It’s interesting to see how racism can pop up in seemingly unrelated discussions online. Let’s take safety for example. 

Adventure sports raise a lot of people’s hackles when it comes to safety concerns. They’re considered to be dangerous and high-risk. There’s truth to that, of course. It’s why many of us are drawn to them. There is something empowering about doing a difficult thing—whether you’re climbing a mountain or leaping from one—and arriving mostly unscathed on the other side. That’s a romanticized view, of course.

The reality is that adventure athletes think a lot about safety and risk management. The key to doing an unsafe thing for a really long time—decades even—isn’t just a thin plastic helmet. It’s learning how to spot and disrupt chains of events, decisions and environmental factors that can lead to serious injury or death. 

That’s why, within our own communities, we have robust, ongoing discussions about safety. And we recognize that safety culture is dynamic—especially since our sports are constantly evolving to push limits and exceed the imagination. No-nuance, one dimensional takes (e.g. - everyone needs to wear helmets all the time) don’t always make a lot of sense. 

On Melanin Base Camp socials, you’ll see images of barefoot skydivers and bare-headed skateboarders and skaters. ‘But where is their helmet,’ you might object. Hold that thought for just a moment please.

And, of course, because many adventure sports are inherently high-risk, you’ll see plenty of things that make your heart leap into your throat: hikers perched high atop granite ledges, BASE jumpers somersaulting off bridges, slackliners balanced on narrow webbing hundreds of feet above rocky canyons, and snowboarders landing rail tricks that make Chris Evan’s final scene in Scott Pilgrim vs. World appear amateur.

Lastly—because despite what social media would have you think, nobody nails everything on the first try, Melanin Base Camp is committed to showing you what progress looks like. Sometimes it looks painful: lead climbers running out their protection, mountain bikers face planting on rocky single track, and surfers wiping out over and over again. 

Wait, so what does safety in adventure sports have to do with racism?

Unfortunately, within the online communities of #MelaninBaseCamp (and #DiversifyOutdoors), not everyone approaches safety culture with a sense of equity. Oftentimes, the end result is one-sided unsolicited commentary on the safety practices and protective gear of athletes who are already marginalized due to race and gender. This online phenomenon mirrors what marginalized Black, Indigenous and athletes of Color experience in real life and it is rooted in racism and sexism.

So if you are wondering why it’s racist for you to demand that Black and Brown strangers on the Internet wear helmets while ignoring scores of helmetless white strangers doing the same exact thing—I’m glad you asked! So that we are all on the same page moving forward, here are a few guidelines.

First, my credentials: over a decade of experience as an African American skydiver and solo hiker; six and a half years of experience as the Sr. Editor of Melanin Base Camp; four and a half years running Diversify Outdoors.

Why are Black women so often the target?

First things first. Let’s talk about misogynoir. The way BIPOC athletes are treated online is very different from how white athletes are treated online but the harassment seems to single out Black women and other dark-skinned women of Color. Reels that have attracted a lot of hate recently have featured a 1) highly qualified Black woman scientist holding a bear cub; 2) a Black content creator dancing with her horse; 3) and a little Black girl skateboarding without a helmet while safely executing falls into her father’s waiting arms.

It gets weirder; reels of Black men doing rail tricks without a helmet attracted little to no attention. Reels of Black men skydiving and BASE jumping without helmets attracted little to no attention. In fact, in one reel, more concern was given to a blonde wig which accidentally fell off (littering!) than to the fact that the individual in question was jumping helmet-less. And of course, there are entire social media accounts and at least one Academy Award winning documentary dedicated to white men doing incredibly dangerous stunts on camera. Which begs the question:

Are you actually concerned about safety or are you simply obsessed with policing Black women who are taking up space in predominantly white sports? 

It is absolutely racist to claim that you care about safety when in reality your actions reflect misogynoir. 

Why aren’t white men (and men of color) policed in the same way?

Okay fam. When white athletes do dangerous stunts y’all want autographs. When Black, Indigenous and Women of Color do the same thing, we get policed. Please take your “where is her helmet” energy on over to Alex Honnold and police him. Leave Women of Color alone. Stop assuming we can’t handle our own risk management and protective equipment decisions. Stop assuming that you can tell what an experienced or professional athlete looks like. Stop assuming pros can’t have dark skin, or braids or 4c hair. You look so goofy making assumptions about ability and skill level based on skin color and gender expression.

Never mind the fact that there are entire accounts devoted to white male adventure athletes making near-fatal mistakes that end in epic wipe-outs, parachutes opening at tree-level, cycling accidents, etc. And people watch these for entertainment. But let a Black woman or dark-skinned Woman of Color do anything safely without a helmet and racist trolls converge with the fury of an incel scorned. So what in the KKK is happening here?

