With respect to my headline, as a longtime cyclist, I’m going to kick this one off by sharing why I am just as passionate about bicyclists wearing bicycle helmets as I am about motorcyclists wearing motorcycle helmets. Then we’ll get to the insanity at hand. And that insanity, in my not-so-humble opinion, might not be what you think it is. My story begins with a scary-as-hell — at the time — bicycle accident.

Twelve years ago, I was on a long ride with a few friends on a well-paved bike trail, a common occurrence. While we generally hit it pretty hard, we sometimes slowed down and rode side-by-side and chatted. During one of those breathers, I ran slightly off the pavement while looking over at the guys at about a two-inch angled drop. As I eased the handlebars to the left to angle back onto the pavement, they jerked all the way to the left and locked, throwing me onto to pavement and dislocating my shoulder.

My head hit the pavement just as hard, but I was pretty sure I was fine. Unfortunately, my highly-rated helmet was not; the liner was cracked in three places, top to bottom.

After I was transported to the ER, thoroughly x-rayed, and further examined and questioned by the doc, he looked at the inside of my helmet and then at me, straight in the eye, and said in a somewhat stern but reassuring voice, “If you had not been wearing that helmet you most likely would not be with us right now.” Needless to say, I never forgot the accident — and I still have the helmet, as a reminder to friends and loved ones foolish enough to argue with me about wearing a helmet when riding.

Now, let’s revisit my headline, with greater detail, including a quote via The Blaze:

As a longtime dedicated cyclist who most likely would be dead “as we speak” if not for a bicycle helmet, the notion of revoking a helmet law because “the law was disproportionately enforced against people of color and homeless people,” is pure insanity — cloaked in the ridiculous carelessness of “racial equity.”

Let’s dig into the details — then we’ll rip them to shreds.

As The Blaze reported, a law requiring Seattle bicyclists to wear helmets had been in effect for nearly 30 years, but was recently revoked in the name of “racial equity.”

First, a primer on the differences between “racial equality” and “racial equity.”

From the time most of us were small children, we were taught that all men (sorry, neopronoun people) are created equal. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for — and ultimately died for — racial equality.

Welp, racial equality doesn’t cut it anymore. In recent years, as explained by Brothers Academy, the term “equity” has become more and more prevalent, whether it’s with social issues, workplace norms, or in education, while “for a long time, equality was the term of choice when describing how best to serve everyone and give everyone an equal shot at success.” Oh, the humanity!

Here’s more, via Brothers Academy:

While equality is definitely a great goal to shoot for, equity takes it a step further and tries to address the unique traits of individuals and how that affects the way they interact with the world.

Striving for equity in education is something that pretty much every educator can get behind, however, it is not exactly an easy thing to accomplish.

Equity can be somewhat confusing and difficult to implement if you don’t have a clear understanding of the concept and how it applies to education.

So what are the differences? Let’s look at the classroom (emphasis, mine).

In an equal classroom, students will more or less be treated all the same. They will have the same supplies, same assignments, same amount of interaction with the teacher, and learn the same way. As you can see, this isn’t a bad standard to strive for, but it falls short in many ways.

Equity, on the other hand, strives to achieve the best possible outcome for each individual student. Equity isn’t the easy route, instead of giving every kid equal treatment, you now need to look at each student as an individual and adjust your treatment of them accordingly.

Got it? Extrapolate the above differences to American society and everyday life. And bicycle helmet laws.

In 1993, King County Washington passed the law in question that requires all bicyclists to wear helmets. The law was expanded to explicitly include Seattle in 2003. Moreover, it was enacted to decrease the severity of bicycling incidents. (As I said at the top: been there; done that.)

However, “the community” (by “the community,” we’re talking about various segments of said community) began noticing data that suggested black and homeless bicyclists were receiving more tickets than “others.”

In response, the King County Board of Health revoked the helmet law, as ‘splained in a press release from Public Health Insider (emphasis, mine):

Bike helmets save lives and help prevent serious injuries. A review of several published studies estimates that bike helmets provide a 63-88% reduction in the risk of head and brain injuries for people who ride bikes. As part of the movement to encourage the use of bike helmets, the King County Board of Health passed a law in 1993 requiring anyone riding a bike to wear a helmet.

However, data presented to the Board of Health has shown racist and discriminatory enforcement. Seattle Police Department data collected and analyzed by Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and the Helmet Law Working Group shows that police disproportionately gave helmet law citations to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color cyclists.

Their analysis found that Black riders were nearly four times as likely to be cited by police for not wearing a helmet while biking compared to White riders. Further, in Seattle, nearly half of the citations issued for biking without a helmet were given to people living homeless.

How does a sane, logical, responsible human being read and interpret the above statement?

I’ll give it a shot.

Let me begin with this and I cannot stress it enough: The premise of my article is not an argument for or against helmet laws. I have strong feelings on both sides of the issue relative to mandated laws, even though I’m also a strong advocate of wearing helmets while riding. One look at the above statistics and similar others should lead any sane person to the same logical and responsible conclusion.

What I am incensed about is the reason Seattle revoked its law.

“Racial equity”? People of color and homeless people were allegedly disproportionately forced to protect themselves from the risk of serious head or brain injuries, so the lunatic left rescinded the law in an “equitable” manner, so as to ensure said people continue to “get in on” serious injury or death; without fear of breaking the law. In the name of racial justice. 

Sounds legit as hell, huh?