![]() ![]() “ realized if they going to stay open, they were going to have to stay segregated because sometimes laws are more progressive than the people themselves,” says Dyana Winkler, who directed and produced the film with Tina Brown. United Skates, a 2018 Emmy-nominated documentary, highlights how rinks today possess a not-so-covert trace of Jim Crow-era segregation, relying on euphemistic language that can be viewed as containment and regulation of Black participation in white-owned rinks. (To her credit, Coto, a self-described “newbie” skater, responded to her popularity by citing the civil rights history of roller-skating in interviews and posting about Black Lives Matter on her social media.) The trendification of roller-skating during the beginning of the pandemic lent itself to a nostalgia for a predominantly white, 1970s past, and risked falling into a familiar narrative of whitewashing Black cultural practices that get consumed and ransacked while other people hold the financial and cultural power. At the end of April, Ana Coto’s roller-skating videos went viral on TikTok, and the optics - a white woman gliding down an empty California street in teal skates, cropped T-shirt, and flared jeans while lip- syncing to “Jenny From the Block” - were a far cry from the dense, collective scene of Black skating, and the magnetism of social dance that sets it apart. News media outlets called it a “ revival,” writing about approximations of Black style while writing around the Black history of roller-skating, a cultural practice that has never gone away. Skate-dedicated social media accounts kept blowing up and “everything was sold out,” says Bravo, including skates, wheels, and accessories. The pandemic has also brought an upsurge in skating interest and exposure, which reveals its contemporary racial politics across the United States. Says Ruiz, “By having communities like Sista Skaters, it allows people to identify with each other, relate to each other, and release things that are inside of us.” Sista Skaters, for example, is a group of Black and brown femme skaters who teach classes and perform. Because Black femmes do not get to escape their vulnerability to sexual and racial violence, many Black women use skating as a tool to care for themselves and others that is, to collectively practice and imagine a project of euphoric creativity. In roller rinks and parking lots, on basketball courts and the beach, skating provides respite, however brief, from a world that does not often allow Black women to take up space and live free, to move with pleasure, and refuse being closed in by forces intent on taming them. These young Black women in California are holding tight to how skating opens them up to a sense of freedom and renewal. On Kamry: Eckhaus Latta blazer and skirt Tasha Francis Tights, $60, available at Tasha. On Jas: Equihua Paniolo Mantel Vaquero Jacket, $645, available at Equihua Holiday Kokomo Pants, $225, available at Holiday. ![]() ![]() ![]() On Aaliyah: GCDS Mohair Top, $397.92, available at GCDS GCDS skirt Danielle Guizio Mohair Cardigan, $198, available at Danielle Guizio. On Lily: Apparis Lucia Trenchcoat, $375, available at Apparis Yan Yan Knits Checked Shrunken Vest, $325, available at Yan Yan Knits Nanushka Luyu Skirt, $366, available at Farfetch. From left, on Toni: Proenza Schouler White Label Layered Belted Rain Coat, $595, available at Proenza Schouler Private Policy top and leggings. ![]()
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