‘Segregated Waves’: Now Surfing and the Ocean are Racist
“That’s threatening to a local… who feels this like deep entitlement because of their whiteness and their privilege.”
SF Weekly managed to ruin an interesting story about a woman trying to make surfing appealing to females, blacks, and indigenous people.
The weekly publication framed the story around racism instead of exploring these organizations women started to bring those people into the sport.
I understand the points Emily Zhang and those she interviewed made in this article.
But the framing. Zhang really took advantage of the social discord rumbling through America to paint white people, even today, as oppressors.
For example, Dionne Ybarra shared how her Mexican-American family only went to the beach on July 4th. She took swimming lessons, but her mother always made her wear a life jacket.
Ybarra took up surfing in her 20s. She founded The Wahine Surf Project in 2010, which “aims to get more young girls of color out in the water.”
She learned through the project while working parts that she realized “that the fear of water her mother exhibited — and a culture of not going to the beach — is common in communities of color.”
Chelsea Woody co-founded Textured Waves, which is an organization for women of color surfers. Her reasoning makes sense, but again, it’s all about “America’s history of systemic racism” that has helped keep “people of color from taking up water sports.”
How about instead of concentrating on the past we look towards the future? I guess not:
“Segregation laws of this country really restricted who could participate in leisure activities and zoning laws with who could buy land in certain areas and coastal towns,” Woody explains.
The California Land Act of 1851 pulled sprawling ranchos away from Mexican owners and handed them over to white settlers. Pools and beaches were segregated during Jim Crow, effectively prohibiting Black people from public access. A 2014 CDC study found that Black American children were up to 10 times more likely to drown than white children.
“I think the lineup is really just an extension of colonialism,” says Kyla Langen, co-founder of San Francisco based Queer Surf.
Mira Manickam-Shirley, another surfer, claimed: “that racial disparities in wealth, as well as the history of housing discrimination and access to loans, all play into who lives by the beach now.”
She said: “If you go and look at a lot of housing covenants in coastal properties, contracts about the sale of homes, they literally will say this home cannot be sold to, and then list of various different ethnicities, different races.”
I really hope Manickam-Shirley reports these people because we have something called the Fair Housing Act:
The Fair Housing Act, Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, covers housing discrimination. This law prohibits housing discrimination by real estate firms and homeowners. This means that homeowners may not refuse to lease or sell property based on race, religion, gender, color, or national origin. In some localities, special housing discrimination ordinances or laws also cover sexual orientation. This does not mean, however, that sellers must sell you their home. It means that you could take legal action if the seller refuses to sell and you believe it was due to discrimination.
Instead of telling a weekly publication why not take proper action against those sellers and realtors?
With limited room, surfers can often be territorial. This must mean they’re racist (emphasis mine):
While Ybarra’s East Salinas neighborhood was predominantly Latinx, she says the ones dotting the peninsula were — and still are — white. This feeds into a wider narrative of racialized entitlement over land.
Someone at the beach told Ybarra she couldn’t park there, and Langen’s car was keyed outside a surf break when she first moved to Santa Cruz.
“I think it was just, you know, a new person showing up who is kind of competent and can surf and that’s threatening. That’s threatening to a local… who feels this like deep entitlement because of their whiteness and their privilege. And the fact that they probably own a house close by.”
Or maybe they’re just jerks who do not want new people treading on their spot? Just because someone is an a**shole doesn’t mean they’re racist or sexist.
I am all for inclusion and bringing more people into surfing. Or anything. It would have been a lot more interesting if Zhang interviewed these ladies about the organizations instead of only talking about racism and whose fault it is for the lack of people of color and females in surfing.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
First every story from the Media is about racism, that’s how Leftists view the world.
Cause they be more racist than Stalin, Che, Mao, Hitler and all the KKK rolled into one………
Racism is a subset of diversity dogma that is a progressive class-based taxonomic system, processes, and beliefs that deny individual dignity, deny individual conscience, observe color blocs, support color quotas, and prosecute affirmative discrimination. Be wary of anyone who exercises liberal license to indulge color judgments.
Maybe, too, it takes away any positive meaning from the term “classy”. Just playing.
As daybydaycartoon proposed an NYT headline on Sunday, “Racisty racist white fascists oppressed LGBTQ and trans people today racistly.” I’d include the URL but it’s NSFW.
