We may have missed Black History Month, but we finally tracked down a copy of the famous Big Brother “Black Issue” from 1995. Big thanks to Sweet Waste and his closet full of skate memorabilia hoardings (dude has multiple pairs of Mike Carroll Vans still in the original box, not even in his size, among a great many other things.)
Big Brother prefaced this issue by reassuring readers that they were in fact, not racist in any way, and that the production of the issue was “basically just to show how many black skaters there are out there ripping.” From a regional standpoint, the issue is significant because of the “Black Skaters of NYC” section by Dimitry Elyashkevich at the end, which features our good friend Andre Page’s first photograph in a skate magazine. A lot of the dudes in the article don’t skate anymore, but he sure as hell still rips. Beyond that, there is a main section full of nineties cult heroes, reviews for blaxploitation films, and um, interviews with Ras Kass.
P.S. The Skatepark of Tampa site is streaming Tampa Pro all weekend, so you can tune in live, where ever you are. Check the schedule. Have a good weekend.
Didn’t Slap have a Black Skaters article a few years before this? I think it was when the mag was still printed with that ink that made you nauseous.
What about “The White Issue”? Caucasian is a race.
There was a white issue…and they even tried to get Clyde Singleton to skate in a KKK outfit (and yes, they did in fact buy a KKK outfit). They also revisit Corey Duffel and keep asking him he called Stevie Williams a trashy n****r. My favorite one though was the Australian white dude who tattooed his entire body in black ink.
Bryan there’s always a caucasian issue, nearly every magazine is a caucasian issue,get over yourself
my journalistic pinnacle occurred in this issue… thanks for uploading… do you by any chance have issue #7 (multiple covers issue, seeking the one with Ronnie Creager on the cover… thanks!)
-sd