Derby and Race: a 6 (or so)-part series

Over the next few weeks I'm going to explore the relation between race and roller derby. This was prompted by an interview I did with the lovely RayWoWW when, as a follow up question, she asked me, as a nonwhite person, what I thought the role of race in derby was. I ended up writing her a giant text wall of an email back, and I realized as I was doing it that there were all these issues that I couldn't really resolve for the purposes of telling her what I thought about race and derby.

Part of the reason that I'm interested in this is, obviously, because I'm a member of a racial minority. But at the same time, this semester I'm also teaching an awesome class on the Philosophy of Race and Gender, and it is really making me think about this stuff in my spare time. It's weird to just think about concepts like white privilege, for example, independent of any context. But then applying race theory to practice also brings out some interesting results.

Now, I know that there is an amazing blog entry by CRG's Elektra Q Tion on why derby is such a white sport. I think this is a really big contribution to the dialogue on race and derby, and what I'd like to do is build on some of the things that came out of that discussion, in addition to some other thoughts that have been rolling around in my brain.

Here's an example. New York City is a pretty racially diverse place, right? Well, here's a picture of Gotham's All-Star team from 2011:

And here's one from their 2013 team:

Hmm. So there are a few changes, but it still looks predominantly white. Why? I'm not asking that derby teams have to be proportionate to the diversity in the city's population, but what is it that makes nonwhite skaters less inclined to make the team? This might not be a problem, depending on how we think about the issues. I'm not sure what I'm going to be looking for here, but I think there are a LOT questions that need to be asked about what happens when race and derby collide.

So, in the next few weeks, I'll start where Q left off with asking about why derby is so white. But maybe that only works because whiteness is the norm, overwhelmingly, in western culture, where derby is predominantly played. So then another question comes up: what's the relation between derby and nonwestern culture? Does the role of gender and cultural norms have anything to do with it? And if there is a problem with racial underrepresentation in derby, what obligations do skaters (minority or not) have to make derby more diverse?

And down the rabbit hole we go...

Getting into the olympic spirit, or something

There are two reasons why I'm making this post.

Firstly, the Sochi Olympics are on right now. I'm not a huge fan of the winter olympics, except (maybe not surprisingly) for the events that take place on skates. Not so much fancy ass figure skating stuff, but ice hockey and speed skating.

So here's my favorite winter olympics moment EVER: Steven Bradbury winning Australia's first ever gold medal at Salt Lake in 2002.

And he won it because he was so far behind everyone else in the finals he didn't get caught in the pileup. And that's also how he made it to the semis. And in the heats he didn't qualify but then someone who did got disqualified and he got bumped up. Yeah. That is seriously one of the greatest stories ever told RIGHT THERE.



But hey, that's in the past. Here's some NEW NEWS, speaking of speed skating:

Francey Pants is training for the Winter Olympics. YES. 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, here she comes. Is there anything that she can't do?!

You can read all about it in this article.

Backwards scrimmage!

So backwards skating is not a new thing in derby, but check out this video of Gotham having backwards scrimmage practice:

Also check out the awesome backwards crossovers on the red Jammer when she gets out of the pack!

Obviously this is much easier for the blockers, who can see the jammer coming and can wall up (e.g. look at how red's wall holds together and moves when the black jammer tries to make their way though). This is an excellent exercise in getting comfortable going backwards and blocking that way (look at some of those laterals), which of course would be useful for forwards derby.

Swork it baby, yeah

We've had some pretty bad weather the last couple of days, so right now outside looks something like this:

Brrrr.

At least the dog seems to be enjoying herself.

It also means yesterday and today I was literally trapped in the house since there was over a foot of snow outside my door and that involved lots of  pushing to squeeze out. Bleh. So there was a lot of pushing and lunges and whatnot to get the door open. And then I had to shovel a whole driveway, which turned out to be pretty good exercise for my core/back/puny arms. So even though I can't get to practice, there is still working out to do!

Stupid twerk face not included.

But if I was REALLY unable to even go the 10 feet around my house, I can still do some sort of exercise at home. I've downloaded this neat app for my phone called Sworkit. (Yeah, so whoever came up with the name was trying a portmanteau of "Circuit Training" and "Workout" and came out with some weird thing that sounds like a weird form of twerking or something.) I don't know, the word "twerk" is gross to me; it just looks aesthetically unpleasing. "Swork" is not much better. Oh well.

But anyway, basically Sworkit is a pretty customizable workout thing that you can do without very much space and without much equipment. The only thing I've seen that you might need is something to step onto for step-ups, but otherwise all you need is enough floor to stretch out. And if you want you can mix things up by adding weights that you might have around the house (read: skates) or whatever.

You just type in how long you want to work out for, what you want to do (stretching, cardio, even some random yoga stuff) and then it will set up a workout for you. And if you want you can mix it up, so like 5 mins stretching, 20 mins cardio, 10 mins stretching, or whatever.

Here is a list of all the exercises you can do. On your phone, there's even little pictures so you can see what you are doing, and if you get the upgraded PRO version (for 99c!!) it gives you access to youtube videos so you can see form and whatnot, and a nice British sounding robot lady who will tell you when to do the next exercise.

Heh, there's one called "Skater". :D

Okay, some of that shit is HARD. But I guess also if you're doing this then it also has the added bonus of keeping you warm when it is cold outside or something and thus lowering your heating bills while you stay in shape. Yeah.

Berry spinach smoothie

I just realized I have a tag called "I like food" and no actual recipes for derby awesomeness in this blog, so here is a quick and easy one to start with. I like this because it takes literally a minute to throw together and is healthy and tasty.

So, you just start with the following things:

For 1 person:

• 1 banana
• Baby spinach
• Orange juice
• Frozen mixed berries
• Protein powder (optional)

Haha, notice that I didn't put quantities of the things besides banana. That's because you can make this according to taste. Don't like spinach? Fine, put in less! Want more berries? However the hell madam pleases! That said, I usually do a big handful of spinach and maybe a cup of OJ. You can't taste the spinach anyway.

The method is pretty easy. Throw stuff in a blender. But if you use protein powder, put that in somewhere AFTER the juice but before the solid ingredients, or else you get weird powdery floaty chunks which aren't totally great.


And then blend it. Do 10 squats while it blends.

Depending on how much stuff you put in, your smoothie will be somewhere between pink and green. You won't be able to taste the spinach but you're getting a crapload of fresh vegies. And the smoothie is surprisingly filling, because the banana, protein powder and frozen berries thicken it considerably without making it all dairy-y and sludgy. I made one for Killy when she was staying with me and she said it was pretty good and she normally doesn't even eat breakfast.

So there you have it! I usually have one of these on bout days, or when I feel like I need to get energized for doing something (like derby practice or grading a bazillion papers). It is so quick and easy to put together that I've also managed to put a smoothie together while I was having a 30 second break in a workout so that it was ready to drink when I was done. :)

Protip: when you're done, wash the blender and glass right away because it looks like bad poop when you leave it and it dries.

A roller derby quiet book

You know those interactive books you get when you're a kid and it's all like "feel the bunny's fur" or "lift up this tab and see some random thing" or whatever, so that you'll get distracted from yelling and carrying on like a kid, and do fun activities instead? Well, now there's one for derby.

Obviously it's not in print or anything, but it should be! You can do derbyesque activities like dress the skater:

And get the ref to signal calls properly:

Cutting! Major!

And do an actual 3D bout!

Adorable! :D
(All pictures in this post are from this page.)