Having a fear of the ocean is common sense. We need to get POC to overcome their fears of the ocean, so more of them can drown. Great message, guys.
Having been a beach & pool lifeguard, summer camp waterfront director, and having worked with Black boys to help them overcome their racial characteristics with prevent them from normal swimming; I’d like to point out a major problem.
Most Black boys have dense bodies, meaning they displace more water than their body weighs. So they sink and the only solution are flotation vests. No experience with Black girls and fat ones may be able to displace a lot more water and can float.
There is no greater fear of the water, than being unable to float; let alone swim. I watched one black boy bounce his way back to shallow water, sinking till he hit bottom and running underwater till he hit shallows and popping back up.
Being poor means any race can’t join private clubs with pools, and go to public beaches or semi-private ones.
Surfing is hardly restricted and surfers are notorious for being unable to read ‘no trespassing’ signs. Wetsuits are made of foamed neoprene and provide buoyancy for surfers and swimmers with ‘dense’ bodies. With full body wetsuits we can ‘all’ be black!
I don’t know why, but I have this sudden urge to go Skeet Surfing.
It’s been said many times, if everything is racist, then nothing is racist.
That’s so racist!!11!!1
“A 2014 CDC study found that Black American children were up to 10 times more likely to drown than white children.” If banning black children from the water saves even one black child, then they should be banned, right? Alternatively, the water is racist because of disparate impact. I’m just using DemoncRat logic regarding the Wu flu, and BLM logic regarding disparate impact.
Nancy say
“Thank goodness for Ripple! Hiccup.”
“Straight, no racist water!”
Kids – black, brown, and white – drown when there are no adults around keeping an eye on what they’re up to. That’s all anyone needs to know about that stat.
Very true. Pool guards are trained to keep an eye on Black kids since they have such poor buoyancy. Swimmer’s bodies can be dense and have to swim using muscle power. There are very few black swimmers as a result of this racial/physical handicap.
Diversity dogma (i.e. class-based taxonomic system, processes, beliefs) is a progressive condition. We should be wary of people who indulge color judgments, not limit to racism, sexism.
You know, I can honestly see the “Peaceful Palestinian People”™ taking this up and using some sort of “Israeli APARTHEID!!” theme.
Indeed.
If you’re so concerned about POC surfing, lady, move to Hawaii. You’ll be considered “da local kine” just cause you have dark skin.
“Or maybe they’re just jerks who do not want new people treading on their spot? Just because someone is an a**shole doesn’t mean they’re racist or sexist.”
I knew a few surfers in the islands and southern CA. They told me that they used to beat up strangers who came to “their” beach. So, that’s probably what she was the victim of, not racism.
Having grown up in Hawaii, I recall many times when this houle (white) boy was harrassed and even chased away by several locals (POC) just for being in ‘their’ surf area.
Years ago, a visitor to the islands was killed by a Samoan guy on a beach in Nanakuli for having the nerve to spend the night there. Killed him with one punch.
Also, my wife and daughter were sitting on a beach in Waianae when two local guys walked by. One of them flicked a lit cigarette onto the two “haole b!tches.”
More than one tourist has found out about the “local” beaches.
I’ve always contended that “haole” is the Hawaiian “N” word, though locals would swear on stacks of bibles that it isn’t. As an HPD cop, I saw it used too often not to think that. Got called it a few times myself, but that’s just the norm for police.
And in Hawaii, take two people. One white, one brown skinned. White guy grew up in Waimanalo, the other in Kansas. The locals will immediately think the white guy is from the mainland, the brown skinned from Hawaii. Just the way they roll there. I can’t speak to the other islands, but Oahu is definitely this way.
I attended U. of Hawaii at Manoa one semester. I had a ball. Some of the memories I have are absolutely hilarious.
In the dorm in the beginning the people on my floor were quite standoffish at first. After they saw I have a laid back and easygoing personality we became fast friends.
The year before that I moved to Hawaii with the intention of finding a job and then going to school.
But one of the first questions I was asked at every interview was, “Are you a local boy?”
I couldn’t fake pidgin English well enough. I admitted I was from the mainland … and I would never get the job.
Racism!!! Hey, I could play this game, too.
Oahu is likely the most tolerant and cosmopolitan. I’ve heard a few times that on the big island there are some beaches and areas favored by the locals where outsiders are definitely not welcome.
Ummm … spend some time watching the local surfers in Hawaii.
Most of them are not white.
