Time and TIDE are not waiting

Feeling today’s strains upon society, college students across the United States and beyond are organizing to build a future brighter for all. For themselves. For others. By Kimball Livingston for Sailing World.

One man can launch a movement. Even a very young man. Even a very young, African-American man. Even a rare, very young, Black man who grew up sailing in Chicago and arrived at Bowdoin College, Maine, good to go on the Polar Bear sailing team. Not that he knew he was starting something that would grow by leaps and bounds, and not that he had a campaign plan, exactly. Instead, Preston Anderson politely, with innocent vigor, inquired of his coaches in the midst of the social upheavals of 2020 if there wasn’t “something” they could do right there as a mere college sailing team on the shores of Harpswell Sound. Then he hit the phones.

Fast forward less than a year to spring 2021, and what began as a conversation at Bowdoin meshed with other forces to become a rising TIDE, The Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity task force active on campuses across the USA, spreading to Canada and the UK. Preston Anderson struck a nerve because, in this difficult moment, there is a wellspring of young people who don’t understand why things should remain as they are, and they stand ready to change themselves as part of something bigger than themselves. “Sailing is the sport I love,” Anderson says. “I always wanted to find ways to bring more people in, but I didn’t know how. It doesn’t have to be such a white sport. Seeing these beginnings—it’s really cool.” – Full report