Colleen Roy

Professor Cummins

SHY 330 Sports in America

3 March 2021

Term Paper

Throughout this course, we have focused on a book by Dave Zirin titled, A People’s

History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play. This

book has highlighted the introduction of sports into American society, unraveling the complex

layers of establishing the sports we know today. A reoccurring theme found in the book is that

sports are a distraction from the difficulties around us, a band aid over the political and social

issues that fracture the country. Skateboarding is no exception. This sport has become a visual

representation of the inequality seen in the class-based society instilled in America today. Before

this course, I viewed sports as a fun activity to increase exercise, but really, they are a symbol of

perseverance through division. In this paper, skateboarding will be examined as a clear reflection

of the hierarchical class structure and a symbol of urban change in American society as it

compares to the theme that sports are used as a means of escape from the things that separate us

the most.

Before diving deep into the reason for skateboarding being a mirror of the class-based

and urban identities in America, it is important to note how skateboarding originated. According

to an article by professional skateboarder, Tony Hawk, “the first commercial skateboards

appeared in 1959, but crude homemade versions of skateboards, often consisting of nothing more

than old roller-skate wheels attached to a board, were first built after the turn of the 20th century”

(Hawk, para. 2). So, for reference, skateboarding really began picking up speed during the same
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time that the Civil Rights movement was still trudging on. In fact, a year after the first

commercial skateboard was made, the incident with four African American students occurred in

Greensboro, North Carolina occurred. This is interesting to note because it shows that

skateboarding grew in popularity during a time where there was already lingering and intense

unrest in America. Skateboarding went through a lot of transformation throughout the 1900s and

eventually skate parks became a location for these athletes to practice their skills in a safe space.

What was unknown at the time, is the impact these skate parks had on urban identity and the

class division already seen.

Beginning first with how skateboarding is a reflection of the class-based structure seen in

the United States, we can see this clearly in the Love Park event. The most evident example is in

the changing viewpoints of the upper-class people in Philadelphia, where Love Park was located.

When Philadelphia established Love Park in 1965, it was a beloved location for office workers to

grab a quick bite or for a local demonstration to take place. Once the sand shifted, skateboarders

started to integrate themselves into Love Park, a place where homeless people were the main

inhabitants. To the city police and local press, these two groups were one and the same. But,

once the upper-class people in Philadelphia realized that skateboarders were actually eliminating

the homeless population from the park, they began praising the skateboarders that used the park.

This pendulum view of skateboarders again swung back the other way, with an eventual ban

being placed on skateboarding in Love Park as a means to rid of the homeless and skateboarders.

Class-based structure is seen in the degrading of skateboarders by being “compared to rats often

enough” (Howell, p. 34). Skateboarders were simply looking for a place to practice their tricks,

but the only opinions and views that are absorbed are those backed with a big checkbook. Zirin

mentions in his book that during the 1960s, when Love Park was built, that “sports were still
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viewed as a bedrock for the America of people’s dreams” (Zirin, p. 131). Sports were a way to

ignore the divide created by money and social status. They were an escape, a way for people who

didn’t have anything, to have hope and joy in something. Skateboarding in Love Park and all

over the country was a reflection of the fact that America was divided into different classes that

correlated money to importance. The fact that skateboarders were banned from Love Park,

“enforced with sweeps and often-violent police tactics” (Howell, p. 34) was and still is a real

shame. Skateboarding was treated like a disease in Philadelphia surrounding the issue of Love

Park. This highlighted that all it takes is one person or a group of people who hold great

importance in a location to alter the perspective to which others are viewed. The skateboarders

meant no harm to Love Park, they were just a group of lower-class people who were looking to

escape outside issues through the use of a board with wheels.

Urban identities are another thing that skateboarding has shed a harsh and bright light on

in terms of how cities have evolved over the years. When thinking about cities, even in modern

day times, it can be easy to associate them with the poor or lower-class of America. A majority

of well-off and upper-class people have chosen to expand outward to more suburban areas.

According to the article by Howell, there was even a “Neighborhood Transformation Initiative

and New Century Neighborhoods” (Howell, p. 38) program that occurred in Philadelphia and

was used during the late 1900s to try and bring reform to inner-city areas. The most interesting

aspect about this reform though isn’t the fact that certain administrations were essentially trying

to sweep the homeless and other low-class urban people under a rug, but that skateboarders were

standing on the line between those targeted to eliminate and those aiming to encourage growth in

the city. Skateboarders are a glowing reflection of the “bohemian or creative class” (Howell, p.

