skateboarding, accountability, and the work of showing up differently
This space holds conversations around mental health, awareness, and how we move through the world together. Anti-racism is part of that. Inclusion and exclusion shape how safe people feel, how they belong, and how they experience everyday life.
This page shares the “Pushing Against Racism” commitment by The Good Push Alliance, grounded in the understanding that skate spaces are not automatically inclusive, and that change requires awareness, reflection, and action.
As a skater, and through MNSTR Skate, this is something I stand behind and continue to learn from.
“Skateboarding has always been about freedom.
Who that freedom is accessible to still matters.”
Photo by Christian Mackie // Unsplash
the commitment
As members of the global skateboarding community, we have come together to make a collective commitment to actively resist and challenge systemic racism in our own scenes, organizations, the skateboard industry, and wider society.
Skateboarding and skateboarding-based social programs should always be safe spaces where everyone can thrive. Yet, we recognize that we operate within social and organizational systems that are larger than us. We recognize power relationships exist and we are mindful of how racism can take many forms, overt and covert or “micro”. 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 – particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), and all racialized peoples that experience discrimination against their ethnicity or religion.
This Commitment recognizes that our security is linked to the safety of all oppressed people, and our shared joy and power are dependent on all of us working together to create a world free from xenophobia, racism, bigotry, and associated systems of oppression.
We know that the experiences and impact of color-based racism, cultural discrimination, colonialism, anti-Indigenous policies, antisemitism, and Islamophobia are interconnected and that we can’t address one of these without addressing all of them. Racism can express itself differently in each context and is experienced differently by each individual. We acknowledge that these experiences of racism are also impacted by the complex intersection between gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and faith.
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. We also commit to co-creating spaces for learning and accountability for people with social privilege and especially racial or ethnic privilege. We agree to set a positive public example by acting in a manner that supports this vision of equity in skateboarding.
BY SIGNING ON TO THIS COMMITMENT WE, THE SKATEBOARDING COMMUNITY, AGREE TO THESE GUIDELINES FOR TACKLING RACISM TOGETHER:
- We are committed to learning about and challenging all types of systemic racism that affect skateboarding and fellow skateboarders, either directly or indirectly.
- Together, we acknowledge the emotional labor, expertise, and valuable time of those oppressed by systemic racism.
- We recognize that it is our collective responsibility to do the work to educate ourselves about privilege and racism.
- We welcome feedback and are open to change and learning.
- We will endeavor to replace defensiveness and reaction with listening and reflecting.
- We encourage people to be open and share about our experiences with systemic racism if we feel safe to do so in order for the community to improve on this matter.
- We recognize that we can only achieve progress if we let ourselves be vulnerable as we move toward equity. As with skateboarding, we have to be willing to potentially make mistakes and learn from them.
- We work to make space for each other and try to encourage one another to contribute to our collective knowledge-building and action.
- We are focused on the goal of dismantling racism and prejudice in the skateboarding community and industry worldwide.
WE AGREE to hold each other accountable and support each other to challenge racism and build equity in skateboarding.
PLEASE SIGN HERE
“Language doesn’t just describe the world.
It helps shape what we accept within it.”
anti-oppression language
This section offers a starting point for understanding some of the language often used in conversations around racism, power, and equity. A starting point you can return to, in your own time.
Anti-racism – Anti-racism is the act of working actively against racism in our society. It’s more than just accepting and not hating other people. It can include speaking up, starting conversations, challenging harmful behavior, and helping create change where possible.
Bias – Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, or a belief.
Colorism – In most societies, people with lighter skin tones hold more power. Even in predominantly Black societies, this can be true.
Discrimination – Excluding someone or treating them unfairly because of their appearance, characteristics, or identity.
Equity vs. Equality – Equality means giving everyone the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that people start from different places and may need different levels of support to reach similar outcomes.
Inclusion – The behaviors, actions, and social norms that ensure people of minority backgrounds have access to equal opportunities and resources, as well as feel welcome, safe, and supported.
Islamophobia – An expression of fear, hatred, or intolerance towards Muslims and their religious beliefs and practices.
Prejudice – The belief that someone has negative qualities because of the way they look or their identity or experiences. Prejudice can exist against ethnicities, religious groups, disabilities, poverty, skin tone, weight/body type, sexual identity/LGBTQ, gender, criminal history, education, and many other factors that make up the human experience.
Systemic Racism – Policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, education, and political representation. It is also called “institutional racism,” a term coined by Black Power activists Charles V. Hamilton and Stokely Carmichael to distinguish it from individual racism, which is typically more overt.
White Privilege – The societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people, particularly if people are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. With roots in European colonialism and imperialism and the Atlantic slave trade, white privilege has developed in circumstances that have broadly sought to protect white racial privileges, various national citizenships, and other rights or special benefits.
Xenophobia – (from Ancient Greek: ξένος, romanized: xénos, meaning “stranger” or “foreigner”, and phóbos, meaning “fear”) is the fear or hatred of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange.
For a more complete glossary, you can explore the full resource by The Good Push Alliance.
Photo by Lorenzo Cerato // Unsplash
A closing reflection
Anti-racism is not a fixed point. It asks for awareness, reflection, and a willingness to keep learning. What we build in skateboarding reflects what we are willing to notice, challenge, and change.