Blackness and Culture: Who's lens are we looking through?

Ignorance is truly bliss...

Being a Gender and Sexuality studies major I notice a LOT of things that most people pass off as "normal". I can spot centuries of bad habits in one phrase from a small child that doesn't know any better. It's a curse when my audience isn't receptive to the lesson and a gift when I finally get open ears.


People just want to remain ignorant. I can't live with that. These last couple days I've struggled with it mostly because I have a lot of free time and have been a slave to social media, the most ignorant place to spend one's free time as a self identified womanist/feminist.

My big sister and best friend who have to deal with my in-your-face womanism likes to tag and share videos with me. I usually don't respond due to the ignorant responses that will follow or already exist in most comment sections (First rule of feminism: DON'T READ THE COMMENTS). Last night my best friend sent me a video and she added a comment "This... is why I need to leave this (New Orleans) city. This... is not ok". Beneath it was a video of a little girl and her sister "twerking" or before the millennials took over we called it popping (GO HOME MILEY, YOU'RE DRUNK).


Now I watched the video in its entirety and I'm thinking to myself, what is not ok with this? First thing I did after was broke rule number one: I read the comments. Someone commented and said "Now when this girl is 12 and pregnant, refer back to this video." I was done after that. I called my best friend and I told her my opinion about it. I don't think the little girl was doing anything wrong. Sure the dance in itself is 95% pelvis and reproductive organs wielded without disregard but that child in the video had to be about four years old. I'm pretty sure she doesn't understand sex or pregnancy.


Bounce music and popping has been apart of New Orleans culture since I can remember. Before their were camera phones and FaceBook, little 5 year old Sherrill popped in her moms living room, birthday parties, graduations celebrations, etc. while DJ Jubilee called out the steps while my own mom laughed yelling "Look at my baby dancing!". It's a dance, it's who I am, it's how we express ourselves like any other art form. I had no idea of the implications and no one placed sexuality on my body in doing so. Now we're in a time where anything you do can be recorded and the second it hits the internet, you're subjected to be judged for it and your entire future is predicted from this one moment in time.

This generational gap has only made more room to keep people "in their place". By society's standards this little girl should be playing tea party with her sister and not listening to "Ass everywhere". But who's culture is that? When I turned 12 my moms cheers turned to "you better not be dancing like that in front of those boys". That's how they were looking at me, not how I'm presenting. But that's a blog for another day...

Fast forward to this morning. Being a faithful servant to social media, I logged in to see that my sister posted a video of African children dancing. There was quite a bit of pelvic thrusting and sexually suggestive moves BUT all the comments under this video were "This made me happy" "These kids are beautiful. Very talented!", nothing but good comments. So it made me think... As African Americans, why do we shame our own culture and fetishize others? Personally I thought the little girl popping was talented. I'm an adult who still can't get my butt to move like that and I've been dancing to bounce music way longer than she has. It looks like our blackness is only going as far as white society is letting us take it.

How are we judging talent? Why are we placing sexuality on the bodies of children that possibly just want to dance? What are we telling our future culture makers about ourselves? What are we telling them about themselves and what they should do? What are we expressing to white and non-black America or people all over the world? I'm really boggled by this... I think both videos are great and the kids seem to be having fun. Can we not have fun anymore?


Here are the videos in question:


Little girl "twerking"


African Children dancing