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Its not even up for debate that this is a gestural decision - and if it means more black female pros and more visibility for black female skateboarders or female skaters of any ethnicity then thats all right. Its opening the doors and helping pave a route at the very least. I don't think you need to worry about your precious realm of professional skateboarding being jeopardized. there will always be people who see life as one big competition.
People of all races and genders have always been skating.
Always had people of all races and genders? Not really.
In the 90s skating was pretty white, pretty male and catered to mostly latchkey kids (outside of the SF and NY scenes that did have more racial diversity but came from similar family structures and was still overwhelming male).
98-2002 a lot of suburban white kids got into skating through Tony Hawk Pro Skater (think the Mike Mo and Figgy types)
There’s been black dudes sprinkled in for a while but skating got way blacker around the mid-late 2000’s, lowkey because of the rollout for the Ice Cream video (for example this is around the time a lot of the Odd Future affiliates got into skating).
The mid-late 2010’s is when you start seeing a lot more women and open LGBT skaters.
It’s much more diverse now, but there’s still room to grow so I back Beatrice turning pro if it’s good for exposure, the same way I would back Jeremy Lin if he made it to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
I also think FA as a brand kinda proved that conventional pro standards aren’t really necessary. Sean Pablo was trash until 2 years after he got a board (although he was pretty young when he turned pro, and wasn’t he starting college or something?).
Edit: Sorry, new dosage on ADHD medication smh
Topic: Beatrice Domond pro for FA very soon (Read 517924 times)