Draft:Ryan Carrell & Black Skateboard history

Ryan Carrell
Ryan Carrell is a 26 year old professional skateboarder, from San Bernardino, California. Who began picking up the sport during high school.

Sponsors
Carrell is currently sponsored by Pawn skate shop, Dgk, Asics, Thunder Trucks, Bones, Nixon and skates for Zero Bellow Grills.

Context
Being a professional person of color(POC) in the sport of skateboarding brings its difficulty with it. From the application for sponsors to representation in media many professional skateboarders in the past such as Chris Patras have claimed that racism had an impact on their career by not letting them have “creative input into the companies’ vision ”. Chris Patras was a professional skateboarder, and is the owner of Vision Skateboard a company “who dominated the global skateboarding landscape during the popularity of vertical skateboarding in the 1980s. ” In addition, when given the place to be represented in the media it is then filled with racist tropes, and actions. “Big Black” from DC’s ”The DC Video” (2003) proves this, as he was portrayed as a security guard for skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, who was meant to serve him protecting Dydrek from fans, waxing curbsides, and etc. It is only recently that POC get to show themselves through their talents of skateboarding. This is primarily done through “sponsor-me tapes ”, and additionally through the rise of social media. In addition, these videos serve to open space “in which boys can give expression to types of pleasure that are normatively off-limits. ” Allowing POC skateboarders to post their experiences, along with their attempts to do tricks, while simultaneously allowing for their own creative expression to take place.

However, how does this compare to the general situation of cops and private security being called on skateboarders and also more specifically black people as a whole? In the United States there is a serious issue of police brutality amongst black peoples. In fact according to ”The Sentencing Project” “Black Americans were 9.3 times as likely as whites to be homicide victims in 2020. “ These numbers only show the difficulty of being black in the United States, without even looking at being a skateboarder. In fact there is a case of police brutality that reined important for skateboarders across the United States. On January 7th, 2023, Tyre Nichols was pulled out of his car, being tased and pepper sprayed then dying three days later. Skateboarders took to the streets of Los Angeles, Memphis, and New York to protest against the event that happened.