Surf Icon Selema Masekela’s Threads Post Ignites Debate on Racism Amid ICE Raids

"I'd join you and drink from the 'colored' fountain."

In a raw, introspective post on Threads that has garnered over one hundred likes, one-and-a-half score comments and two reposts, surfing legend Selema Masekela has sparked a national conversation about lingering racial divides, drawing parallels between the Jim Crow era and today’s ICE enforcement actions. 

The post, which invokes the civiil rights era, comes amid reports of intensified Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids targeting immigrant communities, poses a haunting hypothetical: If a Black child like Masekela were caught sipping from a “Whites Only” water fountain 60 years ago, how would the white people in his life today respond?

“I’ve been taking a good look around, in these now times, at some of the non-melinated people in my immediate periphery of existence,” Masekela wrote, using “non-melinated” as a pointed reference to white devils. “Wondering, if 60 years ago they saw me sneaking a drink from the whites only water fountain, would they A) walk on by B) openly reprimand me C) walk on by and then quietly call the cops.”

Many users, including fellow athletes and activists, embraced a fourth option: “D) stand guard for you while you finish getting your drink.”

Surf commentator Brian Arndt echoed, “D) Standing right next to you,” while another noted, “60 years was not that long ago… a lot of those actual people who were either calling the cops or WERE the cops are still very much alive.”

Heartfelt pledges of solidarity poured in— “I’d join you and drink from the ‘colored’ fountain,” one user wrote— but so did cynicism. “The ones that would quietly narc on you would be the norm, not the exception today’s America… bloated with foolishness and arrogance.”

As one reply put it, “These now times are surreal. The non-melinated, no heart ‘Karens’ would opt for C.”

The post’s timing aligns with the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, amplifying its civil rights echo.

Selema Masekela, who is fifty-four although looking twenty years younger, is the son of jazz king and anti-apartheid activist Hugh Masekela. Selema, as you know, is a fixture in extreme sports media (former X Games host) and has long blended his powerful cultural commentary with his wave-riding persona.

Selema had a very long dry spell on BeachGrit until the flames of racism began to rise again, likely caused by some alchemy of JD Vance, Trump and Charlie Kirk.

Surfing, said Selema, was roiled by White Supremacy and says he got hell in the water, even as a bebe.

“People called me the N word with a hard R in the water all the time!” Selema told Justin Jay, the master portraitist from New York City. “That was something I got used to if I showed up to a new spot as a kid. It was so joyful as a practice as an art for me I’m not going to let that stop me. 

Selema Mesekela, if you’ve ever wondered, transitioned from the abbreviated Sal, which he picked up as a grom in Carlsbad ‘cause the local whites couldn’t pronounce his name, during the summer of 2020, death of George Floyd etc, as a way of publicly embracing his cultural identity and heritage.