BIPOC roller derby: Members of Colorado Shiners seek to influence conversation about equality
Story and Photos by Giles Clasen
Jams Bond performs an Apex jump at Rollercon in July 2022. Photo: Giles Clasen
There was a lot of excitement when registration for the 2023 BIPOC Bowl roller derby tournament was announced.
The BIPOC Bowl, which takes place April 15 and 16, is a Denver-based roller derby tournament exclusively for skaters of color to join together and compete against one another. Demand to participate was so high, it was a scramble for skaters from all around the world to snag a highly coveted roster spot.
While other roller derby tournaments experienced a slow restart following the pandemic, the BIPOC Bowl, which is in its second year, filled all its skating spots in less than eight hours.
“There’s nothing else like it,” said BIPOC Bowl founder, Samantha Mack, who goes by her derby name Jams Bond, or, just Jams. “There is not another opportunity on the planet where people of color can skate with other people of color like this.”
Like wrestling names, derby names are both theatrical and revealing about a player. Some names focus on a player’s skating style, others evoke personality traits. All are designed to highlight the individual in a team sport.
The BIPOC Bowl grew out of Jams’ other BIPOC-specific derby venture, the Colorado Shiners, which Abena Watson-Siriboe helped found.
Watson-Siriboe uses the derby name Norah P Neffrin, which is generally shortened to Norm.
CREATING A SAFE HAVEN
Norm and Jams are both trainers with the Colorado Shiners, a team that is dedicated to introducing the Denver BIPOC community to roller derby and eliminating barriers to participation.
BIPOC is an inclusive designation meaning Black Indigenous and People of Color intentionally avoiding victim-centered language like “marginalized,” or “minority.”
“Roller derby is a very white sport,” Norm said. “Throughout my 13 years, I’ve run into other skaters of color, and we kikied whenever we saw each other because we realized just how rare that was.”
It can cost $500 or more to begin skating in roller derby, and the Shiners have found ways to reduce or eliminate these costs for individuals who aren’t yet sure about roller derby. Case in point, Jams has secured sponsorships with skating brand Triple 8 NYC, to provide pads to new skaters, and also with the Denver Skates Shop, to help new skaters secure skates. The Shiners also seek to address more than the financial barriers to participating in roller derby.
“Being together and celebrating skating is tremendous,” Tammy, ‘Queen of Hertz,’ or ‘Q,’ said. “I look forward to Friday nights because I just get to be me.” Q asked that her last name not be used for privacy reasons.
According to Q, learning about the BIPOC training team opened the door for her to participate in roller derby.
“Through the Shiners, I know I have people who are on my side, who have my back, and who understand,” Q said. “Not everybody understands what people of color go through on a daily basis.”
Q had never skated in roller derby before joining the Shiners. She had roller skated in middle school and rollerbladed as an adult, but when she first attempted derby, she didn’t have the skills to make it around the track without falling, let alone play roller derby.
“I pretty much hugged the wall the entire first night, but I was so excited and thrilled just to be there and watching everyone else. The practice was just really inspiring,” Q said.
Jams and Norm both said the Shiners team is special because it is one of the few places the BIPOC community can go without worrying about stereotypes, microaggressions, or worse. Friday night at the Rollerdome in Denver is always a night when they feel they get to be their true selves.
BUILDING EACH OTHER UP
Roller derby can be intimidating. The rules are unlike any other sport. There isn’t a ball to throw or catch, and it can be difficult for those watching it for the first time to understand the game. The sport looks like a mix between Olympic speed skating and a rugby scrum. Roller derby is simultaneously artistic movement and brute force. Although the game is played on wheels, the players are on their toe brakes and in the air as frequently as when they roll across the arena floor on all eight wheels. Gameplay involves one jammer and four blockers from each team on the track. The skaters move counterclockwise around the track, and jammers can score points by lapping each blocker.
It takes a lot of strategy, teamwork, and deft footwork to build a winning team, and it can take months, or even year, to master the nuance of the sport. While other Denver roller derby leagues train new players, none offer the one-on-one coaching that the Shiners do.
Jams directs each practice, but rather than stick with a concrete plan, she likes to build the practice around the individuals who show up each night. Some nights, both high-level and low-level skaters arrive, and Jams plans those practices on the fly to meet both skater types’ needs.
