Let’s be real. Not every skater has the skills/opportunity to turn pro. There’s limited space in a team’s pro roster and for a long time it felt like any even smaller space for minorities. Maybe it’s just me but growing up it looked like there’s only one or two spaces for black dudes on a team even less for women. Girl only had Jeron, did alien workshop? Did creature? Did Es? Did Enjoi? Did krooked? Plan b? Anti hero had just pfanner. Emerica had Preston and that was short lived. Ray barbee was already too old. Other than baker and Dgk where you had to portray a stereotypical gangster there wasn’t really a lot space for black skaters to become pro on a real team.
I’m annoyed with all these people’s inability to see that tokenism for the sake of representation has negative effects. Shit like this makes some marginalized people feel our skills don’t actually matter, we’re just a skin color place holder for marketing. You question your self worth. I’m I at where I am because I achieved it or did I just receive it?
This sucks, and i can absolutely empathize with it. I am positive BD is wrestling with this inner dilemma right now, too.
My only response would be to ask this question: does skating have to stop at BD, reducing her to token representation, or will she open more doors for an underrepresented demographic?
I think the answer there depends on A) what companies do next to support black female skaters and B) how we, as skateboarders, choose to respond to her career.
If companies do what
@camel filters was talking about and fuckin look for talent, put their money where their mouth is and start seeking out more talented black female skaters to hook up because they saw Beatrice's success with Vans, then I think we can say she had at least that positive impact on the industry.
If we, as a culture, choose to accept and celebrate this person for being a skateboarder (she is a real skater, I don't think any amount of hating on her trick selection or skill level can take that from her) who is pushing boundaries, then I think we also open doors that were previously closed in skating by making it a welcoming place for a group of people who've been unwelcome/absent from it. That goes for Samarria, Nika, and every other POC woman in skating, not just BD. I hope their sponsors push their careers as much as Vans has done for Beatrice, because clearly the culture is down to support many of them.