All of this all-day-long, every-day-of-the-week “Racism! Racism! Racism!” crap really makes me want to go back to Japan. You could go years there and never hear the word “racism” uttered by a single person, nor used by the media.
Very fun assignment:
Watch a Korean drama and marvel at how the values and systems that engender success and a well-functioning society are cast in a positive light. The stark contrast with the dark and sinister narratives surrounding these same values and systems alongside the simultaneous celebration of dysfunction produced by today’s American entertainment industry will have you wondering if you’ve been transported to a new and wonderful time.
In Korean dramas you’ll see hard work, personal responsibility, and self-sacrifice all saluted in addition to capitalism. It will all appear very foreign at first, but not because of the different language and country.
The Korean entertainment industry is a juggernaut of late. It’s replaced Japan as the mover and shaker of pop culture.
My wife and I used to watch Japanese dramas, but Japan’s dramas are in a creative slump and just can’t compete with Korean dramas these days.
There are quite a few Korean dramas on Netflix, so you don’t have to subscribe to a Korean drama streaming service. The one we’re currently watching, “Crash Landing on You,” is a huge hit throughout Asia. The story takes place in both North and South Korea. North Korean defectors have said the scenes of NK are a pretty spot on depiction of life in North Korea. The main actress is amazing as are many of the supporting actors and actresses. It’s very funny and exciting.
I wish I could give you more than one uptick.
I watched “Crash Landing on You.” It’s a love letter to North Koreans.
Re the ROK film industry and its actors: my sentiments exactly. There’s a certain something special I really enjoy about their industry’s work.
(I still can’t help but wonder weather PDRK-Kim might actually enjoy a cameo now and then to, maybe, warm things up a bit between the two sets of cousins on the peninsula. I could see PDT cashing in — at least working the idea a little to restart disarmament talks, or something. Whatever it takes to ingratiate the POC-Orient sector, thereby proving white condescension and, hence, racism.)
K-POP is suddenly in the social media’s view.
—–and she backed this accusation of rampant, blatant and illegal racism up by showing exactly zero of those covenants.
“If you go and look at a lot of housing covenants in coastal properties, contracts about the sale of homes, they literally will say this home cannot be sold to, and then list of various different ethnicities, different races.”
Those covenants exist, all right. And they’re every bit as nasty as she says. But they haven’t been enforced in 72 years. So while they might be useful in explaining why certain neighborhoods were exclusively white in the 1940s, they don’t have much explanatory power now. Anyone who wanted and could afford to move to those neighborhoods in the last three generations has been able to.
It’s still class-based (i.e. capital) discrimination… discernment, but not derivative from diversity dogma or low information attributes (e.g. race, sex).
More than being unenforced, they are explicitly unenforceable under existing case law.
When Obama vacationed on Nantucket( $$$$$$) there was a write up of the Black colony on the island and the wealthy people of African descent who quietly moved there. Have to remember New England’s Islands were ‘settled’ first by indigenous native peoples and later dark skinned Portuguese fishermen.
Do sharks prefer dark meat?
Just “shark”? No “great white” joke?
Oh my gosh. This is getting so old. I’m glad I’m not the only one to be aware that Polynesians surf as well. I thought surfing came from them. Maybe they aren’t considered POC?
I grew up in a well-to-do community in the Bay Area and I did hear that minorities were kept out – until 1968. The law changed and so did real estate practices. If you go to my hometown now you will find far fewer whites than some
races and ethnicities. Now, if you can come up with the 3 million needed for just a starter home, you are welcome no matter what.
If sharks do, then they are racist.
Actually, it is a cultural thing. First Africa, then the South, most blacks have a history of living in places where nasty stuff swims in the water. I would have no issue getting into a lake in Maine as I have done since the early 60’s, but I’d think twice or three times before hopping into the water in Southern Louisiana. So I imagine that a fear of open water has been passed down through black culture as a cautionary tale. I remember the first time I visited my college roommate in Miami Beach. We were in the water and something bumped me. I asked my friend and he said “just a ‘cuda, ignore it.” Now here is a guy who would likely cry if left in the woods at night, but swimming with barracudas is just fine.
I guess the author went to the same “School of Feelings as Evidence” that Twillie attended.
The ANDI’ is looking pretty clean these days…..and today is one I’m tempted to avoid the sharks and swim at a boat landing. Have fond memories of leaving a warehouse job at 11 p.m. and getting some beers and down to a beach on the Delaware River in Easton, Pa. Floating alone on a gurgling ‘live’ river.