Jams’ name is a play on the Derby position jammer, which Jams excels at. She recently won the tournament MVP at the Louisiana-based Y’allstars Southern Skate Showdown. At nearly 6 feet tall, Jams has the unique ability as a jammer to skate with power, speed, and agility. She brings this experience and knowledge to every Shiners’ practice, helping other skaters advance in their skill level.
Norm is a powerful blocker, who often takes on two opposing skaters at once. She coaches other skaters on gaining leverage and adjusting their positioning to effectively stop opposing jammers and break up opposing defenses.
Q started skating in April of 2022 and has made impressive progress quickly. She is learning the rules of derby while training with the Shiners and two other Denver leagues. The combination of her dedication and frequent one-on-one training from Jams and Norm has helped Q go from barely being able to stay upright to skating backward, developing derby-level footwork, and learning to play as a blocker.
She even is learning to referee derby events, which she believes will help her develop a deeper understanding of the sport. Q is hoping to play in the BIPOC Bowl, but that will depend on whether she recovers in time from a recent injury.
According to Q, her rapid development as a derby skater wouldn’t have been possible without the safety and camaraderie she experiences in the Shiners’ practices.
Q said that it is impossible for a white individual to understand the presence of racism a person of color experiences in everyday life. For example, when she eats at any restaurant, regardless of the cuisine, it isn’t unusual to have another patron assume that because Q is Asian, she is part of the wait staff. It also is common for white people to tell her she speaks great English, even when she tells them she was born in the United States. Some don’t believe her name is Tammy and demand to know her REAL name, a name that sounds more Asian.
Jams hopes the Shiners can continue to provide support to its members, whether in or out of the roller derby arena.
“This is a space for people who recognize and understand who I am because they have my shared experience,” Jams said. “This is a space where you can be vulnerable with other people of color and Black folks.
IN SEARCH OF GENUINE INCLUSIVITY
Because the roller derby community seeks to be inclusive, it is common to see Pride flags and Black Lives Matter flags hanging in roller derby arenas. It also is not unusual to see skaters wearing stickers on their helmets that designate their preferred pronouns. Despite the surface acceptance, when it comes to the BIPOC community, the roller derby world has encountered recent missteps.
The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, one of the sport’s governing bodies, had to issue new guidelines on diversity, equity, and inclusion following the 2019 East Coast Derby Extravaganza in Feasterville, PA, which was hosted by Philly Roller Derby.
Typically, officials calling bouts identify a player who has committed a penalty by referencing that player’s number and uniform color. During the event in Feasterville, however, officials misidentified and confused skaters of color with one another. Philly Roller Derby said in an apology posted to Facebook that officials also identified those who had committed penalties by the player’s skin color rather than by uniform color.
In their apology, Philly Roller Derby said, “These mistakes were not made in an attempt to cause harm, but these subconscious errors reveal a harmful systemic problem that we need to consciously address.”
These types of microaggressions and racist practices create long-lasting wounds in the BIPOC community and can’t be repaired easily. WFTDA lead a series of DEI workshops available via Zoom and issued a new series of inclusivity guidelines for all leagues.
Jams said she does not believe there is a genuine effort to allow the BIPOC community to participate fully in roller derby, which is why she said she has worked hard to create the Shiners, the BIPOC Bowl, and provide deeper knowledge of the issue.
At Rollercon 2022, which is one of the largest roller derby events in the world, held in Las Vegas each year, Jams taught a class on how to make leagues more just for all participants and more inclusive for BIPOC skaters. While the class was open to everyone, only BIPOC skaters attended.
But, Jams’ effort goes beyond seeking equal treatment on the track.
“We want to be a part of the Denver community,” Jams said. “The Shiners is a place for Denver’s BIPOC community to come together and be in the community sharing our experiences and making space [for each other].”
Norm hopes the Shiners and the BIPOC Bowl will help force change, outside of the small world of roller derby.
“You come across people who are true allies, but then, you also have people who are in their journeys learning about these issues we raise,” Norm said. “I think derby really is a microcosm of the real world, both good and bad. We just happened to be throwing our bodies at each other.”
For Q, the BIPOC Bowl has already changed her life. Last year’s tournament inspired her to dedicate herself to roller derby.
“The BIPOC Bowl was my first experience at a tournament,” Q said. “I volunteered because I wasn’t skate-ready. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. After that weekend I was like, ‘This is what I wanted to do. I want to play roller derby.’”
To see videos or photos of the Colorado Shiners in action, check out their Instagram page.