MaLasia Kelly, Bolu Ishola, Morayo Obayemi and JuJuan Davis skating together on the south campus basketball court. Credit: Paradise Thomas | Lantern Reporter
During the 2020 lockdown, many people had to find new ways to occupy time. When a viral TikTok of a woman roller skating gathered 2.4 million likes and 101,500 shares, many followed in her footsteps and took up skating.
For some students at Ohio State, the lack of diversity and understanding of skating’s popular origins in mainstream skating left them feeling underrepresented, and they sought out a skating community of their own. Morayo Obayemi, a second-year in business administration, said she found inspiration from TikTok to begin her skating journey, but she did not find a sense of community in skating until she found others on campus.
“I think the biggest surprises were, for one, how many people skate,” Obayemi said. “I did not realize how many people have some form of wheels, whether that be roller skating or skateboarding, and that was comforting. But also, no matter your skill level, it was how welcoming and accepting people were.”
JuJuan Davis, a second-year in business, said skating has been a therapeutic journey for him and helped him find a way to destress.
“I would go [skating] all the time back in my hometown in Cincinnati and I just fell in love with just the feeling of movement,” Davis said. “To me, it’s a way I’ve been able to express myself. It gives me the freedom to like get away from all of my problems and just things that are around campus or in my personal life.”
Davis said with the resurgence of skating in popular culture, he felt that people weren’t acknowledging that skating was never “dead,” even if it was not necessarily mainstream.
“People still skated before. I think social media brought it more into people’s attention,” Davis said. “It’s like saying that radio is dead, but people still listen to radio.”
Before he found his community skating on the basketball courts of South Campus, Davis said he often skated alone and struggled to find that community.
Davis said he still seeks to find a way to make skating more accessible to others, especially when it comes to finding a skating community.
“Skating has done a lot for me, like helping me with opening up and being able to express myself. I would like to possibly own my own skating rink, or work in one to get to the level of getting my own because I love skating so much that I would like for there to [be] an environment for other people where they could just be free,” Davis said.
Bolu Ishola, a third-year in human nutrition dietetics, said with TikTok exposing more people to skating, it was discouraging that there was a lack of representation, especially considering the impact skating has had on Black culture and Black communities. She said she remembers the frequent skating events in her community throughout her childhood, as well as the history of skating during the civil rights movement.
During desegregation in the ‘50s and ‘60s, protests and sit-ins were held after roller rinks tried to keep Black skaters out, according to GBH News. As a result of this, rinks held specific nights for Black skaters and this is where modern styles of jazz, hip-hop and rhythm skating began.
“It was hurtful to see that they did that with roller skating and to see white people not even think to bring up Black history in roller skating, even though they were the voices being amplified,” Ishola said.
Although TikTok lacked the community and representation that Ishola sought, she said she found a community of skaters of all forms on Ohio State’s campus.
“There’s so many people around campus that know how to skate, or that are learning how to skate,” Ishola said. “Also, just seeing so many people come from different experiences too is encouraging because people are coming from everywhere.”
Ishola said she thinks her skating journey would have been “10 times harder” if she had not found this community.
“Almost everyone that I’ve met has just been so hands-on and willing to help and hasn’t made me feel bad about doing that, so finding a community of skaters definitely helped in my journey of skating,” Ishola said.
Davis said skating has helped him tremendously, and he recommends it to anyone looking for an outlet. He said it can be daunting, but once the fear is let go of, it can be an amazing experience.
“When I first got out there, I was kind of scared because I didn’t know how to skate,” Davis said. “But it’s just being able to just go with the flow and finding your own flow. You don’t have to be like anybody. You don’t have to skate fast if you want to –– just find your rhythm because anybody is capable of doing it.”
