half the night , laughed together , played all weekend , and Josh and the rest of the guys were my brothers for life !
More than 25 years later I have yet to personally experience any kind of racism at a paintball field , but I have had friends who are black and Latino tell me it ’ s because I ’ m treated differently because I am known , which I can totally understand . I think that overall paintball simply reflects humanity and the society of which we reside and especially with the last administration we ’ d think the racism and bigotry might be at an all-time high ... but one thing I have noticed is that paintball is literally our escape from all of that , it ’ s our haven , it doesn ’ t matter if I ’ m black or you ’ re white , if he ’ s gay or straight , no one cares who is Muslim , Jewish , or what have you . Sociologists really need to study our
life style because when you go to a field , we put our masks on , fill our air tanks , and the only thing that matters is who you need to shoot at to win the game , then we take our masks off , put our guns down and laugh about it after .
I ’ m proud to be a black man in this game . I ’ ve been told that I have inspired many because they saw one of us lead the way , and it erased the stigma of this being a “ white ” sport , and it warms my heart to see the sport become more diverse , but it ’ s also amazing because this sport made it so damn easy and welcoming , especially that we didn ’ t even have to worry about it in the first place ! I ’ ve met so many people from so many different background ’ s because of paintball . I have grown personally and culturally exponentially , which makes me hold this game even closer to my heart .