# Why speedcubers only come from certain areas?



## bichettereds (Dec 31, 2008)

If you were to have some competition among nations, obviously Japan would kick everyones ass. You got several other countries in Asia well represented along with the US and Canada and many European countries. I think it would be pretty cool to see some kinda competition between North America, Asia and Europe (you could probably do Scandinavia, then the rest of Europe).

Why no cubers coming out of Africa or South America? OK... maybe I can figure out the deal with Africa but why no South American speed cubers? 

On a side note... I havnt seen to many (actually zero) cubers that are black or Hispanic... regardless of what country theyre from. 

I hope thats not offensive to anyone... just wondering.


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## Pedro (Dec 31, 2008)

bichettereds said:


> Why no cubers coming out of Africa or South America? OK... maybe I can figure out the deal with Africa *but why no South American speed cubers? *



http://www.worldcubeassociation.org...tId=&regionId=_South+America&years=&list=List


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## Stefan (Dec 31, 2008)

bichettereds said:


> If you were to have some competition among nations, obviously Japan would kick everyones ass.


Um... http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/regions.php
Erik alone has more WRs than Japan.


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## Stefan (Dec 31, 2008)

Pedro said:


> http://www.worldcubeassociation.org...tId=&regionId=_South+America&years=&list=List


That's the list of your WCA competitions, here's the list of your WCA cubers:
http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/persons.php?regionId=_South+America


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## AvGalen (Dec 31, 2008)

Speedcubing requires a lot of free time and having a "I want to get better and better" attitude

Speedcubing is partly like religion (or a disease). You are likely to get influenced by someone close to you. Now look at where the "founding fathers" from the WCA come from

And black or hispanic looking cubers are indeed rare.
Just like black skiers
or (openly) gay soccer/rugby players


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## DAE_JA_VOO (Dec 31, 2008)

bichettereds said:


> Why no cubers coming out of Africa or South America? OK... maybe I can figure out the deal with Africa but why no South American speed cubers?



I'm from South Africa. 

I seem to be the only person in this country that's into speed cubing. I've tried really hard to find other speed cubers, but i can't find one. Obviously i can't say for sure that i'm the only one, but it sure feels like it. Hahaha. 

Emile Compion is from SA, but he lives in the US now.

I've managed to get a few people into speed cubing though, but they're all still slow (well over 50s).

People here just don't know about speed cubing. They just don't know it exists.


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## Jai (Dec 31, 2008)

DAE_JA_VOO said:


> Emile Compion is from SA, but he lives in the US now.


Canada, not US. >_>


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## IamWEB (Dec 31, 2008)

bichettereds said:


> On a side note... I havnt seen to many (actually zero) cubers that are black



*Walks in*


Am I the only one? :confused:


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## Odin (Dec 31, 2008)

bichettereds said:


> On a side note... I havnt seen to many (actually zero) cubers that are black or Hispanic... regardless of what country theyre from.



Im Hispanic and im a cuber, All of my cusions/brothers are cuber (All of us are Hispanic) Your just being a stereotype dude.

@ DEA JA VOO: my avrage is 51 seconds does that make me slow?


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## Stefan (Dec 31, 2008)

What does that have to do with stereotypes?


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## Odin (Dec 31, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> What does that have to do with stereotypes?



His kinda saying that theres no "Black or Hispanic speed cubers" and that the majority of good cubers are asian


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## nitrocan (Dec 31, 2008)

stereotype |ˈsterēəˌtīp; ˈsti(ə)r-|
noun
1 a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing : the stereotype of the woman as the carer | sexual and racial stereotypes.
• a person or thing that conforms to such an image : don't treat anyone as a stereotype.

That's not the word you're looking for unless there's a thought among all the people in the world like "Hispanic people? Yes they don't cube".

It's like when you think of a German man, you think of someone with blond hair and a glass of beer in his hand. Hope that didn't offend anyone


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## Dene (Dec 31, 2008)

bichettereds said:


> If you were to have some competition among nations, obviously Japan would kick everyones ass.


Wrong.


bichettereds said:


> I think it would be pretty cool to see some kinda competition between North America, Asia and Europe (you could probably do Scandinavia, then the rest of Europe).


Why? Why not just have a world championships so everyone can compete?



bichettereds said:


> Why no cubers coming out of Africa or South America? OK... maybe I can figure out the deal with Africa but why no South American speed cubers?


Wrong.



bichettereds said:


> On a side note... I havnt seen to many (actually zero) cubers that are black or Hispanic... regardless of what country theyre from.


