On Top Of The World! (Or The Bottom)

Some days we can be doing good stuff for the community and it can make us feel like we are on top of the world.

The Boys & Girls Clubs taught me that “it only takes one.” Meaning one person to encourage and one person can make a difference. Sometimes, it only takes one to take the wind out of your sails.

After a long day of planning a nonprofit event, I was on my way to night class at UWT. There was a blue sky (which does not happen often) and I felt like I was doing good things for my community. I didn’t feel like I was breaking laws by skateboarding, because I first checked with campus security to make sure it was cool for me to use my board as transportation across campus.

While pushing my skateboard to class a woman said I couldn’t skate to class, I quickly said, “Yes I can, checked with security.” Then I kept skating to class.

The next thing I heard was a woman yelling at me across the courtyard at the top of her lungs and stomping her feet at me.  She yelled, “Get off the board, I mean it!” in a very angry, authoritative voice.

I am a grown man working 40 hours a week and taking night classes to find a way to better my community and she scolded me like an unruly child in front of my peers and in front of my professors.

Someone approached me and told me I better get off my board because the woman yelling at me was the chancellor for the University of Washington Tacoma.

I walked back to campus security and asked them again what the rules were for transportation on campus. They assured me that I was well within the boundary of campus protocol and that I can skate to class as long as I’m not jumping down stairs.

I was not doing anything wrong. The chancellor felt the need to scream at a grown man. I guess some days you have to scream. I felt like I was in the wrong at first, even though I was not anywhere near breaking the rules. I was actually trying to make things better for everybody. What was it about my board that made the chancellor become so angry that she spoke to a grown man like I was a fourteen year old who just spray painted a big f u on the side of her house?

I am not upset. I’m curious.

Where or how did someone influence my chancellor to believe there are additional (negative) meanings beyond simply skating on a board to class? It was viewed as a nuisance. Those ideas must come from somewhere. I also make judgment and have understandings of people according to the objects on or around them, my new friend KJ pointed out that I also categorize others. This is why, in my thesis, I’m attempting to understand semiotics, the study of signs. How we use signs to understand each other and our surrounding environment.

 According to Salvatore (scholar in the field of signs), semiotics are broken up into three piece patterns called the signifier, the signified and the sign. The sign is the physical representation. The signifier is the idea or concept of the symbol. The signified is the collective agreement as to how the image is currently defined.  Thought and usage of these ideas and symbols are constantly changing throughout time[1].

For example, in the early years of skateboarding the sport signified a much different definition than what is signified today. The ever-changing idea of the skateboard (signifier) eventually changed the collective understanding of what skateboarding is. The skateboard was viewed as a “kid’s toy”, harmless, and a passing craze, the skateboard itself was put into the same category as a slinky or a yo-yo.[2]

Today the symbol of the skateboard has evolved to carry a much different meaning. It is important to note that the symbol still carries juvenile connotations; however, it is now known as a symbol of rebellion, public nuisance or a counter culture.

So, what went wrong in my chancellor’s history with skateboarding that made her react to me like an adult would act to a child? Someone or something shaped her view of the “skater” to be negative. How does the experience with my chancellor or other authority figures shape my understanding of them?

It is hard to start new, and not judge someone based on a negative experience with other people who might look similar to those who have hurt or disrespected us in the past. It is how our minds work. A stop light tells us to stop simply by flashing a red light because we were taught to understand that from a very young age. We are programmed to interpret signs and symbols. It is a human trait that we must all recognize and use. However, it is important to understand that the system is not always perfect and sometimes we need to relearn what signs and symbols represent.

Notes:

[1] Salvatore, s, Tebaldi, C, &Poti, S. (2009)

[2] Peralta, Stacy and Craig Stecyk, Dog town And Z-boys, Documentary 2001 MGM films California