In the past few weeks, my friends and I have been scolded, reprimanded and harassed for doing the one thing I love the most: skateboarding.
In each case, both on and off campus, we are treated as children and criminals at the same time.
Police officers rarely have the respect to get out of their vehicles when talking to us, and drunkards in downtown East Lansing continually shout, "Do a 900!" from a distance.
Just last week, a student suggested that my friend and I go home and have homosexual relations with each other, to put it lightly. Although skateboarding might not be allowed in downtown East Lansing, these disruptive and offensive inebriated actions certainly seem to be.
But this struggle is not entirely about being stereotyped and heckled in downtown East Lansing. Today's society sees skateboarding as a dangerous and childish activity, yet supports traditional sports such as basketball and football.
In MSU Board of Trustees Ordinance 38.01, skateboards are grouped in a list of restricted items along with "toy vehicles," while Saginaw Valley State University Code of Student Conduct groups skateboarding with "general horseplay" in a list of restricted activities.
In contrast to this negative view of the activity, skateboarding does not involve winning or losing in the way that football or basketball do. Traditional sports are a competition of strength, and are said to separate the men from the boys.
These values placed on winning only deepen our society's view of domination over others as the way to succeed.
Not only that, but these sports are generally more dangerous than skateboarding.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that more than 104,000 injuries due to skateboarding were treated in emergency rooms in 2001. The most common types of injuries were sprains, fractures and abrasions.
The same commission reports that over 1.6 million basketball-related injuries are reported each year. In 1997, about 200,000 injuries related to basketball were reported in children aged 5 to 14 alone.
Despite these statistics, basketball courts are abundant across campus, while skateboarding is said to be "too dangerous."
Skateboarding, on the other hand, is about self-expression. On any given day at Lansing's Ranney Skatepark, you can find skateboarders ranging in age from 4 to 40 years old, in elementary or graduate school, of any ethnicity or background, male or female, hailing from Detroit to Traverse City.
We are all on the same team; there is no division based on skill or size. Show me any sport that brings together such a diverse group of people on a daily basis.
The next time you see someone standing gleefully on a skateboard, think about how it would feel to have your greatest passion in life be misunderstood and socially unacceptable.
With warmer temperatures and a temporarily closed Ranney Skatepark, East Lansing will definitely be seeing a lot more skateboarders out enjoying themselves.
Herb Vasquez
mathematics freshman
