I told one of my friends, who is black, about my skydiving and she looked at me like I was crazy and said "black people don't do that!" I told her, ha! You're WRONG 'cause the times I jumped there were black people there jumpin' too! Then she corrected herself and said "well...what I meant was...THIS black people ain't a jumpin!!" 

LOL!  That's definitely a better way of looking at it, from a personal pov!  this black person wants to do it but I'm scared shitless!

Tim Brown, the legendary former wide reciever for the Oakland Raiders (who is black), is now racing in NASCAR, which has never been known for having a lot of black people involved, either on the track or in its fanbase... which seems a little odd, because whenever I'm driving anywhere, it seems that people of all races, genders and colors really enjoy driving fast.

  of course!lol!  I didn't realize he was.  On the way to my fav beach I pass the turn off to get to Daytona, just haven't had the interest to get there.   So perhaps it is a matter of someone wanting something else strong enough to do it!  And these days, the opportunities are a lot more accessable, and acceptable, at least for the most part. Now, my closest experience was a go Kart the other day!  Now that I was interested in seeking out!

The white men can't jump bit is true

I did a lot of my growing up on a surfboard so I know first hand that black folk do surf.

I've always thought stereotypes were just an excuse for lazy thinking. Some of them can be funny and in some remote way based on some general median truth, but mostly just stupid and pretty much always wrong.

For example, the black folks eating fried chicken and watermelon thing. Well, duh, the greatest concentration of black folks is still in the South and pretty much everyone in the South eats those things regardless of color.

Now the one stereotype about black folks making the best Southern BBQ is quite true though! If I see two BBQ places, one run by a white guy and one run by a black guy, I'll always eat at the one run by the black guy because I know the BBQ will be good.

Ok, am joking about the BBQ thing. Sort of.

Grant Fuhr was a goalie for the Edmonton Oilers during the years they had Gretzky and won heaps and heaps (5) of Stanley Cups.  This link is the legends of hockey.net.  It's got a nice little bio.  Jarome Iginla is the captain of the Calgary Flames and is one of Calgary's most beloved players.  He's a great player, but more importantly, he has a reputation for being an amazingly great guy. More examples I am sure but these two are close to my hometown.  I grew up watching Fuhr play.  Since I was a Calgary Flames fan, Fuhr's talent in goal was a constant irritation to me.

I believe Paul Kariya's father is Japanese.  Paul was born in Canada.  Another guy named Yutaka Fukufuji was born in Japan and made it to the NHL.  To me, Fukufuji is interesting because I don't think there is such a great hockey infrasctructure in Japan.  There are some teams and rinks, but not that many and certainly nothing compared to the great hockey nations.  No surprise really that he grew up in Hokkaido.

Your question was really interesting so I googled it and came to this website (I forgot the link sorry) where someone was asking about Asian hockey players.  He didn't specify the NHL so one person answered back that it would depend on the Eastern European (Russian) teams etc if they had players born in Western Asian.

Hockey is really about access.  Is the infrastructure there and can you afford to participate in it.  I remember a story about a father in Ontario who kept all the receipts involved in his son's hockey until he made it to the NHL.  The total was somewhere around a hundred thousand dollars.  This site has a nice article about hockey families and the cost of playing hockey at the upper levels.  They quote 10 to 20 thou a year.

This is a great article about why minorities and new immigrants aren't rushing to enroll their children in soccer.

Personally, I'm with you 100% of the way.  I think ethnicity is no barrier to the innate desire or talent of someone to become an athlete of any particular sport.  The biggest barrier to any athlete is access and cash.  For an athlete who comes from an area of limited access to the sport at high levels to become a top athlete is really against the odds.  The second problem is cash.  I know two women who, as juniors, were at the same level of cross country skiing-- just below the national team.  One woman made it, the other didn't.  The biggest difference between these two was money.  One had it, the other didn't.  The first girl had wealthy parents who supported her.  The other was basically supporting herself since she was 18.  At 19 she decided she wouldn't be able to afford to keep skiing even with help from the provincial team.  The first girl made it to the national team and competed in the Olympics.

The GREATEST wide receiver (I dont cotton much to those west bayers.)

As to your article, I think you touched on it.  It is not that a race does not, only that the most prominent people doing it are of one race or another.

But like Roy says, just because YOU (the you in his response) do not do it, does not mean others are not.  I dont snow ski (I have, I just dont like it) or play Hockey (no way!), does not mean that no frogs do.

Mason said pretty much what I wanted to say: steroetypes are a lazy way of thinking.  Doesn't matter who you are, there are no limitations to what you can do except in your own mind.

Great article, Serenity.

Larry Bird used to!lol!

Whohoo!  Do you still surf?! Nevermind I forgot about your back!

lol! true!

If you say so!

Nice work Momijiki!  This is informative! I liked Gretsky, I lived in NY when he played but I wasn't a hockey fan!

True, so true!

Oh absolutely!  I love the water and going to the beasch and pool!  I have been trying new things too, more fun!

I think these are the ones who don't go to the beach because either they don't like it or because they don't live close enough to one.

Yes, it seems that one or more sports end up being that way.

Yes, I agree.   And thx!

Two reasons I've never surfed 1) Jaws totally psyched me out of wanting to go in the ocean and 2) I'm in MI and always have been.  Not much surfing in the Great Lakes

I think people should try whatever interests them weather or not others like them do it.  Look at the female race car drivers.  I was the only girl in my EE classes.  I don't mind being the only one doing something though.  I probably get that from my mom.  She was the only woman fishing at the mouth of the river when I was growing up.  She got a lot of attention especially since she always caught the biggest fish.

Cool!  

Fuhr, Iginla and Kariya are easy examples.  I really, really respect Jarome Iginla.  He really seems to embody that sports hero persona-- good at the game, good leader, community member, seems to love the city he plays for.

And because he is such a great guy, here's some more info on Jarome Iginla courtesy of Wikipedia. The more I learn about this guy, the more I respect him.  He even married his high school sweetheart!  Yay!  The world still has real heroes! 

The numbers say Jerry Rice... but in my (silver and black) heart I would have to agree with you. (Although it was cool to see Rice wearing a Raider uniform for those couple of years.)

To stay on topic, football is a sport that doesn't seem dominated by any race, but certain positions seem to be... although this is happening less and less.  Black quarterbacks used to be rare, as well as (good) white running backs, but not so much anymore.

Real good article about how we tend to stereo type people, it's nothing more than "approved" racism of course when all is said and done.

I'll take the second, but the first?  I hope you never saw Carrie, or your prom would have been a bust too!

Hey!  Don't under-rate the power of a phobia manifested into the public consciousness!

Jaws did the same thing for me.  The whole idea of my feet dangling over the deep while bobbing along the surface totally freaks me out and now I know why.  There is the remotest chance that a shark could come and eat me!  Or a giant squid.