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The Structures That Bind Us And Unseen Individual Participation So far I’ve been talking a lot about how we got to this point and why it matters. What I haven’t addressed yet is how it keeps going. Why haven’t we moved beyond this yet? Well, in my eyes, it comes down to two important considerations…
How teachers and competitions stifle the scene If you read the subtitle of this part and are thinking, “I’m not a teacher or competitor, so this one isn’t for me!” Please sit, and enjoy this read with the others, I promise it will be worth your time. “Just don’t rock step” my teacher said as…
When the community puts Frankie on a pedestal, using closeness to him for clout, and using his words to keep today’s Black folk down, because people don’t want to have to actually deal with hard things, it hurts us all. I don’t think that’s the best way to show your love for this man or the dance. When you love something you love the good with the bad. You appreciate the strengths along with the flaws. You love the full picture, not just what you want to see.
You can not divorce these dances and this music from their culture without destroying them, or distorting them until they are no longer recognizable nor functioning the same. Blackness matters and no amount of colorblind treatment will change that. If there is to be a real conversation around race in Lindy Hop, there also must be one around who really owns this dance and who is a guest participating in it. And by that, I mean whose values will shape the dance and those who do it, moving forward.
Soon, swing was seen as not Black at all, but a white hobby. One with an embodiment of white ideals, values, and expectations. Although Black people have been speaking out about some aspects of this shift and their discomfort, they simply went unlistened to. Swing didn’t have a race, just as white people don’t. It was America's dance.
White Lindy Actions and Black Lindy Realities Welcome to Let’s Talk About Lindy Hop And Blackness, a seven-part series discussing race, specifically Blackness in the Lindy Hop community. Over the last few years, there has been a slow increase in discussions about being Black in the swing dance community. Yet, there has also been a…