Sparkplug 33

It’s nearly the end of the year, and most enthusiast publications are running their typical year-end wrap-ups, or the top ten lists or some other way of summing up the events of the last 365. Well, Sparkplug will be no different, but my year-ender will come next week, when I’ll take a look back at the things in motocross that most surprised me in 2005.

For this week, I want to tackle women in our sport. Er, that is, the subject of how women get involved in motocross. Or to paraphrase Cleavon Little in “Blazing Saddles”: “Where are all the black women at?”

As an African American man and huge fan of motocross, I know all too well the fact that the sight of a single, adult African American woman at a local motocross race is about as rare as a Husqvarna winning a supercross. But since I didn’t get into motocross in order to pick up chicks, so to speak, this state of affairs has never been much of a concern to me. Yet the question has been asked numerous times: why aren’t black women into motocross like their white counterparts?

I think I finally came up with the answer, and it’s simply that 99.9 percent of the time, it’s a man that starts the interest in motocross. Think about it. Your dad probably was the person that introduced you to the sport. Or maybe it was an older sibling, or a relative or a friend. I was introduced to minibikes by my neighbors; my local Honda dealer was responsible for my learning about motocross.

Or to put it another way, very rare is the woman who enters the sport of motorcycling, and in particular dirtbiking, on her own accord without having someone else provide the familiarity. Yes, I know I’m heading down the path of dangerous generalities, but I appeal to my sisters of all races to let me know their own stories, if they’re different from what I’m proposing here. When you see a top female motocrosser, you also see somewhere in the background the man that gave her a start in the sport. Usually it’s her father, but it could be her brother, boyfriend or husband. I’m not saying that she wouldn’t be supported by her mother or sisters. But can you imagine a mother coming home to her family and saying “Hey, I’ve got an idea… let’s all get dirtbikes and go riding!”

So in the case of the black females, the absence of them in the sport of motocross points directly to the small number of African American males in the sport. It’s funny, when you think of how many black people are involved in streetbiking. There are plenty of beautiful black women that like to hang around the streetbike scene (okay, well here are two, and that’s because there are plenty of black guys riding streetbikes. As you probably know, there are only a handful of us racing motocross or riding dirtbikes. So that limits the opportunities for our sisters, wives and girlfriends to be brought into the sport. And that, in turn, decreases the opportunities for me to meet single black women at the races… it’s all about me, right?

What about the appeal of the sport itself? Is it not possible for some women to just be drawn to the excitement of motocross on it’s own terms? In a word, no. Or at least, probably not… I mean, let’s look at a sport like basketball. Even back in grade school there were two types of girls that liked basketball: the ones that played the sport, and the ones that liked to watch the guys play. It’s like us guys watching women’s volleyball; some of you watch for the action, I watch for the ACTION, if you know what I mean. I’m a big fan of women’s volleyball. And I’m sure that many female motocross fans are into the sport at a professional level because they think the guys are hot. I don’t have any problem with that, but apparently they’re not hot enough to attract a lot of attention from black females. Or maybe it’s just a media thing; if motocross received some coverage from the likes of Essence or Ebony magazines maybe that would turn the tide. That’s funny just thinking about it!

Some people in the sport believe that James Stewart will be responsible for making motocross more visible to a wider audience. I’m not sure how that will work, but if it means more black women at the races I’m all for it! Go James!

Oh yes... and Merry Christmas to All!