Located in what is described as “as one of ‘Canada’s next great neighbourhoods,’ [in a] large multicultural middle-class-mix,” Fox and Unicorn Boxing gym offers a weekly BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) beginners’ boxing class. The class seeks to take an intersectional approach; Fox & Unicorn specializes in a Queer Boxing Class, but the BIPoC Boxing 101 class is “designed as a space for racialized folks/people who don’t access whiteness to learn the sweet science of boxing.” In Vancouver, the number of people with European origin is almost half of the city’s population; when it comes to LGBT+ spaces, however, people of colour are very often in the minority.
QPoC (Queer People of Colour) in Vancouver such as Mari Ramsawakh have experienced feelings of marginalization or ‘not fitting in’ while in queer spaces; or, indeed, that queerness itself is intrinsically tied to whiteness. Ramsawakh writes that “[the] culture, and the alternative culture that it seemed to be intrinsically intertwined with, was dominated by white figures,” a sentiment often echoed by other QPoC in majority white queer spaces. Bacchetta, El Tayeb and Haritaworn (2015) discuss both this outsider status, and the importance of spaces like the BIPoC Boxing 101 class: “[t]he experience of always being out of place – in nation, community, family, club or classroom – produces locally grounded space making as a necessary strategy of survival” (p. 773.)
BIPoC Boxing 101 provides a space structured to address the inaccessibility of boxing to many who are queer and/or BIPoC, in addition to providing the opportunity to learn self-defence – a skill which, for QPoC, is unfortunately becoming more and more important recently. Aside from learning how to properly “throw a punch,” however, BIPoC Boxing 101 and spaces like it provide an opportunity for QPoC to exist in a space crafted to address some of their unique needs. Scholars such as Bacchetta, El-Tayeb, and Haritaworn; writers such as Ramsawakh; and the success of the BIPoC Boxing 101 class in Vancouver (now in its second year) prove the necessity of being mindful of who is and isn’t included in queer spaces.
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Works Cited
Bacchetta, P., El-Tayeb, F. & Haritaworn, J. (2015). Queer of colour formations and translocal spaces in Europe. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space Vol. 33(5) 769–778.
Faith Wilson Realty Group. (n.d.) Renfrew, Vancouver Eastside: Neighbourhood Profile. Retrieved from http://faithwilsongroup.com/neighbourhoods/renfrew/
Ramsawakh, M. (Sept. 5, 2017). Why LGBT spaces can be uncomfortable for queer people of colour. Xtra. Retrieved from https://www.dailyxtra.com/why-lgbt-spaces-can-be-uncomfortable-for-queer-people-of-colour-79014
Statistics Canada. 2017. Vancouver [Census metropolitan area], British Columbia and British Columbia [Province] (table). Census Profile. 2016 Census. Ottawa. Released October 25, 2017. Retrieved from http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CMACA&Code1=933&Geo2=PR&Code2=59&Data=Count&SearchText=Vancouver&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=Ethnic%20origin&TABID=1