Mr. Sunshine is another Korean TV show.
Cultural aversions are a thing, but they’re not racist. For instance, as a general cultural statement, Jews tend to be afraid of dogs. Not for any genetic reason but because their parents are afraid of dogs, so they grow up without having one or knowing anyone who has one, and thus without any exposure to them; when they grow up and have children of their own they repeat the cycle. But Jews who have assimilated into American culture do have dogs, and their children don’t have this fear. And even more traditional Jews quickly lose this fear when exposed to dogs, especially if they’re exposed as children. There’s nothing racial about it, and also nothing racist. (Some people claim that it originally traces back to racism, and fear of the poretz (feudal landowner) and his dog, but I’m skeptical because there are some hints going all the way back to the Talmud that this aversion is far older than that.)
If what they’re claiming is true, then most white people would have been kept off the beach as well. The people with enough wealth to buy beachfront property keep out everyone if they can. It’s not a “race” thing, is a good ol’ traditional “class” thing. The people who restrict access to beaches don’t want anyone else on their beaches, and that includes 90% of the whites who make up the riffraff, as they see them. But somehow those white people don’t hurt for want of beaches to go to.
One of the comments also mentioned that public facilities such as beaches and pools were segregated. That literally means that POCs had their own beaches and pools. Again, this doesn’t support the narrative that POCs have been denied access to recreational activities because of their skin color.
And poor kids of every color, around the country, traditionally had access to “swimmin’ holes.” So it’s not like most children on the lower end of the socio-economic ladder didn’t have access to water for recreation. (Modern kids in this bracket have access to government-funded “cement ponds.”)
Blacks don’t swim well because of their morphology. Their gluteus maximus muscles that allow them to run fast cause imbalance in water, leading to a face-down attitude because their buoyance center is behind their center of gravity
Nope.
They swim very well, if they’re taught
Not by my experience. I was the waterfront director for several summers at a day camp for disadvantaged youth in the early 80s, and taught swimming lessons to the campers. I noticed they couldn’t perform the American Crawl, backstroke or sidestroke because of their imbalance. If they were great swimmers then why arent they mopping up in the 800 meter freestyle in the Olympics?
Didn’t read this before I posted at the top of the heap on my experiences trying to teach Black boys to swim while a camp waterfront director. Their bodies are heavier than the water they displace so they sink and that’s scary enough to prevent learning how to swim.
Perhaps she had her car parked illegally? This is so much drama. She could say anything she wants and provide no backup whatsoever and it will be taken in the context she wants.
I am as white as they come and I could never buy a house along the coast in CA, even if i pretended to be a POC.
At the (Jerrold “Antifa-in-Portland’s-a-DC-Based-Myth” Nadler-Chaired) House Judiciary Committee hearing of AG Bill Barr’s testimony this morning, Louisiana “Dhimmocrat” — sorry, I mean Democrat — Committee Member Representative Cedric (In-Peeking -Into-President’s-Cup-Golf-Tournament-I’m-Too-Busy-to-Pay-Attention-To-The-Judiciary-Committee’s-Impeachment-Hearing-Testimony-and-Earn-My-Overblown-Salary) Richmond taught the AG a much-needed lesson, thank the Lord, about precisely what is systemic racism and who in that hearing room today is a systemic racist-avatar, no less:
https://www.mediaite.com/news/cedric-richmond-slams-bill-barr-at-hearing-for-lack-of-black-staff-keep-john-lewis-name-out-of-your-mouth/
(See up to 1:00 of total video-time.)
Synopsis
“Louisiana Democratic Congressman Cedric Richmond slammed Attorney General William Barr over his department’s lack of Black staff, calling it ‘systemic racism’ and telling Barr to keep the late Rep. John Lewis’ name out of the DoJ’s mouth.”
There you have it, from a trusted expert.
Fictional Rationale for and Conclusions about Today’s Hearing with the AG Dems Love to Hate (in Order to Nip the Durham Investigations in the Bud and Win the Presidency and the Senate):
“So, about that systemic racism of yours, don’t say you weren’t told, General (when our Committee initiates Impeachment Proceedings in short order against your privileged white as[ierra]s[ierra], M[ike] F[oxtrot])!”
That systemic racism/racist business evidently is working just fine, so far, in the opinion of some. Time, however, will tell.
