San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
SKATERS, BLM PROTESTERS JOIN UP
Demonstrators bring attention to human rights, plan to continue weekend events
Roller skaters joined skateboarders, bicyclists and marchers Saturday in Oceanside in a “Roll for Human Rights” to support Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights and calls to defund police.
The fast-moving event was a nod to the deeprooted history of roller skating in Black culture, especially among women and the LGBTQ community, one protester noted. That history was noted recently in the 2018 documentary film “United Skates,” which highlights Black roller skating rinks as a backdrop of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
On Saturday — a day that would have usually hosted the annual San Diego Pride parade — the wheeled group organized at the Lions Club Park in South Oceanside. They headed north on Coast Highway to the Regal Cinemas plaza on Mission Avenue, where they met a group of Black Lives Matter demonstrators on foot who had marched there from the nearby Civic Center Plaza.
Then they all traveled together, a group of up to 200 people, south along the coast to Buccaneer Beach Park. There they cooled off in the shade of some trees and listened to speeches and testimonials.
Makayla Staven, 19, a Black woman from Vista, thanked the people of all races for participating.
“Black people can’t do this on our own,” Staven said. “We’ve been trying for years and years. Stand with us.”
She talked about the hurt of being called the Nword to her face by a White person, and called it an act of cultural appropriation that should never be tolerated.
“People still don’t understand how painful this is to a Black person if you are not Black,” she said.
Another woman talked about how difficult gender orientation can be for some people, and how frightening it can be for them to talk about it.
“Black trans women are the most targeted identity when it comes to police violence,” said Skylar Johnson. “Their average life expectancy is 35. That is not OK.”
One of the event’s organizers, Camille Mcknight, said she’s lost count of the number of protests she’s participated in since May. That’s when a cellphone camera recorded the killing of a Black man beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
“I’ve been protesting since ... the day after George Floyd was killed,” Mcknight said. “It was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Several speakers talked about the need to spend less money on police departments and more on social services.
“There are more positive ways to de-escalate a situation than to have armed organizers show up,” said Erik Hutchinson, who also helped organize the protest.
The demonstration didn’t sit well with some people in the conservativeleaning, military beach town. A man driving by in a pickup truck shouted “All lives matter” and raised his middle finger out the window. One woman in the protest was hit by a half-full beer can, without serious injuries. Otherwise, the event was loud, but peaceful.
At least one other Black Lives Matter protest was scheduled Saturday at Jerabek Park in Scripps Ranch. Most of the events are not widely publicized in advance, but proliferate through social media and word of mouth.
Rohan Donaldson, 21, a Black man, said he started skating about a year ago. He had never participated in a protest before, but he saw something about the “Roll for Human Rights” the day before and decided it would be a good way to get some outdoor exercise.
“It’s about time,” he said of the event. “People protesting, all coming together, that’s good.”