At first glance, skateboards seem nothing more than a set of wheels and some wood, but the UNM skating team thinks they can be a lot more.
D Andre Q. Curtis, also known as Dre, said he is hosting a skateboarding demo today with his team, T.E.A.M. D.A.N.K.
“It’s not only my rescue to clear and free my mind, but it does a lot for kids and families,” Curtis said. “When you go to a skate competition, you don’t only see the kids — you see the parents, teenagers and the elders. It brings everyone together no matter what they like to do.”
Curtis is African-American and an architecture student. In his sparse free time, he said he strives to promote cultural acceptance.
Since it’s Black History Month, he said he’s ramping up his efforts.
“Black History Month, to me, is actually Black History Year 365 days around, but we are fortunate to get a month because of our forefathers and their struggle,” he said. “I don’t feel it’s enough, but it’s a start.”
T.E.A.M. D.A.N.K., which stands for “To Every Adult and Minor, Don’t Affiliate Negativity, Kids,” is part of that effort. He said as far the skateboarding world is concerned, race doesn’t matter, and he wants to show that to everyone.
“I feel when people see us skating next Wednesday, they’ll see a group of people who came together with all different backgrounds,” he said.
Curtis said he has firsthand experience with the power of skateboarding. Right as he was about to start middle school, he moved to Mesa, Ariz., a primarily Mormon town, he said.
“It was one of three African-American students. It was not the worst thing ever,” he said. “They treated me pretty well. I mean, nowhere is perfect. But the person who taught me how to skate was a Caucasian fellow named Chris who I became close with.”
From there, he said, his love of skateboarding was cemented, and it brings him meaning today.
“Skateboarding to me means so much because someone I thought I might never get along with taught me something that I truly enjoy,” he said.
Curtis, however, is by no means an isolated phenomenon. Other team members said they felt the same way about skating.
Teammate and student Vincent King, also African-American, said race doesn’t exist in the skateboarding world, and even the term “skater” is too nebulous to describe a person.
“Yeah, I skateboard,” he said. “There’s a lot that encompasses that term. I mean, there are so many different types of people that skate. It’s a really broad generalization saying that you are a skater. So I’d say I am somebody who, uh, … enjoys skateboarding. That would be an appropriate term.”
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King conceded that sometimes and in some places race is a factor. He said while he was in New York visiting family, another African-American man approached him and his cousin.
“He said, ‘Black people don’t skateboard. What are you doing?’” he said. “That just struck me as odd that our own people are trying to tell us that we are supposed to listen to what other people are telling us what we are supposed to do.”
King said his experience wasn’t typical, but left its mark. He said the experience has never happened to him in New Mexico.
“It’s almost more hurtful than hearing it from someone else, and it just reminds me how immensely oppressed African-American people are,” he said. “If you are going to say something like that, how deeply influenced are you? I don’t know, man. It was a downer.”
Other skaters agreed.
Damien Grandestaff said he’s Hispanic, and while that doesn’t matter in skateboarding, it might matter on the street. He said he skates with African-Americans, Native Americans and Caucasians on T.E.A.M. D.A.N.K.
“I find myself skating with all kinds of people,” he said. “I skate with black people, white people, like, you know, extremely white people that don’t even do anything like I do. We just try to have a good time and relate, you know?”
