feature: the black women of roller derby shine in cory layman’s powerful roller girl project

Like many “extreme” sports, Roller Derby is pretty white. For example, the black women of Clarksville, TN.’s ClarksVillain represent half of all black Derby girls in the entire state of Tennessee. Teammate Petti LaBelle describes the dynamic for black players as one of an apologetic nature. Black players are split up into rounds, as it were, to prevent all five of them from being on the track at the same time—under the pretense of “unfairness” (read: blacks are inordinately powerful and athletic)—despite the fact that there are often only white players on the track. Black players are called “aggressive” and must play more cleanly than their non-black teammates and opponents because their skin color draws more attention and criticism. “I’ve observed black players isolate themselves from other black players on purpose, for fear that they would not be accepted by their white teammates,” LaBelle tells AFROPUNK.

Picture credit: Cory Layman

*Erin White is an Atlanta-based writer and AFROPUNK’s editorial and social media assistant. You can follow her on Tumblr or friend her on Facebook. Have a pitch or an inquiry? Shoot her an email at erin@afropunk.com.