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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Pelotron guilty of.... #whitegaze |
| 2020-05-20 |
| [NBC] Like many people in quarantine, every day I find some time to hide from my children and hop on to my Peloton, the stationary exercise bike with built-in internet-enabled spin classes that has become a must-have for some people during this time away from, well, everything. I love my Peloton, which (despite the hefty price tag) has more than paid for itself in burned calories and much-needed zen. And I am clearly not alone. Peloton isn't the problem: What holiday outrage over a stationary bike says about American society Indeed, despite a very wobbly IPO back in September, Peloton's stock has surged to record highs during the pandemic — almost doubling its price — valuing the company at more than $10 billion. (Comcast, the parent company of NBC Universal, is a shareholder.) And whereas Peloton was losing luster before the COVID-19 crisis, it now reports both a backlog of bike orders and 2.6 million members logging on to their classes each month. The bike is so coveted, wrote The New York Times this month, that even as millions lose their jobs, thousands of others are "panic buying" Peloton bikes to keep in shape while gyms remain closed. But the more I use my Peloton bicycle, the more I don’t feel so good about the company behind it. Because just as their now-infamous holiday-season ad last year convinced many people that the company had an unacknowledged gender problem, their video and music programming suggests to me — as an African American — that they also have an unrecognized race problem. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #11 There sure are a lot of useless twits in this country. |
| Posted by: KBK 2020-05-20 20:41 |
| #10 *click-click click-click* |
| Posted by: Frank G 2020-05-20 17:34 |
| #9 SteveS - that’s my favorite movie. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2020-05-20 17:22 |
| #8 Instead, simply use the sub-Saharan African equivalents of those things. I'm picturing a glass Coke bottle tossed out of a small plane... |
| Posted by: SteveS 2020-05-20 17:00 |
| #7 I had an indoor trainer a while ago. I used it to rehab my knee for two weeks, and it's been sitting in a corner ever since. Like eighteen years ago. I simply cannot get on a bike and remain indoors. |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-05-20 16:37 |
| #6 Dear black people -- if using stuff created by whites makes you uncomfortable, then stop using our stuff. You know, like the ballot box, indoor plumbing, electric power, phones, computers, gas, diesel or electric-powered transportation, streaming, social media, etc. Instead, simply use the sub-Saharan African equivalents of those things. We just signed a new trade deal with Wakanda, right? Just use their stuff. |
| Posted by: charger 2020-05-20 14:09 |
| #5 What a dork loser. Go be a trainer and choose your ride music. And yes, I eagerly await the treadmill, trainer, and music targeted at the modern lower income black community. PS - anyone who wants to power mix Lenny Kravitz or Foo Fighters is a demon; to combine the two into workout music is the devil. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2020-05-20 13:29 |
| #4 Which would I use to get Vivaldi or JSBach? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2020-05-20 12:36 |
| #3 Only one racist was identified in the article. |
| Posted by: Elmath Thuter1871 2020-05-20 11:01 |
| #2 Since I f'd my knee decades ago, I've use the Nordictrack (much cheaper before inflation). Hook up a small tv and old dvd player and kill a half an hour. In today's PC world, I guess 'Nordic' makes it racist. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2020-05-20 08:07 |
| #1 Rantburg suggested replacement Pelotron music video found at this link. Download permitted at no additional charge. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2020-05-20 07:58 |