“X has a whiteness problem” has become a staple of the current identity politics cultural revolution. Wine had its turn.
Articles warn, The Wine Industry is Overwhelmingly White.” and they frantically urge, “It’s Time to Decolonize Wine” and “It’s Time: Diversity in Wine”.
“In the two months since the June George Floyd protests, some Black winemakers have called out the racism in their industry,” Mother Jones exclaimed.
As did commercial real estate, curling, and complaining that things are too white.
Headlines like, “Climate Activists Confront the Movement’s Whiteness Problem,” “The Enduring Whiteness of the Fed”, and “Commercial Real Estate has a Whiteness Problem” show the sheer scale of Whitenessphobia which is triggered by everything from the Federal Reserve to Greta Thunberg
Curling, a sport that even most sports fans can’t grasp, and which seems to exists just to punish casual viewers of the Winter Olympics, is fighting to eliminate its “whiteness” problem. The problem, lies with bagpipes and “Scottish paraphernalia hanging in curling clubs” reinforcing the “dominant whiteness.”
Now it’s skateboarding’s turn.
That thing teenage boys do when they hang around mall parking slots, slowly bump down a staircase, before falling flat on their faces is just too white.
Skateboarding seeks to flip its image of whiteness – AFP
At a Houston skate park, talented skateboarder Dallis Thompson says his father-in-law often asks him why he chooses a “white boys’ sport” over something like basketball. “I’m like why?” says the 33 year old, “It’s not a white sport, you know what I mean. There’s Hispanic people that do it, Asian people.” Back in September 2020, Thrasher, the iconic skateboarding magazine, confronted a historic image of whiteness in the sport by putting 32 Black skaters its cover. The cover had no headline, it let the portraits speak for themselves. The message was clear: the skating community must highlight its members of color.
Flip its image? Doesn’t AFP realize that puns have a whiteness problem?
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