Hey, Insurrectionists, we’re all racists today! It’s glorious to know so much great, reparative work lies ahead for so many of us. And it’s far better to know our defect than to be unaware of it, and we’re grateful for that, too.
This is such tripe.
You get the succinct comment award for the thread.
Don’t these people understand how racist they are? They assume that they will be made unwelcome in the water due to their skin color, when all they really need to do is learn how to do the sport well.
It’s almost like they really don’t want to share with other people like them.
Right, wasting time and energy imagining the rejecting thoughts of others instead of so much more conveniently loving and improving your own life, once you break the bad habit.
Seems like a cheap, foolish, lazy way to cultivate and maintain an ultimately irrational defense mechanism.
Your way clearly wins that most important personal prize, oneself.
And don’t such possible institutions of systemic racism become, then, pretty irrelevant? You just do it, as one among many. Try and stop me, you might say, with a giggle. Poetic justice!
“I think it was just, you know, a new person showing up who is kind of competent and can surf and that’s threatening. That’s threatening to a local … who feels this like deep entitlement because of their whiteness and their privilege. And the fact that they probably own a house close by.”
Uh, no. Many surfers are known to be very territorial. If I were to paddle out in some areas of Malibu, as a brand new face I would very likely be made to feel very unwelcome. And I’m a tan, blue-eyed white dude. (Did I mention strapping?)
My brother-in-law saw a lot of combat in Vietnam and he credits surfing with saving his life. He’s now 75 and he still surfs every day. He was something of a legend at Santa Monica Beach before he and my sister moved to Temecula a couple years ago. He’s isn’t the territorial surfer type. He welcomes everyone. So when a young woman asked a couple surfers one day about learning to surf, they said, “See Sherman. He’s happy to teach anyone.”
My brother-in-law Sherman taught her to surf, and she turned out to be a talent agent. She got him some acting jobs in TV commercials and music videos. She also produced a video for his (I guess I’d call it auditions resume) in which he tells his story. In the video he relates how surfing replaced drugs as his coping mechanism for dealing with his painful Vietnam experiences.
One day he went to surf somewhere in Orange County and he said the young local surfers there were very, very hostile to him. He’s a very friendly and gentle fellow and people who get to know him love him for his sense of humor. If he couldn’t win them over, nobody could.
I don’t doubt Ms. Zhang would probably receive the same treatment from those surfers. But she would reflexively and wrongly attribute it to racism.
Some groups of surfers are just notoriously territorial and don’t welcome newcomers no matter what color they are.
The name of one of the Surf Punks albums was “Locals Only.”
In their most popular song, “My Beach” they sing, “My Sun! … My Sand! … My Surf! … Go Home!!”
“Or maybe they’re just jerks who do not want new people treading on their spot? Just because someone is an a**shole doesn’t mean they’re racist or sexist.”
Yep, exactly right.
Surf Punks, “My Beach,” live at the Whiskey A Go Go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sbz–gRylA
Surf Punks, “Locals Only.” In which the Surf Punks, on a surfing safari, as visitors find themselves on the receiving end of surfer territoriality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9JtAgP8u4c
Surfers prove science is settled on Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.
Surfing is a lifestyle cult…who else would go out in 20 degree weather?…..water never gets that cold, but it still seems a bit insane to integrate it unless you were selling surfing gear and want a new market….hmmmmmm?
I’ll give serious consideration to this idea when Barbra Streisand and other Hollywood Leftists open the beachfront property they obtained through White privilege open their beach access to “females, blacks, and indigenous people” (although there seems to be some overlap there.
Of course, gangbangers, homeless and Black Lives Matter folks would also enjoy a day at the beach, and Cholos would have to park their low riders next to the Limos, but it’s all for a good cause – right?
Everybody’s gone surfin’ Surfin’ U.S.A.
Yes. The Lefty Hollywood crowd in their Malibu beach homes don’t want anybody on the sand fronting their homes.
They’re worse than the Surf Punks.
I’m a little confused as to why this tactic has up to this point been considered acceptable in any way? Preventing people from free passage on public streets is illegal in most jurisdictions and is unacceptable behavior, people engaging in this should be arrested and removed from the street.
Safety? Really? Blocking a 3000 lb car with your body has NEVER been a safe activity. If some of the “protesters” get squashed while performing such activities…well…play stupid games, win stupid prizes.