“But where is her helmet?” 

You would think that the helmet question would be a simple thing, right? Sports that involve an increased risk of traumatic brain injury should require or normalize the use of helmets. Except, it’s not that simple.

After a push by the city of Monocton, Canada to require all recreational skaters to wear helmets excepting figure skaters, a reporter at the National Post had this to say: 

“Am I to believe that someone spinning around and hurling him or herself, or being hurled by her partner into the air, is less likely to smack his or her head on the ice than an excellent skater who’s just out for a Sunday afternoon dawdle with the grandkids?”

Wait, so that’s curious. And why are there so few studies on traumatic brain injuries in this white dominated sport? After all, a 2006 pediatric study found that “Ice skaters sustained a greater proportion of head injuries (13.3%), compared with roller skaters (4.4%) and in-line skaters (5.0%).” 

So where is the helmet safety brigade and why aren’t they pushing for figure skaters to wear helmets? It’s because they’re busy making comments like this:

“Figure skating, by nature of the sport, we’re not going to make those young ladies and men wear helmets. It’s just not conducive to the sport.”

Interesting. So ‘wear a helmet’ unless it interferes with the aesthetics of beautiful, thin, white people in sequined leotards flinging each other across the ice. Yes this racist logic appears to also apply to gymnastics.

A pediatric study focused on child and adolescent gymnasts found that concussions represented 7.6% of all injuries. And yet where is the big push for gymnasts to wear helmets? What in the white privilege is going on?

Isn’t it fascinating that the same people who claim to care so much about safety are curiously silent when safety interferes with the aesthetics of white children in elite sports and established norms. But they have no problem trolling the pages of Black women posting clips from their local skate park.

And as National Post reporter Chris Selley points out, what about activities that have a much higher risk of death? Well, according to the National Center for Health Statistics: Mortality Data, our lifetime odds of dying from an accidental opioid overdose (1 in 67), suicide (1 in 93), a motor vehicle crash (1 in 101) or gun assault (1 in 221) are much higher than that of, say, a bicycle accident (1 in 3,396). 

However, the “where is her helmet” energy seems to dissipate when it comes to distributing NARCAN, addressing mental health, improving unsafe roadways and intersections and implementing gun control.

Maybe it’s just easier and more satisfying to anonymously troll Black women on social media. 

Falls do rank high on the list but that’s because every 20 minutes an older adult dies from an accidental fall. In 2019, falls were the leading cause of injury death for adults 65+. And yet, some of y’all are online, happily trolling Black and Brown women, when you could be fall-proofing your Nana’s home, cleaning her gutters and buying her a Life Alert®. 

“But adventure sports have nothing to do with race!”

You’d be mistaken. Adventure sports don’t exist in a vacuum. Contrary to popular belief, the outdoors is not a magical place where race ceases to exist. We enter the backcountry with the same prejudices we have at home and at work. Adventure sports exist against a backdrop of racism, misogyny, queerphobia, fatphobia and ableism—just like the rest of the world. 

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the attention people pay to safety issues is distorted by their own biases. The end result is Black people are harassed more often; women and trans non-binary femmes are harassed more often; fat, disabled and visibly queer people are harassed and policed more often. This is true online and in-person.

People with marginalized identities and—especially, people with multiple marginalized identities bear the brunt of this. Our safety decisions are questioned by strangers who aren’t even members of our adventure sport community. We are harassed online by strangers who couldn’t even begin to describe what they’re looking at. They just know they don’t like to see Women of Color doing it. It’s ironic that the people with the least amount of knowledge tend to have the loudest and least informed opinions about our safety decisions. 

But, that’s not racist. I’m White and I get safety comments too

“But that’s not racist; I’m white and I get pulled over by police too.”

“But that’s not racist; I’m white and I get followed in shops too.”

But that’s not racist; I’m white and I get arrested for watering my neighbors flowers too.”

This is how you sound. Here’s the thing; no one has time to give you Racism 101 or Sexism 101—certainly not when Google is free and our time is valuable. Just know that you sound ridiculous.

There are other versions of this and they sound like the following:

“It’s not racist that I troll Black women athletes, because I’m also Black. So it’s okay.”

“I don’t hold white athletes to the same standard because I mostly follow POC accounts,” says Man of Color who mostly follows white male athletes representing sports where Women of Color make up the tiniest fraction of a percentage point.

Good talk.

When is it okay to question an athlete's decision not to wear protective equipment?

If you belong to that adventure sport community, know what you’re looking at, and have the experience to join a nuanced conversation about risk management while also being aware of your own relative privilege and the misogyny, racism and queerphobia that exists in your sport, then yes. Go ahead. Join a conversation about protective gear or pushing limits that began long before you were born and that will continue long after we are all gone! If you don’t check all of those boxes, keep scrolling. 

