skate.culture
Posted: August 9th, 2009 | Author: kamau | Filed under: film, globalization, photography | 3 Comments »I lived many years in southern California, spiritual home of skateboarding and thus am quite familiar with its roots in that state and its culture. So that is why I am so intrigued that skateboarding is what is the new new thing for kids in the black diaspora. New expressions of youth culture have typically flowed the other way; from the city to the suburbs from black kids to white kids, from black America to Africa. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes me wonder if hip hop (which has so dominated pop culture in the last 2 decades) is so played out that young black kids are now looking outside/beyond it for something new to identify with.
Screenshot from Jamil GS’ blog. © Jamil GS
Pictures of skate kids (the Bull Bay Bowl in Kingston, Jamaica) taken by Danish-American photographer Jamil GS.
Skate park at the recent Afro-Punk festival in Brooklyn. Photo by your humble servant.
Previously: Kitintale Skates 2008. Skate park in Uganda.
See also: Trailer for the Stacy Peralta-directed documentary “Dogtown And The Z-Boys” chronicling skateboarding roots in southern California where it drew inspiration from surfing, the tough latino cholo sub-culture of LA and the empty backyard pools in the ‘burbs that skateboarders first used to start figuring out how to do the high-flying-death-defying moves that are staples of the scene today.
As a skater with 20+ years on the board, I can say that black skaters are not a new phenomenon. I will say there has been a significant increase in the amount of black skaters on the scene since the beginning of the new millennium though. Skateboarding has become a much more commercial and therefore visible presence, exposing it to youth who might not normally encounter it. A number of very successful black skaters (Stevie Williams most notably, and Kareem Campbell before him) have achieved their success on their own terms, without conforming to the “stoked duuude” whiteboy stereotype perpetuated by non-skaters. I believe these gentlemen served as examples as to what a black skater can be. The truth of the matter is, most black skaters were being persecuted by their own communities, not the larger skate community. I can say, with confidence, that skateboarding is one of the most integrated, colorblind (if there is such a thing) things I have ever been a part of. Anyways, my point is, being a black skater is more acceptable now than it ever has been.
Stevie, thanks for stopping by and offering much insight. One, I like what you say about the heightened media attention and how it is drawing kids to the skate scene. Two, much respect to the gentlemen you mention; my hat is always off to people who swim against the current, who zig when others zag (more difficult in our community where there are often inflexible and uninformed notions of what black folk can and can’t do).
My pleasure. Here is an interview I conducted with Jahmal Williams, an Boston pro skateboarder with decades of experience. He describes his experience of what it was like to grow up in Boston (!) as a young, black skater in a time when black skaters were few and far between.
http://thangsandthangs.blogspot.com/2009/08/city-to-city-jahmal-williams-interview.html
His company: http://www.hoppsskateboards.com
Keep up the good work!