Black People Dancing
Black People Dancing
First of all, there’s nothing wrong with dancing; dancing is an excellent form of exercise and self-expression. But black people have a very special relationship with dancing, and this goes back to hundreds of years ago in Africa. As soon as we hear a good beat, we usually get more turnt more than anyone else. For us, dancing is more than just something to do at a social gathering or keeping up with a current trend. For us, it’s the ultimate form of non-verbal communication; we express our pain, anger, aggression, happiness, sexual prowess and anxiety all through dancing. We have uncanny abilities to communicate through dancing, for example, someone can make up a dance in Jamaica and in less than 48 hours, black people in London England and Brazil will be doing the same dance; this is not a coincidence.
Some of the hotbeds for most of the current trending dances are Jamaica, Harlem, New York, Brazil and Atlanta, Georgia. All those places have one thing in common; there are either a third world country, or a place where a lot of black people are economically deprived. The sad thing is that the more blacks are getting murdered by racist cops or being victims of other crimes, the faster the new dances come out. It’s almost as if we are using dancing as a form of escapism from bigger problems that we are avoiding. But things weren’t always this way; before now, dancing was a form of empowerment and pride. During slavery (in Brazil), the African Slaves use to practice Capoeira, and the plantation owners thought they were harmlessly dancing. But that was until they started beating their African drums, and the slaves turned around and beat the brakes off of “master”. The same thing happened throughout the west indies, when those African drums started, it was mayhem on the plantations. It got so bad that African drums were banned on plantations; today, Capoeira has been re-branded as break dancing.
Today, things are different; a lot of black people use dancing to gain acceptance (from the dominant society), attention, or escapism. Only people like Beyonce and the late Michael Jackson, use dancing to send a message of empowerment and defiance nowadays. It’s still remarkable that some kids in the hoods can be dancing to express his or herself, and that same dance will have the whole world dabbing or whipping, or doing the Nene. This is where the culture vulture comes in, and you have people like Miley Cyrus (who is 100% ass-free) twerking, or you have Hilary Clinton cooning for the black vote, doing the whip and the Nene. Mrs. Clinton, how about you change the police brutality laws or make reparations for the black vote instead of dancing? Other groups of people are making a grip off our moves, yet, many of the people who created these dances are still in poverty. The ironic thing is, everyone enjoys our dance moves and are dabbing in unison, but when we are getting killed by cops or getting disenfranchised, or our community is getting gentrified, everyone is as quiet as a church mice. That’s until we make a new trending dance, and for the record, the creators of these dances aren’t impressed by your moves either.
To all those people making dances in the hood, shanty towns or third world countries, you’re very talented, and you have the power to have the whole world mimicking your innovated dance moves. You have the same ability to communicate with us as our ancestors. Everyone is waiting to mimic your next dance move (and capitalize on it). Don’t take your gift for granted; you can start a revolution with your dancing. Or you can even use this power for advanced astronomical knowledge, like the Dogon Tribe. We are waiting to read the hidden message of your next dance move, and the rest of the world is waiting to take your lead too.