38) in inner-city areas, but at the same were considered to be “a public nuisance” (Howell, p. 39)
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to the people who established this reform. The fact of the matter is that skateboarding is a symbol

of people who deserve to be heard and valued as human beings, not thrown out like garbage just

because they don’t have the same financial standing as others. The goal of skateboarding in Love

Park wasn’t to give a voice to homeless people, it did give the world a chance to see that even a

“$1.5 billion industry in the early 2000s” (Howell, 40) wasn’t enough to sway the decision of

eliminating skateboarders from Love Park. The urban identity desired by this new reform in

Philadelphia did not include the creative class that skateboarding easily morphed into. Dave Zirin

even mentions in his book that “sports often acted as a reflection of the national life” (Zirin, p.

268). In the case of skateboarding, it reflected this powerful identity that was ignored by upper-

class individuals and groups. One positive though, is that as time has gone on, “the youthful

defiance of skateboarders has serendipitously reclaimed Love Park” (Howell, p. 41). I think this

is one of the most important things to mention in terms of how this article by Howell on

skateboarding connects to Zirin’s text. This defiance shows a resilience that athletes in particular

have for fighting for what they believe in. Urban identity should be labeled as persistent,

overflowing with people continually standing up for themselves and what they believe in, using

sports to catapult them forward.

Skateboarding, especially when looking at this instance in Love Park, emphasizes the

idea that class-based society is ridiculous and that no one should be able to define the identity of

an urban area besides the people who live there. Zirin mentions in his book that “if we challenge

sports to be as good as they can be- a force to break down walls that divide us, a motor for

inclusion- they can propel toward a better world” (Zirin, p. 268). I believe that skateboarding has

and continues to do that. Skateboarding has become a sensation in America because of not only

the joy received when doing it, but because there is this defiance to the norms that society-based
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structures have pushed onto people. This sport has given people a chance to challenge the

traditional ways of thinking that their personal identity stems from where they come from.

People from urban areas are realizing that they matter. They are allowed to be more than the

label society has placed on them. Skateboarders are proving that they should never again be

“compared to rats and cockroaches” (Howell, 40). They are paving the way for change. Paving

the way for a new identity and a discontent with the class-based system that divides us.

Throughout Dave Zirin’s book, he mentions sports as a means of escape from political

and social issues that choke the people of America. Skateboarding is one of those sports that

gave a voice to the silent. This voice allowed their tricks and skating to scream for them in a

profound and demanding way. Skateboarding shows that this class division while contingent on

economic standing, can’t even be swayed by a billion-dollar industry. Zirin mentions countless

examples of sports that combatted division, whether it be against social, economic, or racial

issues. An overwhelming amount of Zirin’s book tackles racism in sports, but he also mentions

the tug of war between classes in relation to sports. For example, the battle of Chavez Ravine.

This event highlighted the fact that the city of Los Angeles steamrolled over a tight knit

community known as the people of Chavez Ravine, in order to build a new home for the Dodgers

baseball team. They knew they had enough money and power to simply exterminate them with

little to no personal problem. Examples like this filled my mind while thinking about

skateboarding and its connection to class-based society and urban identities. I personally believe

that skateboarding was a way out; an activity that allowed whoever wanted to the chance to focus

on something else besides their troubles. The fact that the city of Philadelphia in the case of Love

Park and the city of Los Angeles in the case of Chavez Ravine, both show an instance where a

specific group of people were drove out in order to make way for a different atmosphere, is
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pathetic. Skateboarding gave those intertwined with things like drugs, homelessness, and other

burdens, a chance to be alone with their thoughts and express how they feel in a harmless way.

Skateboarding shined a light on the continuing division seen in American society based on class

structure and more specifically showed the change that has begun in urban areas. Urban areas are

growing into places of expression and creativity, despite the control of upper-class citizens.

Sports like skateboarding continue to help people form identities they can be proud of, which is

exactly the way to challenge sports and people in America to be the best they can be.

Works Cited:

Hawk, Tony. Skateboarding. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020.

https://www.britannica.com/sports/skateboarding

Howell, Ocean. “The Creative Class and the Gentrifying City: Skateboarding in Philadelphia’s

Love Park”. Taylor and Francis, Ltd, 2005.

Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest,

People, and Play. The New Press, 2008.