Fail.



bichettereds said:


> I hope thats not offensive to anyone... just wondering.


Double fail.


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## Stefan (Dec 31, 2008)

Odin said:


> His kinda saying that theres no "Black or Hispanic speed cubers"


No, he only said he "hasn't seen" any. And that might very well be fact. Where's the stereotype?


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## d4m4s74 (Dec 31, 2008)

I can make so many jokes about this thread
but those are illegal in 42 states and germany


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## Hadley4000 (Dec 31, 2008)

I forget his screen name on here, but there is Ramone Jackson. Sub-20, nice guy.


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## qqwref (Dec 31, 2008)

This is a good question. I think it might actually have something to do with the fact that, at the moment, to be a decent cuber and go to competitions and so on you need (a) internet, (b) a couple of hundred dollars to spend on cube-related stuff [don't tell me you haven't XD], and (c) a lot of free time. If you're very poor, you're less likely to have that much money/time to put into a completely useless skill. And, at least in America, Hispanic and black families have a lower income on average than white or Asian families. This could explain part of it, but not all. (Note: there ARE black cubers; I've seen two of them at competitions. But I hope to see more, just like I hope to see more female, Hispanic, very young, or middle-aged cubers. Cubing is something that any type of person can get into.)

On the other hand, maybe culture/personality also plays a part. It seems to me that if you are the kind of person who makes a huge effort to be cool and popular, you wouldn't have a chance of picking up cubing. And it really seems like black/Hispanic teens are more likely to get into the gangster lifestyle and try to be cool, whereas white/Asian teens are more likely to become nerdy or obsessed with a particular skill. This might also be something that makes white or Asians more common in cubing. Who knows.


And nitrocan/Dene: pointing out a statistic doesn't mean you are promoting stereotypes or being racist. It's true: there really are fewer black or Hispanic cubers than white cubers, and there really are very few South American (38) and African (5) cubers, compared to other continents. (Australia also has very few (3 atm), but it's only got one country, so the low number is more understandable.)

Stereotyping is when you make the jump from a statistic to an individual, such as if someone said "The crime rate is higher among black men than white men, so you should be careful around black men." The real difference for me is that you can prove a stereotype wrong with one example (I found this Asian guy who doesn't work hard, so the stereotype is wrong) but you can't prove a statistic wrong without doing a huge poll (if it says 85% of Asians work hard, and you find one who doesn't, that's just one of the 15%).


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## Vulosity (Dec 31, 2008)

> Australia also has very few (3 atm),



I think there are more Aussie cubers than 3.


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## riffz (Dec 31, 2008)

Vulosity said:


> > Australia also has very few (3 atm),
> 
> 
> 
> I think there are more Aussie cubers than 3.



I would assume that's looking at WCA standings in terms of people that have competed in competitions.


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## nitrocan (Dec 31, 2008)

I think stereotype means something like this: The thing you first think of, about a nation, race, person, object, action, etc.

For example: Cubing is very hard. (most people think that way)

Maybe we think that way too but after some time, it's not so hard anymore.

It's a fixed and simplified image on a person's head. One different example won't change that. If for example I think of small eyed people when I think of Asian people, you can't prove me wrong with showing me an Asian person with bigger eyes.

There's no such fixed image in people's heads as "Hispanic's don't cube." There might be "Cubing wouldn't be popular among Hispanic people because blablabla." but that'd be an assumption.


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## Dene (Dec 31, 2008)

qqwref said:


> Cubing is something that any type of person can get into.



First question: What exactly is a "type" of person?



qqwref said:


> And nitrocan/Dene: stuff



Second question: But, I didn't say anything about this, I think you mean Odin?


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## shelley (Jan 1, 2009)

Dene said:


> bichettereds said:
> 
> 
> > On a side note... I havnt seen to many (actually zero) cubers that are black or Hispanic... regardless of what country theyre from.
> ...



How is that a fail? It's just an observation he made. How do you know how many black/Hispanic cubers he has seen?


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## Dene (Jan 1, 2009)

shelley said:


> Dene said:
> 
> 
> > bichettereds said:
> ...



The reasons are actually twofold.
Firstly: bad grammar.
Secondly: he failed to see more black/hispanic cubers.

How was that not obvious?


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## bichettereds (Jan 1, 2009)

bichettereds said:


> If you were to have some competition among nations, obviously Japan would kick everyones ass.



