It’s been a year since the death of George Floyd prompted global protests against systemic racism. In the aftermath, members of the social skateboarding community came together to discuss what work could be done within our sector to challenge and improve the system.
While most of the world was still in some level of lockdown, The Goodpush Alliance (a Skateistan initiative to support social skateboarding organizations) began organizing a series of online sessions to discuss various issues the sector was facing.
“It started with Covid-19,” Rhianon Bader of Skateistan’s Goodpush Alliance said. “Most of the organizations in the Goodpush community had had to stop or adapt their programs in response to the pandemic. So we started running webinars to support each other and share ideas about how we could get through this. Then when George Floyd was killed, we started talking about how we could also work to identify and dismantle systemic racism within our organizations and skateboarding overall.”
From these early discussions, a Working Group came together with a view to drafting a Commitment to Anti-Racism in Skateboarding – a pledge which launches today, on the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death.
The Commitment is open for sign-on by all individuals, organizations, companies and media who are involved in skateboarding, and states:
We aim to recognize power relationships exist and to be mindful of how racism can take many forms, both in overt and micro ways. We see it as our duty to put in the work – to co-create spaces and areas of influence that are: welcoming, empowering, representative, and committed to racial equity for all individuals who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC).
As signatories, we aim to actively provide pathways and establish spaces where all voices are heard, valued and have support and access to resources to contribute fully to the skateboarding community. We also aim to support each other in the work of challenging systemic racism that may appear at our skateparks, in our media, in our organizational structures, in skate programs that we run, and in the skateboard industry.
Bader stresses that the Commitment is not a badge of honour for organizations, but rather a promise to keep working: “What was clear to us from the start is that we all have work to do. The Commitment is not a certificate to say that any organization or individual is anti-racist, it’s a pledge to keep doing the work and keep improving around a set of shared guidelines.”
In many ways, skateboarding can be an inclusive community. It’s often mentioned that as long as you skate, no one cares who you are, where you’re from or what you look like. But we have to be honest with ourselves that this is not always the case. We are living in systems that are bigger than us, and often we can allow unseen or covert biases to live on in our spaces. As a community, we need to keep challenging ourselves to be honest and prepared to do the work.
“Regardless of race, no one is immune to internalizing racism and we all need to get over our egos,” said Jessica Forsyth, of the Harold Hunter Foundation and a Working Group member.
This initiative isn’t the only piece of the puzzle – it’s really encouraging to see organizations like Consent is Rad recently publishing ‘Break the Cycle’ about how skateboarders can play a role in ending rape culture. The ‘Pushing Against Racism’ Working Group is hoping that this is the next important step in making our community more inclusive, more aware and more committed to a scene we can all be proud of.
“Even just creating this Commitment is a big thing because until now it hasn’t existed within skateboarding. We are writing history, actually,” said Sandy Alibo from Surf Ghana and the Commitment co-coordinator. She adds that: “My experience with the collective in Ghana made me realise how the importance of representation could allow communities to be heard and push for positive change. The skateboarding industry needs inclusion and genuine representation from the skateboarders, skate coaches, filmmakers, photographers, journalists, shapers, event managers, skatepark builders, and marketing managers.”
The Working Group behind the Commitment consists of:
Bangladesh Street Kids Aid, Consent is Rad (Australia / global), Free Movement Skateboarding (Greece), Good Times Familia (USA / Carribean), Harold Hunter Foundation (USA), Impact Skate Club (Canada), Make Life Skate Life (global), Poseiden Foundation (USA / Latin America), Deluxe Distribution (USA), Skateistan (global), Solid (USA), Surf Ghana, Surf Skate Science (USA) and Women Skate the World (Netherlands).
Find out more at http://antiracism.goodpush.org/
