As we previously reported, Skate legend Ed Templeton has released his latest pro board for Toy Machine, and it makes a strong statement.
Templeton shared his thoughts on the criticism, saying the deck was meant as a symbolic poke at the rising tide of racism in the country and even within skateboarding.
He admitted he almost hesitated to release it, thinking the message was obvious. After all, the Klan and Nazis are widely recognized as harmful, lessons many of us learn through history, films, and education.
Despite the potential backlash, Templeton went ahead with the design. His point was that sometimes even something that seems obvious needs to be exaggerated to get attention and make people think.
The deck is back in stock for shops and will be available online soon.
Templeton encourages fans to enjoy it and embrace the message, noting that those who oppose it are only proving the prejudice he is speaking against.
The board is more than a skateboard; it is a statement, a confrontation with intolerance, and an example of how taking a stand can provoke reactions even in spaces that seem open-minded.
Toy Machine Posted:
"A symbolic poke in the eye to the comically foolish (and terribly corrosive) rising tide of racism in this country, and surprisingly, within the skate community too. This graphic is such a patently obvious no-brainer for most of us, that I almost stopped myself from making it because I thought it was too over the top, like we all know the Klan and Nazi’s are bad, right? We learn that in school. (At least we did when I went to school - and in all the movies we grew up watching like Star Wars, Indiana Jones. The Great Dictator, Casablanca, Inglourious Basterds, JoJo Rabbit, The Lives of Others, and on and on.) I figured it was ingrained in all of us and that I’d be ridiculed for making it. But I made it anyway, and I was ridiculed - by a tidal wave of bootlicking racist dingleberries that came out of the woodwork to defend bigotry, discrimination and intolerance. As it turns out this graphic wasn’t as obvious as I thought, and sometimes a simple self-evident truth needs to be magnified and overstated to drill the point home. Anyway, we’ve restocked this deck for shops, online later. Feel free to sear it into your flesh. But Caveat Emptor, the bigots hate it. - Ed"