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I still remember at a major tournament in the late 90s (might've been Tune Up?), we'd gotten the disc back and I took off on the fast break...A woman on the opposing team screamed, "Who's got the little brown girl?!" I think I probably ignored it and laughed with my teammates about it a little. Back then there weren't many little brown girls playing Ultimate, and I was certainly the only one on the field, so it was pretty clear who she was talking about, right? Another common occurrence was that even though there weren't many Asian women playing Ultimate at the time either, for some reason people would still momentarily get one of us confused with another. Used to happen to me and Cathy Lee all the time, and of course we look nothing alike. Let's also revisit the stalker-ish blog post objectifying hot women in Ultimate where the author (white dude) admits to having an "Asian thing." The categorization of the Asian girl/white guy relationship as a thing begs the question of why, yet people often don't give much thought to the various theories out there.

While these things may seem pretty benign, at the same time, they also describe a sort of division and separateness that I sometimes feel. And they represent either a misunderstanding about how much of an impact racially charged statements can have (whether meant in jest or not) or an insensitive attitude for what I as a person of different ethnicity than you may have experienced. Additionally, they feel to me like a reflection of what people perceive to be (for lack of a better word) normal. Is being white considered normal in the Ultimate community—or in this country in general? If that is true, why? Because white people invented Ultimate? Because white people settled in this country, took control of the land, and set up a government?

DTB is about many things for me. Most personally, it's a time to reconnect with people who I've found shared common experiences and feelings around growing up and living in a world that often considers us different. And an important reason that DTB exists is to bring more community-wide consciousness to the whiteness of the sport. This relative lack of color extends to other parts of my life, too, so DTB is a reminder that there are things to be questioned not only in the Ultimate world. Why are most of my friends white? What is it within me that embraces white normativity, and how do I simultaneously question that thinking and retain some compassion towards myself for the existence of it in my life due to social conditioning or whatever other reasons? What do the complex issues of race mean to me and how do I want to make an impact?

I always come away from a weekend with DTB feeling close to my brown teammates. The circle is a magical place where you see a little bit of yourself in all of the people sitting around you, and where you may find a deeper understanding of everyone there as well as yourself. Before we even say a word to each other, we are connected.

So how do we hope to increase awareness and increase diversity in Ultimate? I think part of it for me is self awareness—understanding what attracts me to Ultimate and what therefore may attract other people to the sport. Ultimate players by and large are the most open, most welcoming people I've known. That's a huge deal and something to be celebrated as it makes the community very approachable, accepting, and ideal for diversity. Another part is outreach. I would love to send DTB teams to different countries around the world to teach Ultimate and encourage growth of the sport worldwide. And what would happen if DTB visited some inner city public schools to build interest in the sport and promote Ultimate's athleticism and ideals of fairness while also showing that there is rapidly growing cultural diversity in the community?

I think another big part is allowing change to take its course organically by being open to it. It's weird to think about a white person examining his/her life, coming to the conclusion that he/she doesn't have any friends of color and therefore seeking to make some. It's equally strange to think about diversifying the sport in an insincere way to make it seem like Ultimate is more multicultural. I'm not at all advocating a do-nothing approach. Rather, I'm suggesting that a lot of inner work to understand and change our own beliefs may be required before the landscape can truly be made different. I think it's imperative for everyone to think about what parts of themselves hold racial biases, stereotypes, etc. and become curious about the origins of those ideas and how you feel about them. For some this may mean acknowledging that white, male, heterosexual privileges exist and recognizing specific ways you have benefited from imbalances where others may have suffered. For some maybe this means getting more in touch with your heritage so you can increase understanding of yourself and how you relate to others of all ethnicities. For all of us, it means knowing that we can create change for the better in this world, and inequality isn't just one group's problem but a problem for us to work on together.

In the end, we're all connected as humans and the more we feel unified, the more we can accomplish in the direction of eliminating injustice and inequality.

One of the best handlers in the game, Angela started her career with the Georgia Tech, and has been leading Atlanta-based women's teams to the top of the pack since.