USA Ultimate

RACE IN ULTIMATE

It took about four seconds on a team in Colombia for me to realize that I have absolutely no idea what it is like to be of a minority race at a US Ultimate tournament. I am fairly sure that holds true for 99% of the white folks we play with every year. Race issues have profound impacts on our daily lives, whether we know it or not.

In an attempt to investigate, we asked several members of Downtown Brown, a touring Ultimate team comprised of players from many minority backgrounds. Besides being phenomenal players, this team plays in tournaments like Fools West and Potlatch as a way to make issues of race more accessible and to foster discussion in our community.

We really appreciate DTB's help, and we hope that our readers that are attending Potlatch can find time to continue these discussions with the team. If you are interested, this invitation is from the article by DTB team member, and former Team USA, Jam, and Condors star, Mike Namkung:

"On Saturday, July 4, 2009, at a time to be determined, at Potlatch, DTB will open up the circle for the first time in its 12-year history. All comers welcome. All you need is an interest in participating in the discussion. We have no idea if this invitation will bring 2 people or 200 people, but we are prepared to break out into as many smaller circles as necessary. Please join us for what we hope to be an open and productive conversation. If you are interested in participating, please come find us."

To DTB, from The Huddle; a sincere thank-you. To our readers; the following articles were constructed with great care and thought, and we encourage you to take your time with one when you have some mental space, rather than scanning through like you might with an Ultimate strategy essay. Personally, Andy and I feel that the strange parallel universe that is the Ultimate community is just as good of a place as any to make steps towards positive, meaningful change.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us at thehuddle@usaultimate.org. 
 

(Note: this feature is a reproduction of a feature originally published on the-huddle.org)