We wanted to incorporate brown hues to represent the palette of the Black diaspora. We wanted to respectfully pay homage to the Black men, women, and children who have become victims of police brutality over the past years. Photo: MTIRĭereka brought together myself and Seitu Barnes - a seasoned cyclist, photographer, and fellow Iron Rider - to brainstorm. Political commentator Van Jones wearing the BLM kit. I want to do a kit – what do you think?.” I was in. I still remember the call - Dereka called me and said, “Hey – we gotta do something. Our club president, Dereka Hendon-Barnes, came up with the idea to produce and release the kit. In the middle of this effort, amid the pandemic, we wanted to give Black cyclists and those who stand with the cause a kit that connected us across clubs and experiences. We wanted to acknowledge the social movement that was inspired by the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, as well as the protests and the national conversations that occurred in many areas in our society in 2020. My pride in my heritage, my love for cycling, and my passion for design came together in the project to design a kit to honor the Black Lives Matter movement.įrom the beginning, this kit was meant to be a sensitive contribution to the Movement for Black Lives. I’m also an architectural and graphic designer. Quickly, I discovered that Major Taylor had much more to offer: camaraderie, mentorship, lasting relationships that span riding surfaces, cities, and generations. I discovered MTIR while looking for a predominantly Black cycling environment that was focused on teaching and riding. I’ve always enjoyed life on two wheels and have considered myself a cyclist. Before getting into road cycling, I was a competitive salsa dancer for the better part of a decade, and after stepping back from dance I needed some outlet to stretch my legs. My name is Andrew Harris and I am a member of Major Taylor Iron Riders. I saw that the murders and killings aren’t some media phenomena, or political narrative. It was an emotional journey that I didn’t expect to start, but one that I quickly realized was necessary.įor me, looking at one name, one victim, one incident at a time and situating their stories over the past seven decades connected our present to our history in a very sobering way. I added one name at a time I’d get through 10 or 15 names each day, sometimes fewer. I don’t claim to be an expert on racial justice - not many of us are - so I decided to research every name on the list before adding it to the design.įor two weeks I researched each name online, searching by name and state, and then name and city when the locations became repetitive. We didn’t want to just copy and paste these names onto our kit from a website. These names now appear on the back of a special Major Taylor Iron Riders cycling kit, which was released last year. A look at the Major Taylor Iron Riders BLM kits. I discovered this list while I was working on a special kit design project for my cycling club, the Major Taylor Iron Riders. The list began with Emmitt Till, who was killed in 1955 at the age of 14, and contained 119 names arranged in a loose chronological order, ending with George Floyd. It was actually part of a message on the website with the headline: “Each of these names was somebody’s baby.” In early June 2020, one of the most comprehensive lists of Black lives lost to police violence was not on CNN or the New York Times website. We are honored to share their thoughts in a regular column series on in the coming months. These riders have informed perspectives on what it means to be a person of color in the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps, an all-Black unit known as the ‘Iron Riders,’ the Major Taylor Iron Riders club of New York City is comprised largely of Black, Latino, and Asian-American riders. Named for Marshall ‘Major’ Taylor, the country’s first Black cycling champion, and the U.S. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
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