But I really really care!

No you really, really don’t. Behind that “well actually/helmet safety brigade” energy is a desire to be right and a desire to police—not true compassion for others. Dropping unsolicited advice in our comments under the guise of ‘concerned third party’ isn’t the impartial look you think it is. We did not ask your opinion and we don’t take advice from random people on the Internet. We have actual mentors, friends and instructors. You have zero connection to us and no credentials.

Want to actually change outdoor safety culture? Most adventure sports have governing or certifying bodies. Start your conversations there. Most adventure sports have a handful of household-name athletes with big name backers. Start your conversations there. Stop attacking Women of Color who have the least renown, the fewest sponsors and the smallest budgets. Those of you who claim pure intentions have, in fact, correctly identified Women of Color as having the least amount of social support within white male dominated adventure sports. There’s a reason you often bypass Men of Color and attack us instead. You think we’re vulnerable. Think again, assholes.

What do safety discussions look like when you have self-awareness and check your privilege first?

You enter the conversation from a place of humility and with a desire to learn more.

You check your impulse to police marginalized people at the door

You acknowledge your relative privilege. This applies to everyone—including other People of Color

You acknowledge that Black, Indigenous and Women of Color (BIWOC) leadership already exists in this space

You don’t ask marginalized people to teach you

You examine your own hypocrisy 

If you’re able to do the above, you’ll learn a lot about the lack of racial and gender equity in outdoor safety

Helmets are often not designed for the full spectrum of ”ethnic” hair types. As newcomers in many adventure sports we were often made to feel as if we (our hair) was the problem, when in reality the protective gear was literally not designed for us. Many sports are literally anti-Black by design and this is one example. 

We are policed more often and at every level of competition or experience. Our novice mistakes are misattributed to our race and gender. We don’t have the luxury of ‘failing up.’ When we mess up we are told that we aren’t capable or that people who look like us aren’t adventure athletes for a reason.

Women of Color are treated like newcomers regardless of how long we’ve been in the sport. This is especially true of Black women. Some of y’all take one look at our curly hair and dark skin and decide there’s no way in hell we could be experienced athletes safely recreating with a level of protective gear that feels right for us. Some of y’all can’t stand to see Black, Indigenous, Asian or Brown women in predominantly white spaces. Your first assumption is that we don’t belong or that we don’t have the correct technical knowledge to be here. You “well actually” the hell out of Women of Color athletes when we have more experience than you and can make our own safety decisions thank you very much.

Not to mention, as women we often face sexual harassment from the mostly white male instructors who are supposed to be teaching us how to stay alive and safely progress in our sport. Or, we’re taught that there is only one way to learn a new skill even though we may be smaller in stature, or curvier and would be better suited with a different approach that fits our body type and relative strengths.

Women of Color deal with ill-fitting gear rentals and are expected to just make do. Sometimes companies are too cheap to purchase gear for a variety of body types and sometimes the gear we need doesn’t exist. We are often doing our best in sports that are exclusive by design.

Sometimes safety procedures (and gear) that have been designed for a 180 lb cisgender white man are simply not going to work for everyone else. 

And sometimes predatory instructors are more focused on sleeping with their students than teaching them lifesaving skills.

And of course, the best part about outdoor safety culture is how often women are used as examples of what not to do even though we represent a tiny fraction of overall athletes. It’s almost as if you just don’t like us on principle.

”I don’t know what I’m looking at but I am concerned. What’s an appropriate comment to leave?” 

Thank you for asking. Starting from a place of humility and admitting your lack of knowledge is a great way to go. Leaving an affirming comment is a good next step. Then ask a question. That question should not be ‘Where is your helmet?’ We’ve gotten great questions throughout the years from ‘Why isn’t traffic stopping to help?” in reference to BASE jumpers leaping from a bridge to “How do they get back on the line after they fall?” in reference to a highliner. If you have a more technical question and you’re 100% positive you’re not simply being racist and sexist, feel free to send the athlete a DM. Stay the hell out of our comment section with “questions” that are actually attempts to invalidate the expertise, technical knowledge, safety or protective gear decisions of someone you do not know who has already dealt with 10 assholes just like you today. You will be blocked.

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Finally, we always encourage Auntie energy on our page. Aunties don't have to possess insider knowledge or experience to express their concern in a non-offensive way. The following examples use AAVE so please adapt according to your culture.

“Baby, that is a definite no for me, but you look good!”

“Baby, you good?”

“Where is that baby’s helmet!”*

*Yes, there is a difference. No I will not explain.