Breaking Limits: Black Skydivers Soar On World Skydiving Day

Black skydivers aim to dispel the stereotype that skydiving is exclusively for white people.

World Skydiving Day was celebrated on July 13, and while skydiving has traditionally been a fairly homogeneous activity, some Black skydivers are breaking barriers and fostering community and representation in the sport. A common theme among those building these communities is challenging the stereotype that skydiving is an activity predominantly for white people, thereby encouraging more Black individuals to join the sport.

In 2020, The New York Times featured a profile on Danielle Williams, a Black woman skydiver and outdoor sports enthusiast who has played a pivotal role in carving out spaces for Black women, and Black people in general, within the skydiving community. This sport has long been perceived as predominantly white. Williams shared with the outlet that whenever she went for a jump, or as she described it, visited a drop zone, people often assumed she was a beginner — an assumption she attributed to her race and gender.

Williams told The Times, “As the years went by, I realized it had nothing to do with being new — it had everything to do with my race being the salient factor that people hyperfocus on. We joke about it, but it’s very frustrating.”

Eventually, Williams created several groups intended to bring Black skydivers and hikers of color together, Team Blackstar, for skydivers, and Melanin Base Camp, an online community for Black people interested in adventure sports, like hiking and climbing.

According to NBC News, Willis Cooks, much like Williams, has established his own space for Black skydivers with his group, Fresh Heir Boogie. This initiative, similar to Williams’ efforts, started on social media and evolved into a real community. Cooks founded the group in 2020 after noticing the lack of Black skydivers at drop zones. To celebrate its fourth anniversary and World Skydiving Day, Fresh Heir Boogie held an event at Skydive Spaceland Houston.

Despite the sport’s high costs, skydivers find something invaluable thousands of feet in the air: peace.

David McCrea, a sommelier and hospitality consultant who first jumped in 2021, described the feeling he gets when skydiving to NBC News. “When you get to that door, everything in your body says, ‘Don’t do this,’” McCrea said. “Then you’re out in the sky. It is the most liberating, exhilarating thing I’ve ever felt. You reach terminal velocity and it feels like you are floating. I was immediately in love.”

In 2021, Brenton Lindsey became the first Black person to skydive over the Giza pyramids in Egypt. Like others working to increase the visibility of Black skydivers, Lindsey aims to dismantle the stigma and stereotype that skydiving is a sport only for white people. Speaking to Travel Noire in 2021, Lindsey said, “There’s this huge stigma that skydiving is a white people’s sport. From both sides, I’m frowned upon, but I take pride in that because it opens the eyes of other people of color that we can do it too. So why are we limiting ourselves? We dominate in everything else, so why not this?”