Bikists

It was weird, sitting outside People's Books on Tuesday. The group started at 7 or so, and ballooned to twice that or more. More chairs, more bikes, more kids, gathered in a circle on the sidewalk; the compliment-gauntlet for anyone who passed by.

I stated thinking about something that stuck with me the rest of the night. Let me give an example. Later on, the group of us, give or take a few, biked down to the lake, taking Lincoln Memorial Drive, and we rode in a ragged formation, taking up a full lane between us all. And part of me felt powerful, as the act of biking does, and biking in a group, being part of a large group, some sort of solidarity, slipping into the rainks of something I respect in many ways. But I question this group membership as well; the power itself of groups frightens me a little as well, and the fact that stereotypes are formed about people when they gather in groups.

Er, what am I trying to say? I enjoyed being part of a group and was wary of its power at the same time.

And further, the odd feeling that emerged right away at the meeting was based on this idea of group stereotyping. We were there, seated in a glob, 15 or 16 kids, and we all appear white. Now, I can't say for certain that any of the other kids were or weren't white, I can only say they looked it. As do I, biracial or no, as does Sarandi, Greek or no. Race radar is an uncertain game, and the United States, in spite of its legacy of the One Drop Rule, is basing race assignment more and more on appearance.

And I wondered, sitting there, I can guess how we look, a group of white-lookin kids parked outside an independent bookstore, flanked by a forest of bicycles; but what would we look like if we were 15 or 16 black kids, or Muslim kids, or Korean kids? What revolution would they attribute to us, what sinister thoughts?

So at the same time that I liked these kids, liked being lost in, if only temporarily, a like-minded group, I'm uncomfortable allying myself to a group. I like individuals. I am much more comfortable with 1 person than I am with 10.

Conclusion? Who knows.

In other news, I've stopped taking birth control. Hmm.