Colour in the lines: The racial politics and possibilities of US skateboarding culture
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis examines the informal sporting culture of skateboarding as a contested site of racial politics in the United States of America (US). Action sports scholars have long identified the ‘whiteness’ of this sport but rarely created space for the voices of people of colour (POC) within skateboarding. Underpinned by Critical Race Theory (CRT), this project centralizes the previously unheard voices of POC and reveals the unique challenges, strategies, and successes of POC within the elite skateboarding culture across particular historical contexts of skateboarding and within US society. With the aim of understanding the complex and nuanced experiences of race within the skateboarding culture, sport, and industry, I conducted semi-structured interviews with forty male and seven female skateboarders of colour who have played critical roles in the culture as athletes, company owners, managers and media producers. Participants in the study are from a spectrum of racial backgrounds (African American, Asian American, Latinx/Hispanic) with their skateboarding participation ranging from the mid-1970s to the present day. Interviews were supplemented by a quantitative and qualitative examination of skateboarding magazines over this same time frame. Engaging the empirical material in dialogue with CRT, the key themes are organized into four chapters. The first explores the importance of family and community in forming the participants’ earliest understandings of race, racism, and politics. It then examines their initial participation in skateboarding, including the challenges of facing racial stereotypes from their communities and society in general. The next chapter outlines the path into professional skateboarding and the racial politics of gaining ‘visibility’ from those in power positions within the industry. It also examines the formation of elite skateboarding teams and the critical role of mentorship and interpersonal relationships with other POC as well as with non-…
abstract: This thesis examines the informal sporting culture of skateboarding as a contested site of racial politics in the United States of America (US). Action sports scholars have long identified the ‘whiteness’ of this sport but rarely created space for the voices of people of colour (POC) within skateboarding. Underpinned by Critical Race Theory (CRT), this project centralizes the previously unheard voices of POC and reveals the unique challenges, strategies, and successes of POC within the elite skateboarding culture across particular historical contexts of skateboarding and within US society. With the aim of understanding the complex and nuanced experiences of race within the skateboarding culture, sport, and industry, I conducted semi-structured interviews with forty male and seven female skateboarders of colour who have played critical roles in the culture as athletes, company owners, managers and media producers. Participants in the study are from a spectrum of racial backgrounds (African American, Asian American, Latinx/Hispanic) with their skateboarding participation ranging from the mid-1970s to the present day. Interviews were supplemented by a quantitative and qualitative examination of skateboarding magazines over this same time frame. Engaging the empirical material in dialogue with CRT, the key themes are organized into four chapters. The first explores the importance of family and community in forming the participants’ earliest understandings of race, racism, and politics. It then examines their initial participation in skateboarding, including the challenges of facing racial stereotypes from their communities and society in general. The next chapter outlines the path into professional skateboarding and the racial politics of gaining ‘visibility’ from those in power positions within the industry. It also examines the formation of elite skateboarding teams and the critical role of mentorship and interpersonal relationships with other POC as well as with non-…
author: Williams, Neftalie
keywords: race, racism, race in sport, CRT, cultural studies, critical race theory, Black Lives Matter, Black athletes, African America, Black Sport, skateboarding, Asian american, x-games, Black leaders, Black art, skaters, Black skaters, skaters of color, skaters of colour, US racism, racial politics, racism in sport, Black bodies, Black professionals, Hispanic, Hispanic skaters, Latinx, Transworld Skateboarding, Thrasher, Tony Hawk, ESPN, Redbull, Olympics, action sports, extreme, extrem sports, minority, ethnic, minority athletes
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/9cccc49c-d567-4191-bec6-339d843dfd11/download
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:27Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato