Why, I Say, White People Can't Dance (And, Yes, It has to Do with Race/Culture/Rhythm, Appreciation, & Respect)
Submitted by Shayna or Shene... on Mon, 05/21/2007 - 11:55am.
Introduction
For me, saying white people can't dance has nothing to do with the typical answer that they don't have rhythm. I think the reason for it includes some parts of that, but also something more systemic or structural - race relations and learning cultural contexts.
Dancing is a language (in the way we think of, respond to and through language). Its movements are its words and its grammar is its rhythm. Don't get it twisted; rhythm and grammar are really one in the same. The dictionary defines rhythm as the procedural aspect of a beat or flow.[1] Procedural means the rules and regulations. There are rules and regulations for grammar (i.e. sentences have to have a subject and a verb: She cried.) Again dance is a language—means of expression. It probably is the most articulate form of body language. The analogy I am making here is that the body language we use when talking is also language, but it is what would be comparable to everyday speech. A dance move is comparable to a well-formed speech or lecture. Lastly, a dance performance is comparable to a paper, essay, poem, novel, book, etc.
By all of this, I mean to say that when I say white people can't dance or at least can't dance with black people, I mean that they have not only not picked up a certain set of rules and regulations associated with the body and the overall beat of (black) dance, but also—in many cases— have not picked up the overall flow—philosophy of (black) dance. (To go further understand what I mean by the flow—think of it like overall meaning or point or culture of dance. Refer to the diamond footnote on page 3 for more info.)
I think this phenomenon is linked, in part, to the Puritanical tradition and white culture's fundamental devaluing and mistrust of the knowledge gathered from and experienced through the body. This tradition comes into direct conflict with the African tradition and the traditions of the African Diaspora, where the knowledge from the body is not only valued just as much as the knowledge from the mind, but continually used, acknowledged, and sought after.
This fundamental difference of perspectives regarding the body has led to different philosophies and rules of engagement regarding dance and movement—in other words, black and white people talk differently and that leads to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and even disrespect.
I am aware that this essay grossly—indiscriminately—lumps all white people and all black people together without addressing the variations due to cultural perspectives, attitudes, or expressions. I understand that what I say about black and white people does not apply to all people or groups contained under that distinction. I know there are some white people, who may be black, culturally & phenotypically, as well as there are some blacks that may be white, culturally & phenotypically, as well as know there are innumerable categories that complicate and problematize what I say here. Because of the urgency of this essay and my limitations, I cannot do justice to all those stories. The hope is that everyone will step up to the plate and do justice to her story—for everyone's sake—because the world needs to know you are out there.
Dance in this essay is primarily referring to black American dance—black American culture and procedures (rules of engagement). While I talk about dance generally and my specific experience with dancing at a club, I mean to connect that conversation to American black and white race relations, generally, and my individual experiences (as a black American woman of Belizean and Southern American heritage) with white people, specifically.
This article gears towards showing a connection between the specific and the structural, the private and the political, the everyday and the yesterdays, the present and the History, stories and the metanarratives. It also gears towards giving everyone language in which to talk about dancing and race relations in America. It also gears towards airing out my frustration caused at the club that day—It is my healing (I had the hunch that it would be other people's healing as well). Once again, I apologize if this speaks too loudly for any one group or dance style.
This article is written for all people, but especially white people. By white, I am talking about white Americans and by black, I am referring black Americans. This essay intends not to forget about the white people who respect and value black culture and what it means as well as black people and what they mean.¨
It also does not intend to forget about the white people who not only respect and value all the things said in the paragraph above, but have learned to dance with, (not at), black people through acculturation (i.e. growing up with, not next to, black people), through learning about the history behind our vibration, and/or through somehow intrinsically picking up the rhythm. Thank you. You all, in the words of Jessie Jackson, keep hope alive. KEEP DOING THAT!
Now I want to let you all know why I am even writing this in the first place….
My friend Adaobi (black American woman of Nigerian heritage) texted me, last Thursday (5/10/07) saying that she is tired of doing physics and wanted to go dancing.
[Let's pause right here: the reason or shall I say need for dancing was for a release. So already it has another meaning than just simply dancing's sake or because she was bored (nothing is wrong with that by the way. I'm just making a distinction here). Adaobi wanted to dance for peace of mind. Okay, let's continue]
So, we go to Sister's, which is located in Philadelphia. Although Sister's is generally frequented by white people, Thursday nights were admission plus 8 drink tickets for $10. This coincidentally was the night that the most black people showed up.
We get up stairs to the dance floor area pumped and ready to move—release, heal, let go. Then I began to notice two groups that predominated this party: black people and white people. The dance floor's energy was not a united energy. It was choppy, disconcerted, and actually sort of hostile. Because of this, I watched and analyzed as I danced as well as got angry at the series of things that went on that night—most of that anger was felt towards and because of the white people at this party.
Now, knowing all of these interesting details, I hope I got you hooked on finishing this article. Below is a more detailed description of what happened last Thursday night. It is followed by a possible solution to this persistent problem of black and white people (not) dancing together.
Ethnography of Last Thursday Night at the Club
Description and Background
Walking up stairs to Sister's dance floor, I, cheesing and laughing, hear the booming music. The room was surrounded by mirrors on each wall, a bar was on the right and the DJ booth was diagonally from me. There were disco lights and mainly 70's disco, hip hop, and R&B playing. The sidelines were carpeted with a few stools against the mirrors. I noticed that black and white people predominated the party and actually, there were slightly more black people than white people. Black people were on the perimeter, on the carpet and near the mirror, and white people were in the middle of the dance floor.
Here, I see the weirdest thing I have ever seen at a club: The black people were dancing in the mirror. Now, I don't mean one of two, but about 15 black people in total were dancing in the mirror with themselves—completely disengaged from the dance floor and actually having a ball and cheering looking at themselves move. Behind their back was a dance floor filled with white people. It would be a stretch to say that the white people were dancing. I saw white people making out, falling on the floor, standing talking, and, I think, moving.
Now, like Adaobi and I said that night, I don't mind people having sex or falling on the dance floor, so long as they are doing it to the beat. Let me pause here and make another analogy to dance and language: Dancing to the beat means staying on topic in conversation. When people dance to a song, they are agreeing to engage with its beat—its topic. It is like going to a lecture about Spiderman. You expect everyone to be willing to talk about Spiderman if they entered the lecture hall. So that is what (black) people entering a dance hall expect. It gets annoying to talk to someone if you are focused on a topic and they are off-topic and tangential. It is even more annoying when the person doesn't refuse to stop talking. Replace talking with dancing, topic with beat, and off-topic with off-beat and read the previous sentence again.
The Abaobi and Me connection
Adaobi and I were doing exactly what we came to do. We were vibing. I had more of a hip hop expression while we were dancing (talking) and she had more of an African dance expression, but there would be many times when what we did looked eerily similar and even, we would begin doing the same movements together spontaneously.
We were smiling, jumping, stomping, waving our arms and heads, dipping, wining, and turning (on beat of course). We looked like we were celebrating something (or just really excited about what we were talking about or maybe just really excited to talk to one another). At times when I noticed that I did not look at her enough, (look engaged in conversation with her), I started to look at her and give her encouraging responses when she danced such as "Uh, oh” or "okay now.” (Think of shaking your head in affirmation when talking with someone). I did that to make sure she saw that I saw her and appreciated dancing with her. Sometimes, we would teach each other something. I would start doing a movement and she would do it with a question or hesitation in her step and then look at me for correction or confirmation, then I would do it again, then we would do it together. It took seconds for each of us to learn what each other was teaching because we had such a strong basis of communication before hand.
How Black People Responded to Us
Black people were responding to us as if they were wondering how did we find the energy to dance that way, in a space like this? Because our style was not typical even if it was also based in tradition, black people did not know how to enter our conversation. So instead, they looked at us and smiled. Some tried to do it too, I caught them in my periphery, but when I turned around, they automatically stopped, like they did not want me to see them attempting to learn our styles (language).
We could see black people smiling at us and pointing to other black people to come watch. Because our style was so different, they let us have our space to enjoy our language together, our culture together. They did not come and impose on the space, even though they liked what we did (how we sounded), because we were so into it. They wanted us to enjoy our time together. This was giving credence to the importance of giving people the space to enjoy their individuality.
Other black people created their own space regardless of what we were doing some where else while still giving us our space. We did the same to them. The powerful thing is that we all were moving and expressing ourselves to the same rhythm, the same beat—overall philosophy.
How White People Responded to Us
Adaobi and I did not want to dance in the mirror or the sidelines. We felt the dance floor was as much of our space as it was anyone else's. So we danced on the dance floor amidst the white people. The energy between us was clear. It was clear that we were in deep conversation with one another.
The white people completely seemed to disregard this. At the beginning, a couple of them came in our space range of dancing (our conversation). Bothered, Adaobi and I moved. I assumed, innocently, that they must have not noticed that we were deep in conversation. I also felt bothered because they were unaware that their presence limited us and forced us to find new space. However, I swear that white people kept doing this about 20 times that night. I thought the white people would see the pattern of my annoyance. But that was a hope in shallow well. That is when I noticed this behavior could not be a random act by the white people at this party. It must have been the result of their language, their culture, their misunderstanding and even their disregard of our language and culture. That is when I connected the event to the structural, the behavior to the culture, the symptom to the syndrome.
My awareness heightened and I began to pay attention to what was happening and what was being communicated at the club. Below is the list of all the things white people did that night that let me know that (1) white people and black people speak two different languages (when dancing) and (2) how white people and black people danced together (or next to each other) was representatives of how black people and white people interacted with (or to) one another.
The List of Things of Disrespectful Things White People Did to Adaobi and Me
Because the list is so long, feel free to skip around. Us refers to Adaobi and me. Enjoy, because I certainly did:
A) Say Excuse Me Cuz I Exist!
White people kept dancing or walking through us while we were dancing, without saying excuse me or acknowledging our presence. (The black people walked around us and even if they walked through us, they apologized for doing so and looked us in the eye).
B) I Will Not Tap Dance for You!
I stopped dancing because I got upset at what happened in A. I moved to the mirrors and the side lines staring blankly at the dance floor, the white dance floor. A white girl sitting at the bar tapped Adaobi and me and said that we are really great dancers and have amazing energy together.
I got excited because I felt that finally a white person gets it and acknowledges it. Then she followed up by saying, "Can you do it again. Go do it again. Go, go back on the dance floor.” She said this while simultaneously pushing us on our lower backs and still saying come on dance again. When we didn't move and looked at her like she was crazy, she went back down to sit with her black partner. I said to myself that I am not your puppet, I am not dancing for you. Then I realized once more, white people don't get it. She didn't even get that we left the dance floor because we were so offended by white people.
C) Just Cuz You Know the Words Does Not Mean You Know What I'm Saying or
If Ya Don't Know Wat's Cookin', Ge' Outta Da Kitchen!
We go back on the dance floor because we got so much energy from dancing with each other, we wanted to release one mo' ‘gain. That is when things heated up for me. The white people began to try to mimic our steps—our words. Then with excitement for learning this new word the white people tried to use it with one another. Fine, whatever, so long as they stay away from me with it because once the white people took it, it was no longer mine and I no longer wanted it. This is an example of what I mean:
Seeing this white girl take the step that I was doing, messing it up, and showing it to her friend like she invented it, is like a person taking an artifact because it was "cute” or "cool” that was originally used for blessing a child and putting it on a mantel to show all their friends. It no longer serves it original purpose, it no longer means the same thing in that new context. When a person, who views the artifact as sacred, sees its new use, they may feel gravely offended and even disown that artifact because it was now defiled.
D) I Don't Belong in a Museum or You Can't Box Me In!
A group of three white people started coming close to us, again, without being invited in the space—which happens through eye contact and acknowledgement. They start doing the only black dance movements (words) that they know—yes they knew the words but not the appropriate usage.
They literally started closing Adaobi into a box, which was interesting because it looked like Adaobi was dancing her black dance encased by white people and their stares. I already left that circle when they welcomed themselves in without waiting for our reply.
Adaobi finally broke out of that and found me on the sidelines, again, watching the dance floor. She taps me and says, "I know you were heated. I am really sorry.” We stared at the dance floor again, in disbelief.
E) Doing the Electric Slide: Black People Uniting to Takeover the Dance Floor
(But the White People Almost Foil Us Once More)
This was my favorite part of the night, well at least for a while.
Some of the black girls that were primarily dancing with themselves in the mirror started doing the electric slide—which is a really popular line dancing form for black people (we do it at every family reunion). Adaobi and I see that and we begin to join in, not from where we wanted to begin but from where the girls were currently. Very quickly, all the black people that were on the sidelines or in the mirror began to join. We quickly took over the entire dance floor.
Before this, you wouldn't have known that there were that many black people in the club. So, finally I am happy. Happy that black people stood up, as a unit and demanded that people, who couldn't get with the rhythm, back the fuck up (or people, who couldn't get with the lingo, shut up). Literally, if you didn't know it, you were likely to get pushed or stomped on by someone accidentally and even purposefully.
We finally got a chance to be as black and as loud as we wanted to be. It was very clear that we were saying something. We looked like a disco-army, sharing in one unified understanding or flow. Yes, we were all in one grammar but each of our sentences looked very different from one another. I was spinning my arms as I moved. Some one else was moving their shoulders a lot. Someone else would dip low and long. Some smoother cats would glide. Adaobi had a little African style to her electric slide.
Surprising almost all of the white people did not reenter the dance floor. Well at not least for a while. Then this white girl, who I remember was one of the white people trying to mimic me and Adaobi, tried to come in. Okay, fine, I could understand if she practiced before she came in or at least knew something about the step. Nope. She jumped right in stepping on people and getting in people's way. This is when the problem began.
There were three rows of the electric slide. This black girl was trying to form a fourth row, when the white girl jumped in. Because that white girl kept stepping and falling on her, she quit trying to make the fourth row and went back to standing on the side lines near the mirror. Finally, when the white girl realized that we were moving regardless of her and without the intention of trying to include her (no black person tried to show her what to do), she left the dance floor.
I asked my friend Kathy Huynh what would she have said to that girl. I said that the girl looked like she was appreciating what we were doing. Should I say that white people should not try join in with black people's conversations? How would anyone learn? Then Kathy brilliantly replied, "I would tell her, ‘Thank you for appreciating and wanting to genuinely learn what these black people are doing, but also give them the time and space to appreciate their own culture, for themselves.'” I will leave it at that, because I couldn't have phrased it better.
F) Grrrr!: Overt and Blatant Disrespect
As Adaobi and I are dancing, this white guy does not only bump into me, but stays there pressing the crevice of his back into my shoulder and arm. I was like, "He must not notice I am here.” So I pushed him off of me and said "Hey, watch it.” He looked at me surprised. I thought that meant that he was really didn't know that he was doing that and wanted to apologize, so I stood there waiting for a reply. He says nothing, humps my thigh three times, and pinches my butt. I screamed and said, "Get the fuck off me.” Then amongst me screaming and walking away from him, he runs up and humps Adaobi's butt three times and then runs back to his crowd of white people.
Farewell to Hell
When we left the club and got to the bus stop, I just started kicking and punching this poster on the bus stop of a large white man's face while also screaming. I turned to Adaobi, apologizing for my screaming, thinking she must think I am crazy. She replied with a saddened face, "No, Shayna, don't worry, I understand. Trust me, I understand.”
I kicked and punched to poster, because I felt helpless. I thought that there was nothing I could do to stop what happened at the club—what happens almost every time black and white people dance together—interact. The only thing I could come up with, is writing this article, hoping it would change some (white) person's perspective, hoping that white and black people could interact in a space without being offended by each other, and hoping it would help me heal from my hurt that night. Hoping—it seems like that is the only thing I ever do next to speaking up about my feelings. It hasn't changed much thus far. And to tell you the truth, I'm getting tired of hoping and discussing. I am tired of putting my self out there—(on the dance floor)
Maybe that is the same reason why all those other black people were on the sidelines and in the mirror. They were tired of trying to interact with white people who did not even have the slightest interest in knowing where they were coming from, what they are saying, or respecting and appreciating what they value. It speaks so much for our society today, yesterday, and, sadly and most likely, tomorrow.
(End of Ethnography)
Creating a Solution: Eliminating Racism
Through Learning to Dance
Here is my theory: White people should learn or at least try to learn how to dance black while simultaneously either valuing it as much as they value their dance or at least respecting it as much as they respect their dance. Remember now, I am using dance as a synonym for language and as a synonym for culture. Keep this in mind and it may be easier to replace dance with culture and vice versa in this passage.
The reason that it is critical for white people to learn the dance of black culture is so that white people can be not only aware of black people's perspective, be sensitive to it, and value it as good and valid, but so they can work to eliminate the privilege given to whiteness—meaning those characteristics and people in America that is termed as white. (Having privilege here means having special value. So white in America has special value at the expense of black)
That means dismantling the privilege given to knowledge that is predominantly mind-originated and working for a valuing of knowledge that is holistic meaning knowledge that incorporates the body as well as the mind. That means dismantling the privilege given to aspects of American society that have been structured and conditioned primarily and predominantly by white people—i.e. our school system (colleges and universities too), the standard in which we evaluate performance and intelligence, etc.
This work aids the process of eliminating racism which is having prejudice (ex. white is always better) and the power to enact it (ex. A white person stopping a black person from getting X job because that black person is not white, culturally or phenotypically). Racism is also believing in the inherent superiority of a particular race. The implication of believing in the inherent superiority of a particular race is that all those that do not fall into that category become less than or somehow deficient or down right bad.
Now, what that means is that white (culture or features) have become sacred in American society—hence the statement, "White is always right.” So, for some people, it may seem horrific or like a tragedy to speak of dismantling what they have held so very sacred. Let me specify here. I do not mean that white gets devalued when I say white privilege should be dismantled. No, on the contrary, white people should value their whiteness (whatever that means for people), just not at the expense of another. Shoot, I value my blackness (I know what that means for me. Email me about it if you want to know). I can't stand when white people say, "I hate being white” or "I hate white people” or "I only like black people." NOOOOOO! Don't eliminate privilege by self-hatred, white people. Eliminate privilege through either working to give everyone privilege (value) or conversely, giving no one privilege (value) over another.
One may ask why blacks don't just learn to dance with white people instead of white people learning to dance with blacks. Well, to whoever you are thinking this, what I have to say is that black people have been shucking and jiving with white people for years. It's time for whites to give up some privilege, for peace's sake.
For our survival, black people had to know the white person's rhythm (culture). Look at English Ebonics[2] and "standard" English. To write my papers in college, I had to use and learn the grammar of "standard" English when I usually speak in the English form of Ebonics. I would always tell my professors, why can't I just talk to you or debate with you rather than write a paper? Or why can't I write a poem or do a dance instead of writing an essay? This is not saying that writing is not important, for it is, but why can't I couple it with another form of expression or even another dialect of English? (I believe this has to do with valuing and devaluing. Or "following tradition""meaning following "white is right." People don't like to admit this to themselves.)
This is also represents a battle inside myself to stay sane because I have come to value certain aspects of white culture, but also know that those aspects are rooted in a disregard, disrespect, and a devaluing of black culture, something that I have internalized and made sacred inside myself. So often, this battle, at times, makes me want to throw away or destroy anything that is white inside myself or any symbols of whiteness around me or conversely, throw away or destroy anything that is black inside (outside) myself. Dubois talks about this in his reference to the "double consciousness" of black folks. He says
His [the Negro's] double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,"an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.[3]
Since I can't escape white culture in this society, the only way to reconcile this terror inside of me is to help alter white culture to value black culture"to value me. That is what this article intends to do.
So now I am saying white people have to learn to dance with us, if they want to unlearn racism and reconcile its effects. I realize that I have gone as far as I can go with trying to dismantle racism. White people, it is your turn. It can only be finished if you let it be finished.
Furthermore, it is important for white people to know and value the dance of black people's culture (or of any person of color's culture) because white people in this country have been bred to be mono-cultural and bred to devalue other ways of being that are not like theirs. This has the consequence of further obscuring reality"or realities that are strongly felt and lived by others. So, in a sense my particular double consciousness is both a blessing and a curse. However, it does not have to be a curse. It is only a curse because one of the consciousnesses that I have come to value degrades and tries to eliminate the other consciousness that I have strongly internalized as my basic self. It is a blessing to have more than one way of looking at the world. For example, I learned in a neurobiology class that the nervous system has at least six ways to receive the same information: hearing, touch, taste, smell, sight, and proprioceptors. As my professor said, "It helps us get things less wrong as well as adds more depth to what we perceive."
In other words, our body purposely has multiple perspectives that come into conflict with one another in order to get the sharpest notion of what actually is going on. This is reason enough to unlearn racism. Racism prevents people from a depth and sharpness in their perception. Conflicting realties are not inherently bad. People make different ways of seeing bad. Our nervous system seeks different perspectives, knowing that difference can not only be helpful, but also good.
To relate this again to dancing: That is not telling every white person to go find a black person and ask them to teach you their culture. That is ridiculous. What I am saying to white people is, be aware that (black) dancing has a grammar"rules of engagement. Try to find out what they are in a respectful manner that has in mind that not every black person, all or any of the time, is interested in teaching white people their grammar. Keep in mind that there are some things that cannot be spoon-fed and require the arduous task of experience and learning by oneself. Also keep in mind, like my friend Kathy said, give black people the time, space, and respect to appreciate, enjoy, marvel in, get relieved by their own culture, by themselves.
Also, more importantly, keep in mind that black people learn your grammar by spending time with white people and in white and white-originated institutions. That is not saying that white people should flood black communities and black institutions (that has all sort of problems like gentrification, and violating the importance of respecting organizations and spaces for affinity groups).
What it is saying is that something will be lost if you just learned black culture through books, movies, television, music videos on BET and MTV, jazz C.D.'s, other forms of recorded black music, artifacts, and whatnot. Basing one's view of a people solely on any one of these can be problematic on so many levels, especially since the media grossly misrepresents or complete stereotypes of what they choose to portray of black culture.
What I am saying is to also GO TO THE PRIMARY SOURCE"black people. That first means putting a face to all that you love of black culture and loving that face as well"loving meaning valuing. This does not make everything accurate or peaceful, but like I once said, you would be skeptical of someone's ability to speak Spanish if they told you they never met a native-Spanish speaker, never been to a Spanish-speaking country, and solely learned Spanish and what they know about Spanish culture from reading a book.
All and All
If white people begin to work to actively dismantle the privilege given to whiteness and give value to blackness, if this occurs, one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers gettin' down wit their bad selves. If this occurs, I believe white people and black people can finally dance together, well at least figuratively.
That's my story and I am sticking to it. Peaceeeeeee. No, seriously, peace.
[1] http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0627018.html
¨ I admit some people, even some black people, don't know or haven't thought of what black culture and black people mean in America literally. That is fine because I am willing to bet that those acculturated into black culture know what it means intuitively"in other words, they know it through its feeling or feeling in general. Recognizing what black people mean includes valuing them as human-beings"living, rational, irrational, and moral beings. But what I truly mean is valuing their contributions as a people to not only American society, but also American identity and culture.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonics
[3] W.E.B. Du Bois (1868"1963). 1903. The Souls of Black Folk: "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.; [Cambridge]: University Press John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.,
I agree that overall black
I agree that overall black people can dance better than white people. I am white and I go to a very diverse school (North Springs High)about half black and half white, with a mix of a lot of races (latinos,asians....) I take the dance program there and personally my favorite dances are African & hip-hop. I can dance the African and hip-hop well. My black friends an acquaintances tell I must be part black, which I consider a compliment because overall black people are really good dancers. I agree that dancing tells stories and expresses feelings. I would just appreciate if you would make it distinct, in the beginning of your essay that this essay does not apply to all white people. Anyway, all people are just people no matter what they look like or what there better at. A person who is not black can act "black." Anyway, the fact that I've been exposed to so much of the black culure is probaly been a big factor in my awarness of the dancing and the culture. I will definitly give everyone their dancing space, as I would appreciate space too! I love the black culture and LOVE THEIR DANCING and all dancing in general!!!! Please just don't make such a general statement!! Anyone can immerse themselves in others culture & "whites" can act more as "blacks", just as it goes both ways!
In Response to Katy
Thank you for you commentary. In the essay, I am not sure if you missed this or not, I write:
"I am aware that this essay grossly—indiscriminately—lumps all white people and all black people together without addressing the variations due to cultural perspectives, attitudes, or expressions. I understand that what I say about black and white people does not apply to all people or groups contained under that distinction. I know there are some white people, who may be black, culturally & phenotypically, as well as there are some blacks that may be white, culturally & phenotypically, as well as know there are innumerable categories that complicate and problematize what I say here. Because of the urgency of this essay and my limitations, I cannot do justice to all those stories. The hope is that everyone will step up to the plate and do justice to her story—for everyone’s sake—because the world needs to know you are out there."
It is interesting because people seem to forget I wrote this.
also I say that there are many problems in this essay, but i needed to write it this way because of the urgency of the event and my feelings.
Thank you for learning to dance with black people and keep it up.
shayna israel
I am f*ing speechlesss!
Wow girl, if you are not an anthro major, YOU SHOULD BE! I don't know how much i can emphasize that, because the world could use a mind like yours to shed light on the cultural climate of the U.S. You really should submit this essay to your anthropology/sociology department, because it is very moving. Not to sound cheesy, but I was almost brought to tears with the profoundness of it all. If you want to talk more about this subject w/an interested soul, email me. I'd love to talk with you sometime.
Doing Justice: Is Nothing Sacred?
So, Shayna. I was blown away by this essay. I liked the humor, I liked the vividness of the portrait of your night on the dance floor, and I really appreciated the analogy you developed between the rhythm of dance and the grammar of language. I think that gave you a very clear and useful way to talk about race relations (I especially like the idea that "dancing to the beat means staying on topic in conversation"). And I got your argument that we white people need to learn to respect different rules of engagement, to learn the philosophy of (black) dance. In fact, I liked your essay so much, and learned so much from it, that I distributed copies to everyone participating in my small group discussion, this summer, of Why Are All of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? as well as to random other folks I talk to about things I think are important.
But here's the thing: I really can't dance. Um, well, I have always liked to square dance, but that pretty much says it all: I'm square. I move in straight lines. I don't have a very good sense of rhythm. My body's aging, my knees are creaking now--but I was never very agile with the moves. So that's where these questions are coming from; maybe it's a way of asking about the limits of your analogy. Or maybe it's a way of asking some bigger, deeper questions about how your argument works, how close it can get us to the peace you call for @ the end of it all.
How do people who don't know how to dance learn to dance, except by dancing badly? Are they allowed to do that, on the dance floor you've built in this essay? And what's it mean--to you, to me, to our shared project of improving race relations in this country--if you are offended by my bad dancing?
You said, 'once the white people took it, it was no longer mine and I no longer wanted it....Seeing this white girl take the step that I was doing, messing it up, and showing it to her friend like she invented it, is like a person taking an artifact because it was “cute” or “cool” that was originally used for blessing a child and putting it on a mantel to show all their friends. It no longer serves it original purpose, it no longer means the same thing in that new context. When a person, who views the artifact as sacred, sees its new use, they may feel gravely offended and even disown that artifact because it was now defiled.'
The word that jumps out @ me here is "sacred." What I'm asking about here is the sacredness of your dancing, and your prohibition against my taking it and using it differently, profaning it. I'm wondering about the wisdom of marking off anything as sacred, if that means beyond question, beyond alteration. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that "Nothing is @ last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." I'm not sure I'd even mark off that territory.
You talk later about internalizing black culture, making it sacred inside yourself. But you take a different stand when you talk about whiteness: "it may seem horrific or like a tragedy to speak of dismantling what they have held so very sacred." I don't think it is a tragedy--I think it's a necessity, if we are going to learn to dance together. Nothing gets to be sacred, nothing off limits.
Every fall, when Paul G. and I teach our Storytelling CSem, we ask the first-year students to read, think about and respond to a statement from the first chapter of Daniel Dennett's book, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life:
"There is no future in a sacred myth. Why not? Because of our curiosity. Because...we want to know why....we will never outgrow the question. Whatever we hold precious, we cannot protect it.... The idea that we might preserve meaning...is pessimistic..."
Thanks for unsettling a couple of my sacred myths. And here's to further unsettling, a few more new moves.
Anne
I Hold Expression and Change Sacred
Anne, you wrote:
“The word that jumps out @ me here is "sacred." What I'm asking about here is the sacredness of your dancing, and your prohibition against my taking it and using it differently, profaning it.”
I would agree that this making of sacred or making of particular care leaves people and myself open to be hurt and offend in necessary and unnecessary ways.
Yet, knowing this, I choose to hold Dancing sacred. My reasoning is as follows:
I don’t necessarily hold dancing, in its most abstracted form (it as a vehicle), as sacred. I hold the thing behind it, the thing that moves through it, the things that motivates it—expression—as sacred.
I will fight for people’s (my) right to express themselves (myself). I will continually sensitize myself so that my existence, unconsciously and consciously, tries to intentionally give people the space to express themselves.
Whether giving them the space means creating visibility, being a silent listener, or asking questions, I will do it. I will do it (1) because I do hold myself as sacred (but ordinary) and I know what is feels like for people to not allow me the space to be me, be black, be loud, be creative and (2) because I always want to allow for possibility, for alternate realities to be expressed, so that we (I) can grow, be challenged, and ultimately come to know ourselves (myself).
So when the white girl took my dance, she communicated something to me. It wasn’t really the dance step. It is what that step meant—which was at the time: “I want to be free. I felt upset . Now I feel like me. I want to move and say this to Adobe.” That was my song particular to my experience.
So when she took the dance step without taking the meaning, she made my sacred thing—my expression—void. It was like I never said anything after she took it. When she took my dance and should it to her friend like she did it, it invoked the same feelings I have about jazz and how it has become so void of its black essence. It invoked the same feelings I have about America and how it has been trying to remove Blackness from its essence by covering it with whiteness.
People had to dig deep into history’s veins to bring that Blackness that is America’s core, to the surface of America’s constructed whiteness.
That is how I felt when the white girl took my step. Smear my expression with whiteness so that no one knows that the thing that they praise her for (her “new” dance step) came from a black person.
I don’t know if I am clear, but what I am trying to say that Meaning and Making Meaning in general is what I hold sacred. I hold tying and rearranging stories as sacred. I hold memory and recognition and respect sacred. I hold them sacred because they allow people to keep changing, cycling, and sharing. I hold Change sacred. Change that begets Change—and that only happens if you perceive something changing, through recognizing its origin and its new place. I stress recognizing its origin.
there r plenty of good white
there r plenty of good white dancers
I am white. I want to feel
I am white. I want to feel at peace with all cultures. I tell myself that I do not feel differently about any one race, but I know that because of my separate upbringing in a white culture, there is no possible way I can understand any other race and their struggle, hardships, prejudice or obstacles. But I find when I try to learn, cooperate, and mingle with black people, I am immediately rejected - put on the defensive: "how dare you try to join in our conversation (dance). You have no right or knowledge. Go away." Example: a white co-worker complemented on a black co-workers hair style, and then touched her hair with a question on how the hairstyle was achieved. The black girl responded, : "I don't ever let a white person touch my hair!"
How are we supposed to know if we are not allowed to touch. Yes, maybe because of black/white history, the white girl should have aked permission to touch, but since she would not have asked a white girl for permission, and not wanting to "make a difference because of race" she did not ask the black girl. If a white person really wants to learn, not to imitate, but to understand, the black culture, how can we do that if each attempt is "wrong" or "disrespectful" or " offensive"? I can't learn if you aren't willing to teach me. In the white culture, immitation is the highest form of flattery. The white girl trying to dance your dance could have been attempting to say " Wow, I am so impressed with your dance, I would like to try it", even though she did not have the skill or experience to do your dance justice. We all need to drop preconceptions and try to get to know each other's heritage. Not to the point of assimilation. But to the point of respect and acknowledgement. I am married to a black man, and we have a beautful child together. I probably know more about black culture than most of the people I was raised around. I am still learning. There is so much I can never fully appreciate because I did not live with the prejudice. Our child will learn both black and white cultures. He will probably be rejected, to some degree, by both. But he will learn that love, black and white, will sustain him throughout his life.
I am a 49 year old white female, and this is my 2 cents.
okay..
white women are always have to include their relationship with a black man which doesn't alter the fact that you are white (and will always be). It sounds like you don't know yourself so first, and foremost start with yourself, then try to learn someone else. If you were smart enough you would not subject the child you bring into this world to such cruelty.
WOW
WOW You are the image of what "the white girl who will always be white" is trying to protray. Your response was what she was trying to explain. Her bringing up her realtionship to a black man must have pissed you off enough to say "If you were smart enough you would not subject the child you bring into this world to such cruelty." That was so uncalled for. Where have you been? These days everyone is mixed. Seriously next time you make such a dumb statement please go far enough to explain it.
I enjoyed reading this
I enjoyed reading this essay. However, in my opinion, the situation and the phenomenon described in it, and with which I had so many encounters myself, has nothing to do with white and black. It does have to do, though, with being arrogant, uncultured, rude and ultimately not very smart, as opposed to having a tradition, being knowledgeable, respectful and being able to adequately feel people, things and space around you.
I appreciated the passion
Check Your Assumptions
In a multi-racial, multi-cultural society such as our own it seems anachronistic and discriminatory to make value judgments about rhythmic (or arhythmic) movements. Indeed, it reminds me of the journals of the European explorers, who derided the art and culture of other societies simply because it differed from their own. To wit: talking of "taking over the dance floor" is bizarre and suggests a simulated cultural aggressiveness that accentuates "racial identity" at the cost of tolerance and multi-cultural integration. If you don't like the way people are dancing at a club, or if they copy your moves, or bump into you, or for any other reason, there's no reason to go there and impose your values. You have no greater claim of ownership of that space than anyone else. Furthermore, symbolic violence against an image depicting someone who is of the same race as people who just irritated you has dangerous associative properties. If I was disrespected or frustrated by a group of latinos, it would not be appropriate for me to burn a Mexican flag. Among other obvious objections, because there are many spanish speaking countries other than Mexico and it's an ignorant assumption, equally ignorant as the assumption that lumps all caucasians together as a monolithic, monocultural group.
Finally, I would just say that dancing is a recreational activity that varies in form from individual to individual and culture to culture and attempts to judge forms as "superior" or "inferior" displays a cultural insensitivity at best and veiled racism at worst.
Learning the Language
This was a very well tought-out story. I enjoyed reading it and totally agree.
It makes me crazy when white people say we should be color-blind. That it's just color.
No, it's not. It's culture. It's traditions. It's a difference of worlds.
There are societal differences between people of color and those of European descent.
I wear locs. White people are often trying to touch my hair and I'm always ducking. I really never noticed white women running fingers through each other's hair. Does this ever actually happen? Why would a white person think it's okay to run their fingers through MY hair? And we're not even close friends! I don't know where your hands have been.
I ran into this at a job once before I was wearing locs, when I was wearing my full afro. Everyone tried to touch my hair and I kept dodging them. One of my Korean coworkers walked straight to me and raised both hands to grab my hair. I grabbed her arms and pushed her back! She came back and apologized profusely.
"White" people seem to have no concern about being rude to other people. I don't understand that. But they shouldn't think it's crazy when we ask for respect. It should be given automatically. If you're not sure of how to approach me, simply ask.
I would do the same for you.
Dance Timing
I think you'll find this has a lot to do with musical tradition - check Irish/Gaelic dancing and Irish/Gaelic music.
Gaelic music evolved along different lines to classical northern European music, and you'll find that those brought up in the Gaelic music tradition have a much better sense of timing than other 'whites'
Check out music by Capercallie - its quite different from most white music, there is a subtle melodic texture that seperates from most white music. Gaels (Welsh, Irish, Scots and Breton) also, like black africa have a very strong choral tradition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnZ9QE4-Egs
Incidentally Scottish infantry regiments up until 20 years did dance training as part of combat fitness tests.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVkh-oJ1j0Q
Military Sword dance - I've seen this with sharpened blades upward and bare feet - its a tradition that's died out unfortunately. It was a test of nerve, strength and agility without equal.
The Virginian Reel - as it should be done!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGgqYK99l34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVkh-oJ1j0Q
"Who" doesn't understand???
Whites don't understand the "language" of black dance and should 'shut up' (not dance) if they don't know the lingo...White people need to learn black dance to "understand blacks"...
Here's a better idea: when black people come into the club, my White friends and I leave. After living decades watching White people pathetically make overtures of friendship and brotherhood towards Blacks only to have those overtures "slapped down" I have come to a conclusion: why give a crap what Black people think? Regardless of what we do it never will be good enough and they will still want their "own culture" to enjoy for themselves, so why bother? (Heaven Forbid Whites having THEIR own spaces! Egad!! Racism!)
Seldom do White people seek out Black venues to socialize - it's always Blacks intruding into White spaces. And similar behaviour is seen in European nations where Africans climb aboard rickety boats and sail to Europe. In both instances, Blacks intrude and proceed to expect White people to cater to THEM! Pah!
(My view isn't the result of programming by my parents or society; it's due to arrogant interactions and eye-opening commentary (by the descendants of SLAVES, no doubt!!!) as expressed in the article above.)
Stay away from my people and we'll (gladly!) stay away from you.
okay...
What do you claim to be, white or black?
Your post was not only
Your post was not only unintelligent, it missed the entire point of this post.
problems?
ok, even though i don't agree on certain spots in that article (the "why i say white people can't dance...") it seems they were content with one another but the black people wanted space to express themselves and the white people wanted to get in the space to get that feeling of expression. That has nothing to do with what your writing. now getting back to your comment. even though you have a right to speak your mind, i think your missing the picture. from what im getting, your saying Black people are making you feel inferior, and i'll leave black people alone if they leave me alone. thats fine but your only running away from your problem of different cultures joining together for harmony. just because you think black people are hanging on to whatever commentary they expressed doesn't hide the fact your just a very angry person who likes to blame.
and you need to get your facts straight, i seriously doubt African Americans would see these boats coming, seeing very light skinned people with goofy cloths and weapons walking around like they own the place and have no regard for others, and think to themselves...boy im so comfortable here but yet i have to see where they came from and intrude on there space. yeah, im sure. and since when am i your people? i don't know you, you sure don't own me. it seems your self-esteem needs tweaking...i think you need a hug.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Whites need to learn dance
As a "white girl" I can relate to people being rude when you dance. I don't know how many people try to immitate me or walk right in my way when I am dancing but really irks me is when most whites don't dance until 10 other people show up at the dance floor. My last high school reunion, it was just 3 people dancing for around 30 minutes then when everyone was drunk enough then they started dancing. By then they were so sloppy they were really in my way.
Sorry, but you seem very
Sorry, but you seem very racist....
It appears as though your
It appears as though your REAL issue is with "white" people, NOT "whites" not understanding your dance/culture... You may not even realize that you're imposing your thoughts of what you think about "whites" & "blacks" via "dance". It all reads so ridiculously! C'mon, be a womyn and be honest with yourself. Don't hide your dislike for "whites" behind this "dance" essay, (or-maybe you really do believe this this is it?) One thing REALLY frustruated me: You had made reference to "whites acting black and blacks acting white", WHAT THE HELL IS THIS???? WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ACT BLACK OR ACT WHITE? PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW A BLACK PERSON ACTS WHITE & HOW A WHITE PERSON ACTS BLACK... I'm serious, I would like you to explain this...
Cancel the night at Sister's!
Shayna, I just read this after hearing about it from Adaobi a while back. Very powerful essay. You articulated an internal dialogue that is usually left in the unconscious.
My immediate reaction is, "Man now I don't want to go to Sister's with Adaobi" (as we've been planning). A similar surface reaction to the one you had, perhaps, although with the difference that I'm white. I feel like disengaging from all of this racial pressure (white priviledge blah blah blah it's how I feel) and I suspect that it would totally paralyze me considering that I already feel so near paralysis when I go to a club.
I've been thinking about why white people can't dance. Unstructured non-ballet dancing was never encouraged by my family or by my friends growing up and as far as I know dancing was absent in my white friends' childhoods too. We don't dance except when we're taught the exact steps. When we get older and have this urge to express ourselves and go to a club with exciting music and feel it welling up -- eek -- we/I don't know how to move. Yet I feel like it's expected I'll pull out amazing hours of movement. I feel pressured.
I have this internal battle: Part A -- "just dance! just move! it's about feeling it, going with it. it doesn't matter what you look like, if you sit out you'll never learn. what are you going to do each time you face an obstacle, cower? go out there and try it! who cares what other people think?" Part B -- "oh my God I don't know how to move like that, woah I definately can't do that, it's safer just to bob up and down, just bob. and go to the bathroom so you can stop. and sit out." Of course the way I am, I listen to Part A not Part B.
And Lord, can you imagine dancing with Adaobi when you don't know what you're doing? Embarassing. Like Frida and Diego, "The elephant and the dove."
What is a white girl to do? Practice at home? My frustration voices I JUST WANT TO DANCE AT A CLUB! IT'S JUST A NIGHT OUT! WHY IS IT SO COMPLICATED?
Which, I'm guessing, is your reaction too.
Last thought -- Would it be acceptable for someone who can't speak your language to converse in their language near you? Perhaps you find their language inferior, less developed. Perhaps theirs has roots of words taken from yours. I think of the sign at Geno's Steaks that asserts, "This is America. When ordering please 'Speak English.' ... Management reserves the right to refuse service to anyone." Would you be annoyed by white people dancing near you in their own (perhaps inferior) way, or do you only become annoyed once it intrudes on your dancing?
I understand what it is
I understand what it is that you are trying to say. But most of this is pure ingnorance, it's racist is what it is. People have different styles of dancing, and its dumb to say that whites can't dance, as well as blacks can or can't dance. To me it is ignorant to say that's a black dance, or that's black music. Most of the difference is how you feel the music. On Chapelle's Show, he jokingly states that whites dance to the guitar and blacks dance to the beat, which in the majority of cultures is true. If you ask me the whole hip hop scene, "Superman Dat Hoe" bullshit is not dancing at all, nor is the whole headbashing harcore rock shit. The most fluent and sophisticated of dance to me seems to be latino dance such as the salsa and what not, African dance to. But most hip hop is not music as well as most rock. It is ignorant to make bad dancing a racial subject. Rubbing ass to crotch my friend is not dancing, nor is pushing eachother and banging your head. What that club you went to, to me sounds like was entertainment. There is a difference between dancing just as there is entertainment. "Crank Dat" is entertainment, stupid entertainment at that. Marvin Gaye, well that there my friend is Music. The same as "The Crip Walk" or the "Superman Dat Hoe" dance are not entertainment, but some smooth slow jazz beats that you can get a good step to, or even some Southern Rock music such as lynyrd Skynyrd that you can get a bodily vibe to are true dancing. I don't know if you understand what I'm saying but you need to indulge into what is real and what is BS and stop making everything racial. Racism is ignorant and the world needs to grow out of it.
Thank you
So much of that I felt like I was being yelled at for being white. Thank you [writer] for discrediting the years I have spent expanding my knowledge in music. You wrote this in a ridiculous and obvious bias tone.
LOL
As a black male, I found your essay highly entertaining but not serious. The whole article is laced with barely disguised hatred for whites. You have done a wonderful job of building a relationship between dance and language. I find myself in agreement with that, BUT... Your constant finding of faults with whites in the club was just that...constant. Your writing bled resentment to where each race physically danced, your obviously aggressive move to dance in the midst of the "enemy", and your veiled disgust for the white girl dating a black man (why that needed to be included still has me chuckling). I do believe good dancing comes from the soul and the ability to align the spirit with sound. I dance alone, in clubs, and even took up a belly dance class for the love of movement. In one month, I can tell you without shame I was doing better than 3/4 of the senior students. Why? Because they were mostly white? Actually, I believe it is because they never let their spirit respond to the music. They danced by rote and checked the mirror too often where I mostly closed my eyes. One of my fellow students asked me how I got so good and I told her to let go of shame. I had her stop looking at the mirror and look elsewhere. Her dancing took on a more natural rhythm and we all admired it more. She is white, my fellow dance partner, and can shimmy with the best of them. Let go, free yourself, and dance without shame.
moving, brilliant, and
moving, brilliant, and truthful...thank for your sincerity to this gals piece. separation only exists when we disconnect.
Thank you, I agree
Thank you, I agree whole-heartedly with your post, Jerr. If you are looking for something you will find it.
BTW- I am black.
Chuck Berry > Van Morrison
It's not only evident in dance, but as a musician I find that it is present in all aspects of music. I'm tired of these lame-ass white guitarists and their rocky/fake blues Stevie Ray Vaughn music.
Janis Joplin could sing soul music. I'll give you that. But show me the black blues artist who came up with 12-bar. Why is it that no black blues artist I know of uses 12-bar but every white fake blues artist has the same scale in every song? It's a sacrelig. As George Carlin said, "White people should be giving people the blues, not playing them".
Lame white people have stolen a lot of things from black people and turned them into watered down, distasteful, and vandalized desecrations of culture. And Chuck Berry could kick the shit out of Van Morrison.
hmm...
Dear Writer of this article,
so what is your take on Jews and dancing? what about those of Japanese origins, Chinese origins, Polish origins, etc.?
im white and really good at
im white and really good at dancing.
Stop being racist and get over yourself!
I'm here writing some notes
I'm here writing some notes for my next workshop in rhythm and I stumbled on this.
I'm from Europe and have to say, allways amazed by the strongly felt ( and established ) devision between black and white people in the US.( ok, also often in a few other places.. )
Dancing is aparently a strong factor in establishing ones own identity for many black people. This leads often to heated discussions.
Dance is language, absolutely. Black and whites and yellow and greens speak different languages due to various ( very interesting ) reasons.
Whitish people CAN dance, they just dance differently. ( but they can't jump.. )
This essay and most of the
This essay and most of the comments leave me quite sad. After all this time...this is as far as we've evolved?
this is as much bull&^%&% as
this is as much bull&^%&% as to the black people voting for obama cuz hes black or Hillary because shes a woman. absolutely stupid, only true to when comparing to REAL Africans. not blacks in the US. good argument none the less
While this is a very unique
While this is a very unique and well constructed argument as a whole, it begins with a false premise--the existence of race. You see, there really is only one race, the human race. After that, within any group large enough to have members who have the freedom to participate and learn to dance, there are some who do not participate. Of course, some people seem to have been born with certain abilities, but most of us have to learn just about everything. Open your eyes and see beautiful dance performed by every "hue" man or "hue" woman.
I completely understand what
I completely understand what you're saying. Sometimes white people do tend to mimic black's moves. Some white people are very rude and uncourteous. Please just remember that the way you were treated in this club can NOT prove in any way that all whites do such things.
Most of the time if someone in a club sees me doing a move they aren't sure I know how to do, they ask if they can help. I really do find most black people I meet to be very courteous and I always make sure to be nice to them too. I love the way black people can dance. However, I don't think it is something that is learned because of your culture. A white person can learn to just as good or better than a black person. I think it is the connection that blacks have with music that helps them to start learning at a younger age.
Black people, Spanish people, Irish people, White people, we all have different ways of dancing. To be truthful, no one can say that Whites can't do 'black' dances because no dance is 'black'. More than one culture contributes to every dance step, dance routine, or way of dancing that is made. Some whites in fact do take to these so called 'black' dances just as easy as blacks.
The point which I am trying to get to is that you cannot truthfully say that white people, in general, cannot dance. This is an opinionated statement and time should not be wasted upon.
Email me if you'd like, but I don't want to fight.
It's a lovely report in itself.
Love to ALL races,
-V
Ps. Yes, I am white.
Jerks...
I'll start off by saying that I only read up to "Creating a Solution: Eliminating Racism". I need to go soon, and I'm sorry if you covered what I am about to ask about later.
About the guy who did random humps: On behalf of all the people you have "lumped together", I am sorry he did that. Some people are just jerks. I would like to note that we don't seem to have the same problem (as much) in Australia. I believe this is because there are less Africans/African Americans, so seeing them is something of a novelty. If you take the converse of that, then there is only trouble when Africans/African Americans are not a minority. Now just hold your horses, and I'll explain. I can see two possible explanations for that:
One is what you were probably itching to defend when you read the paragraph above: What I would explain as an "inflated sense of pride" shown by coloured races. The other explanation is that white people treat a minority with a kind of mild neglect, and "don't think highly" (to put it politely) of non-minorities (which we know it true, for many white people). What this comes down to, is that white people just don't care about things very much: We don't respect others' customs cause we couldn't imagine protecting our own so much. This, I'll admit, is kind of disgraceful...