What I meant was, if you had like a team of cubers representing each country, Japan would win. I might still be wrong... but I didnt mean just one cuber (Erik) representing a country. 




bichettereds said:


> Why no cubers coming out of Africa or South America?



I guess I shoulda did more research on South America.



bichettereds said:


> I havnt seen to many (actually zero) cubers that are black or Hispanic... regardless of what country theyre from.



No stereotypes... thats a fact. I havnt seen any. I havnt been to any competitions though. 
And sorry about the bad grammar :-(


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## Brett (Jan 1, 2009)

A point I was thinking of that no one mentioned would be that buying Cubes outside of the "mainstream" cubing areas is difficult. By living in America I have multiple stores I could buy a DIY, Eastsheen or non-cubic puzzles in. From what I've seen, Japan and Europe also have these extensive resources. People in Africa and South America don't have many options, or have to order from places with unreliable shipping, or with incredibly high shipping costs.

I know if I hadn't emailed Tucker (owner of MasterTheCube shop) personally, and had a conversation with him about how he lives in America, my parents never would have agreed to purchase anything. (Although, that's just how my family is >_>)


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## IamWEB (Jan 1, 2009)

bichettereds said:


> On a side note... I havnt seen to many (actually zero) cubers that are black



*Walks in*
Am I the only one? :confused:


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## Dene (Jan 1, 2009)

Brett said:


> A point I was thinking of that no one mentioned would be that buying Cubes outside of the "mainstream" cubing areas is difficult. By living in America I have multiple stores I could buy a DIY, Eastsheen or non-cubic puzzles in. From what I've seen, Japan and Europe also have these extensive resources. People in Africa and South America don't have many options, or have to order from places with unreliable shipping, or with incredibly high shipping costs.



Shipping prices are OP  .


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## crazyasianskills (Jan 1, 2009)

I guess I can count as a Hispanic cuber. I'm a bunch of different ethnicities, mostly Chinese, but I'm also Hawaiian, Mexican, Filipino, Irish, Scottish, Italian, German, French, and Portuguese. And people always think I am black.


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## AvGalen (Jan 1, 2009)

Odin said:


> bichettereds said:
> 
> 
> > On a side note... I havnt seen to many (actually zero) cubers that are black or Hispanic... regardless of what country theyre from.
> ...



All of you should have read more carefully. Odin actually says that bichettereds is a stereotype dude. Odin didn't say bichettereds was stereotyping others.

If I understand this sentence correctly, that means that he says bichettereds is actually a typical cuber (so not black and/or hispanic)


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## qqwref (Jan 1, 2009)

Dene said:


> qqwref said:
> 
> 
> > Cubing is something that any type of person can get into.
> ...


Choose any adjective. Then it doesn't matter whether people are that or not, I'd like to see them getting into cubing unless they physically can't.



Dene said:


> qqwref said:
> 
> 
> > And nitrocan/Dene: stuff
> ...


This:


Dene said:


> bichettereds said:
> 
> 
> > On a side note... I havnt seen to many (actually zero) cubers that are black or Hispanic... regardless of what country theyre from.
> ...


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## Dene (Jan 1, 2009)

qqwref said:


> Dene said:
> 
> 
> > qqwref said:
> ...



Hmmm I still don't get it. Oh well.


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## Odin (Jan 1, 2009)

AvGalen said:


> Odin said:
> 
> 
> > bichettereds said:
> ...



well, im saying bichettered is stereotyping cubers. when i said,"Your just being a stereotype dude." i meant that bichettered is just being a stereotype.


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## blade740 (Jan 1, 2009)

AvGalen said:


> Odin said:
> 
> 
> > bichettereds said:
> ...



No, no, you have it all wrong. He's a stereotype dude. Meaning he surfs, listens to rock music, has long hair, etc.


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## shelley (Jan 1, 2009)

Odin said:


> AvGalen said:
> 
> 
> > Odin said:
> ...



Please look up the definition of stereotype before you post any more.


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## bichettereds (Jan 1, 2009)

Odin said:


> AvGalen said:
> 
> 
> > Odin said:
> ...




You keep saying that Im "being a stereotype". You mean to say Im stereotyping or that Im being stereotypical.

Thats not the case.

How am I stereotyping cubers? I said I havnt seen any Hispanic or black cubers, and thats a fact. From what others are saying, theyre quite rare compared to White and Asian cubers. 

I never said "blacks and Hispanics dont speedcube" or anything like that. That would be me stereotyping.


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