. Assuming all POC are poor means that if we want more POC to participate in riding sports, the solutions are all economic. The number of people who responded to Sophie G’s thoughtful piece with: Well, if she thinks this is a problem why doesn’t she sell all her nice horses and acknowledge her [class] privilege and yadda yadda is an example of 10000% missing the point.

Standing up and pointing out endemic and structural racism are barriers shouldn’t be a brave thing- it has been and is right here in our society, since its inception, for hundreds of years. Until we can do this without having a flurry of rationalizations and denials jam up the conversation, solutions will be hard to come by.

[atl_hunter]

From COTH we see lots of opining, not a lot of action.

So, what can you do? Some ideas for those who want to take action.

• You can donate: [LIST]
• Here's an easy one: Go to smile.amazon.com, select a charity of choice, and shop. I realize it's only 0.5% of the purchase price, but over time this will add up.
• Takes more time: find a charity of choice. If you need a recommendation, feel free to reach out and I will help you find one.

You can volunteer:

• Living in Atlanta means there are outreach programs whose specific purpose is to introduce children living in the city to horses.
• See if your cities/towns have something similar, and if you have the time, why not give it?

You can check yourself:

• I know everyone is tired of people saying "I have a black friend..." but how many of you can honestly say you are friends with BIPOC? And I don't mean the American definition of friends where you have 100 people you call friends. I mean true friends where you support each other through rough times, where you do things together, share your triumphs and defeats, holidays, etc... and they are truly in your inner circle and you call them family and tell them you love them?
• If you don't have BIPOC in your inner circle, ask yourself why?

You can include BIPOC:

• When a friend/coworker/neighbor who is BIPOC asks you about your horses, invite them to the barn to meet your horse. Wine and cheese at the barn is always nice if you don't have the kind of horse that a novice can throw a leg over.
• When your friend or coworker says "I've never been to a horse show..." why not invite them?
• When your friend/coworker/neighbor says they have always wanted a horse or to ride, help them get started by finding a barn that offers lessons.
• When summer camps are back in order, keep that as an option
• Have an IEA team in your area? It's a great way to introduce young aspiring equestrians to this sport at a price point that is attractive to anyone, regardless of race

You can create outreach opportunities:

• Take your horse to a school and provide a learning session about horses. My sister does this type of outreach all the time with her Appaloosa. You generally need your own trailer to do it, so it's tough with the "trainer model" that the h/j community has, but this is something you can offer to introduce horses to the kids that can't easily get to them. But if you have the time and means, go for it!
• Sometimes it isn't about fixing the issue immediately - sometimes it's about planting a seed in a mind that can germinate over time into a goal and then an action.

[/LIST] I'd like to share an experience I had a few summers ago. My horse used to be in training in a town that was largely populated by BIPOC folks. Every night a family would walk down the sidewalk, and the nights that I saw them I would always walk my big bay over to the fence so their daughter, who was maybe 4-5 years old, could say hi. She was always a bit scared of him and would play coy, peaking through the fence and then pulling back, and it was a game my horse played with her. One day she said, "I like him because he's brown like me." And it really gave me pause and made me think about what it must be like to be her - to identify by her skin color at such a young age. All I could say is, "I like him because he's beautiful, just like you." My eyes welled up - it was so hard to keep my composure thinking about what she said. Her parents smiled and said, "Thank you." A fence between us kept me from extending an embrace, but her dad gave me a wink. You don't need to move mountains to make a change. It truly starts with kindness and inclusion.