Being white, I would say that coloured people overeact, but by the same token, I would say the blame lies squarely with us. We shouldn't act a certain way if we know it will cause someone to suffer, even if we don't fully understand why. I would ask you to try to be tolerant...but with jerks around I can see how that can be hard.
I don't understand what was wrong with showing people how to do the electric slide. Was the problem that they didn't ask? Maybe the girl who joined didn't believe she could learn the move by dancing on the sidelines. May I remind you that being taught was how your 'energy' helped you to teach each other moves? Also, I don't understand how taking over the dance floor respects our culture...
Why, I Say White People Can't Dance
When I first started to read this article, as a Caucasian Jew, I started to feel defensive. As I continued reading I found myself shaking my head in agreement. I've seen this behavior in clubs, in workplaces, on the streets and just about any public space. I didn't have any connection with people of color until my early teens in junior high school during integration back in the 1960's. I would say that the racism displayed by the white kids stemmed from fear. As a Jew I understood being an outsider and I watched the interactions.Mostly segregation in the lunchroom.I don't remember a lot of fist fights.This was in a working-class Italian, Jewish, Irish community in Brooklyn of all places. As a queer outsider to begin with I started to hang out in the donut shop at lunchtime where the African American girls hung out. We didn't speak much to each other but we danced together. They showed me steps and I followed. I looked forward to lunchtime then.The communication was in the dance.Our differences were there but there was acceptance at least within that hour where we moved our bodies and spirits in good humored appreciation of one another.
It embarrasses me when white people are rude to poc based on an assumption of superiority (an automatic assumption of acceptance is part of feeling superior).Most whites are not used to even thinking about that. I understand that this is not always a conscious assumption, most assumptions aren't.
So, thank you for the article.I'm sorry that white man had the audacity to put his hands on you. I'd like to kick him in his nuts!
right brained disreguarding race
I am white, sicilian, cherekee indian among others. PLayed the piano by ear perfectly at three and won every art contest 1st place since Kindergarden. I have been asked by professional musicians how I learned to dance. I know its just my ear separating the musical instruments individual to my body rythyms individual. I believe the Italians are very strong on music and art as well as other cultures. America tends to not make it a priority these days as I believe the children suffer. I would have been naked as a child without it.
Different cultures have different beats but american culture needs to intensifty this active art versus depressive drugs. It is so theraputic. Although the government will make limited profits so it is of non-importance to them.
You don't have a problem
You don't have a problem with black people copying your dance moves because theyre "sharing" but if white people do it then theyre stealing it off you and it's no longer cool anymore?
WAS cool
You article was cool at first. You did a good job explaining why I can't dance. The farther I got into your essay the more offended I got. Instead of referring to the people at the club as "whites" you could have said "the white people at the club that night". By saying "whites" you are referring to us all. I have seen many "whites" who can dance. It's not fair and you have no right to judge us all the same. People of all colors go to the club to have fun. Those "whites" were there having fun, not worrying about what others think or if you were looking at them. You on the other hand couldn't have had fun. You were so consumed by others that you left the club crying. Why go to a club if you can't enjoy it. You know at a club there will be some many different people, No one person is alike. I'm sorry you had a bad night because you was in everyone elses business. Next time stay in your zone don't worry about all the "whites" around you. You have a serious problem with us "whites", and I'm truely sorry for that. I would love to see you dance. You should have attached a vedio so we could all see if you live up to all the talk.
Also people like you (OF ALL colors) is why most "whites" can't dance. We worry so much about what you are going to say that instead of getting up and learning to dance we sit and watch. THANK you for being different.
I don't think you
I don't think you (like most americans) have realized that there's white and black people outside Usa too, and I'm pretty sure that u have never been abroad (okay, maybe you've been to mexico) So Why the hell ARE YOU SAYING THAT WHITE PEOPLE CAN'T DANCE!? YOU DON'T KNOW IT!
PS. Stop being a racist and tell that to your friends too! African american people should go to g.e. brazil and see how blacks, whites, latinos etc. are doing together!
Petter from Stockholm, Sweden (My dad is half lebanese-half swedish, and my mom is half turkish-half somalian)
dancing
I find that through the cultural restraints of "proper white society" dancing became a formal tak with steps that needed to be "learned" and only shared with prefered society through social lessons or "paid" lessons. I am Irish. I have always had the desire and natural talent to dance. I have only taken lessons socially at dance halls. I hate stylized formal dance. I prefer to talk, to feel to be me. I have learned to pass in a lot of situations of formal dance because it is all that I find available to me. I mimic the movements and feelings of the dance until I can do the actual steps or atleast follow someone. You are not alone in this feeling of contempt for someone that tries to mimic or fit in with out the proper technique or experience to pull it off. I had been invited to dance a contra at a festival the guy asking was delicious and I explained my lack of experience and he said it was ok people will help they love to include newbies. I got yelled at by a woman when I turned the wrong way. He said that was her problem not mine, but I left the floor not willing to return until I took some social lessons that weekend in the steps and calls. I was married for 20 yrs. my dad had taught me to jitterbug at 10 yrs old and I taught my husband. When I got divorced and tried to dance in social halls the men gave up on me because I was not submissive enough and "couldn't follow" them. They didn't know how to talk......the bars and discos today are more about socializing and drinking how many alcholics do you know that would take the time to go to a social hall where lessons are given but drinks are not served? Yes most white people go out to socialize in bars and around here standing room only is normal and making out on the dance floor is an equal opportunity sport for either race but I was taught to do the mashed potatoes by my black babysitters neices from Georgia at an early age so yes the talk is different but I have always felt comfortable to dance like no one is watching.....
Why is it that black people
Why is it that black people can rip apart white people with absolutley no consequence, but if a white person made a comment like this about a black person there would be serious consequences.
Maybe the people who were dancing in the middle (regardless of what colour they are) just got there earlier!
Greetings:I think your
Greetings:
I think your sample set is too small. I would suggest performing the same experiment at few gay clubs, a few predominantly male clubs, a few predominantly female clubs, and some with a mixed crowd.
I won't say what you'll find, but I suspect that it will give you more data to work with.
Why is it that black people
Why is it that black people can rip apart white people with absolutley no consequence?
Because it's been abundantly clear that ever since slavery white people will be to blame for everything wrong with african american people. Even though, slaver began in Egypt...and it wasn't white people that were enslaving those people.
Or take a look at the medeavil era...women were enslaved regardless of the color of their skin.
I'm tired of african american people getting away with everything because they were "once" segregatted against.
On Sign Language and Physical Communication
I think you make some great points about the lack of communication between blacks and whites (for the record, I'm white). But I think you missed something in your discussion of physical communication: sign language. I am deaf, and I am capable of both signing and speaking articulately. Technically speaking, I am hard of hearing, but I often feel more comfortable signing--it feels like a big relief to just be able to use my body to communicate, because to use my voice takes up so much energy and concentration (I have to consciously speak very clearly because I don't realize how slurred I must sound-especially if I'm not wearing my hearing aids). Using my arms and face and body feels so much more fluid and natural. Sign language can be viewed as a form of dance, especially when you're signing a poem or interpreting a song--you must involve your entire body to convey not just the words, but the feel and emotion and temperament of the poem or song. That's why it's so hard to interpret a poem from sign language into english or any other language. A signed poem is a visual story, it paints a picture with arm movements and facial expression. You might be able to interpret the actual words, but to be able to express them in the same kind of intense emotion and style of expression--if you can do that, you can write (and probably sign) your own poetry all on your own, forget interpretation. I love the freedom of expression that signing and writing give me. Voice seems to me to be such a limited field. It can vary, yes, it can express a great deal (I happen to enjoy listening to music a great deal, but not always vocal music), yet it is hampered by a physical reality--the extent to which you can push your voice--that dancing and signing transcend. You can go on, imagine a world utterly unlike your own, creating something entirely new with only your body, whereas no matter what your voice may describe, it will always be inhibited by the physical facts of what your body can or cannot do. In dancing, signing, you can imagine yourself something utterly different, create a whole, temporary, imaginative world by telling a story with the way you move your body.
