Skip to content

America's Premier Wedding + Special Events DJ

Rockstar LuxeLife - Shelly Rockstar Blog

Uncovering Roller Skating’s Black History and Black Women’s Claim on the Nostalgic Pastime 

by Micheale Washington 26 Apr 2022 0 Comments

Roller skating is yet another recreational sport with rich cultural ties to Black culture. When compared to the other American sports out there, roller skating has earned its place as one of the most inclusive for both women and men. Historically, the rinks are where Black women and men could go to express themselves through skate, dance, and even peaceful protests.

Black roller skating culture welcomed Black joy, empowerment, and freedom, but this doesn’t come with a complicated history that often goes overlooked—especially since roller skating’s recent resurgence. Though TikTok may paint roller skating as a trendy pastime without explaining its cultural reference or meaning, the sport is so much more than that to the Black community. 

Skating rinks were the sites of sit-ins in the 50s and 60s. And hip hop artists like Salt-N-Pepa and N.W.A. even performed their sets at rinks when they were turned away elsewhere. History proves that even when prejudice and racism are imposed upon a sacred space in Black culture, we’re still able to rise and create magic in any space collectively. 

For Black women, skating on and off the rink gives us inherent permission to express ourselves and take up space without guilt. And this feeling of freedom can be attributed to roller skating’s roots in Black culture that blossomed during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Despite the discrimination Black women and men faced at the time, they skated on. 

Roller skating was and is an outlet that allows Black people to take refuge in leisure, which is something that can feel like a rare luxury. But today, if you search the words roller skating on apps like TikTok or even Google, you’ll see stories and visuals of Black women experiencing joy to full effect on their skates. Women are creating their own roller skate brands and event companies, spreading awareness about the legacy of roller skating in Black culture, and building community spaces for people like them. 

The link between Black culture and roller skating will always remain due to its legacy of community and its painful history of segregation and policing of roller skating rinks. And people are glad to tell you about it. If you ask Black skaters now, they’ll likely tell you that the sport was “never dead.” You may just have to look a little harder to find a rink or find meetups, but Black skaters are still creating their communities through skating, and it looks like Black women are at the forefront. 


Looking for your roller skating crew? 

We’re still out here, and you can experience community, fun, and fitness too with The Rockstar Rollerskating Crew, hosted by myself, DJ Shelly Rockstar! Roller skating isn’t dead, and we'll prove it to you. Be on the lookout for our next meet-up by signing up for our newsletter here.


If you’re planning a unique event soon in South Florida, then I’m happy to assist in that area with hosting and DJ performances! To learn more about my DJ and special event services, visit djshellyrockstar.com.
Prev Post
Next Post

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.

Thanks for subscribing!

This email has been registered!

Shop the look

Choose Options

470 x 470px

Recently Viewed

Edit Option
Back In Stock Notification
Terms & Conditions
What is Lorem Ipsum? Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. Why do we use it? It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
this is just a warning
Login
Shopping Cart
0 items

Before you leave...

Take 20% off your first order

20% off

Enter the code below at checkout to get 20% off your first order

CODESALE20

Continue Shopping