"The whitewashing of roller skating's online revival" by @jessjoho is very good (h/t @BrownJefe). A few thoughts: 1/4
#derbytwitter
She lays out how the segregation of Black and white skating communities has been transmuted into the online -- Tik-Tok's selection algorithms further deepening the separation between the two and Planet Roller Skate's censoring of Black skaters 2/4
This graf, on how white-owned rinks in LA ban a certain kind of wheel especially caught my eye. It reminded me a lot about the clothing bans at Fast Forward, a white-owned rink in the middle of the Allied Drive neighborhood in Madison, which was predominantly Black and brown. 3/4
(also can we have a conversation the role that white queerness is used as a defense to misdirect accusations of anti-Blackness? thanks)
tl;dr: anti-Blackness in skating is not only interpersonal, but also _infrastructural_ in physical and virtual spaces. Going after Julie Glass is one thing, but there's so much more that's baked into algorithms and org policies that go beyond a few racists in our midst. 4/4
(a few _explicit_ racists, that is)
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.