But hearing people depend so much on their voice and hearing--too much, in my opinion. So often, even if there is an interpreter there, someone will speak directly too me, and will be surprised if I respond in sign via the interpreter. They are so accustomed and comfortable with using their voice, that they assume that I will be fine with using my voice, because that is what is most comfortable for them. Which, obviously, is a very ridiculous assumption. The comfort level of other people is not what you use to gage the comfort level of one specific person, so why do people do this so often when it comes to communicating with deaf people? I feel it is largely to do with the lack of communication. I have heard of mainstream (public or private schools with a hearing majority and bias) who refuse to pay for a microphone system for a hard of hearing student with hearing aids, pointing out that the girl (or boy) is an excellant student and is able to communicate with very little difficulty. The problem is that what they are really saying is that the girl is very good at her classes, and that teachers are able to communicate with her with little to no difficulty. There is nothing to identify just how much of the girls' comprehension and learning was done in class, and nothing to tell how well she understood the teacher--I'd bet six times out of ten (at least) she just looked around at what everyone else was doing, and copied them.
Deaf people are tired of having to work to connect with other people, and we are working as hard as we can to change the system so that hearing and deaf people work equally and are able to communicate with ease on both sides (as opposed to the hearing person doing little work and deaf people doing most of the rest--please note that I am still talking about communication, not who does the spreadsheets or whatever). On the subject of intercultural relations, Gallaudet University (the only deaf liberal arts university in the world--located in Washington D.C.) is extremely diverse, because deafness/hoh (hard of hearing) spans past cultural divides. I think that we are more relaxed and comfortable than most hearing people when it comes to these kind of issues because we all have at least one minority status in common, and deafness is a powerful way to branch across that divide and into a forum of understanding. Obviously, not everyone within our community gets along with everybody nor is everyone completely chummy. We are a society, and therefore we have all the markings and aspects that one would find within a cultural society. But in communicating with eachother, we all have our own accents and word usages which differ from cultural background to cultural background. Black sign has a distinct "attitude" of sorts--whereas white people depend mostly on their faces, hands and arms, black sign involves the entire body--posture, head position, facial expression, everything. There is a definite link between vocal and sign communication when it comes to Blacks. I am not saying it's better or worse, it's just different, and I would never tell anyone that the sign they used for "girl" is wrong. It would simply be a different sign that the one I would use. If we don't understand a sign, we clarify and leave be. We don't adopt other people's sign, for the most part, though signs obviously change from generation to generation and take on different connotations (the sign for "institute" now means "deaf schoo" in most communities--in my state, Maine, the sign specifically refers to "Governer Baxter School for the Deaf", but this is not universal; it's just within Maine. If I were to be at the northeast regional Gallaudet Academic Bowl and told people that I was from Baxter by using the hand sign, they would say "Well yes, of course you're from a deaf school"). It's like being from New York and talking to someone from Georgia. There will be a difference, but it's not anything to make a lot of noise about. I view dancing in a similar way (I have some experience with Irish stepdancing), there will be differences, there will be some confusions in communication sometimes. But their style is their style (whoever "their" is) and my style is my style. I'm not going to appropriate someone else's moves because I like them. If I want to know how to do them, I'd walk up and ask them to show me how to do it. If they say no, okay, that's no problem. I won't be offended. But I think of dancing as a way of communicating with the hearing people without a need for hearing or signing. We both enjoy using our bodies to express ourselves. To me, using our bodies in a way to convey a point or emotion is the best way of communication. It is a voice that transcends any vocal point, and it gets it across far more easily than a voice ever would.
I hope I've contributed something to this thread. :)
it dosent matter
look I am a dancer myself and it dosent matter who wants to or who can dance the same way a white person can listen to rap and a black person can listen to rock dance is available to all there is no "black" thing and there is no "white" thing all is is just you being you
White people can dance,
White people can dance, atleast more and more. Due to all the expressive music in the charts (very earthy physically orientated), the "whites" (or pinky beige tan etc) now have a more closer connection and it is expressing itself everywhere (atleast where such music can be received; globally, I'd think). So no, the generic assumption that "white people can't dance" is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Atleast with younger generations. And there have always been a selected few of older "whites" that can dance too, regardless of societies cultural fashions and fads.
"It makes me crazy when
"It makes me crazy when white people say we should be color-blind. That it's just color.
No, it's not. It's culture. It's traditions. It's a difference of worlds."
Cultural differences, but not human differences.
White People responding---read your own history first, please
This is larger than just dancing but yes I'm a dancer and I understand. I am an Afro-Latina who dances salsa and it is very frustrating when north american white people invade the dance floor doing all sorts of things. I understand now it is not that they are bad people but it is that they do no understand the dance floor etiquette of my particular style. Likewise, I dance other african inspired dances, reggae, soca, etc. and find the same thing. They see us dancing and assume anything goes. Well---that is not so. There are rules, no they are not stated or written rules. These rules are rules learned growing up in a particular community. Like nobody teaches kids in the US that touching strangers affectionately is awkward, but in the Latino culture it isn't awkward at all. With certain styles of dance--hip hop, reggae, salsa, merengue, bachata, break-dance, soca, calypso, bachata, tango, taking up space on the dance floor by standing still, talking in a group or dancing with your eyes closed or unaware of the people around you (i.e., bumping into people, etc.) is incredibly rude. IT IS A CULTURAL DISRESPECT. ESPECIALLY when it is a partner dance--salsa, merengue, etc. Historically in this country however, most white people (not poor ones so much) have always had access to everything. The museums here are full of stolen artifacts from peoples of color all over the globe, north americans often co-opt musical stlyes, language, ways of dress and talk that have historically belonged to and come from people of color, etc. And while dance is and should be universal, you have to remember that even for those people of color who are from the US, their culture and community is also something that belongs TO THEM. In the same way that when travelling outside the US, you adopt certain behavior so as not to disrespect other people's culture, the same should happen to those in the US as well. Unfortunately, this country has in general been considered to be "white" and therefore white people can do anything they please. This doesn't mean you shouldn't learn something if your interested in it. But as an Afro-Latina if I wanted to learn traditional Indian dance, I know that I can't roll and shake and grind my hips the way I do in my culture--because that would be rude, nor could I drop to the floor and start spinning on my head. Because I have never nor my people never had the access to go anywhere and do anything or say what we want without recourse historically, it is in fact more common for me (as a person of color) to think: hmmm, maybe I should just look first and then ask what is inappropriate or not. Well the US government, culture,, capital etc. doesn't work that way. It just does what it pleases. So to all the White people who are responding all offended, read your history and how white supremacy has affected communities of color around the world AND in the US---don't just read the history of those other people and assume that you know them. You need to know what effect you just being in a room full of people of color expressing their tradition with disregard causes. The event of her being accosted like that by those white men is horrible--because it is a trait from many years of violation of the black female body, not just some guy being rude. All of us should dance---whatever dance we please, even if you're bad at it! But if it doesn't belong to your people just ask out of respect: is it okay if you dance, and if yes, what is the etiquette? You can dance terribly and still remain respectful of those "unspoken" rules. Just ask, even though it's uncomfortable it's better to ask than perpetuate acts of white supremacy in its most subtle forms.
"But as an Afro-Latina if I
"But as an Afro-Latina if I wanted to learn traditional Indian dance, I know that I can't roll and shake and grind my hips the way I do in my culture--because that would be rude, nor could I drop to the floor and start spinning on my head."
Of course you can... Livens up the Dancefloor.
"It just does what it pleases. So to all the White people who are responding all offended, read your history and how white supremacy has affected communities of color around the world AND in the US---don't just read the history of those other people and assume that you know them. You need to know what effect you just being in a room full of people of color expressing their tradition with disregard causes."
I'm white and my history is a mix of all different cultures (including West Indies -> Africa/South America), you wouldn't know by looking at me. So what is "my" history as a "white" person ? One has to be a bit careful when judging a person by their skincolour. And not everyone identifies with "white supremacy", nor should they, there is more to "white" than "white supremacy".
Greetings,
Rosy Caramel Sand
Agreed ...
I agree with everything you said, especially like your approach to analyzing the situatio