Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Update: March 8, 2020
This pancocojams post presents information about how a number of African American women sometimes greet and say goodbye to each other and some men.
This post also includes a video of "Black women hugging" and two other related videos.
The content of this post is presented for cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
This post is closely related to the 2020 pancocojams post entitled "The History & Meanings Of African American's Dap Handshakes (with YouTube videos)" https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-history-meanings-of-african.html
Daps are usually done only by men to other men.
Here's how some African American women often greet each other and how we often greet African American men:
Depending on who they are and where they are (for instance, whether or not they are in a predominately Black setting or a predominately White setting) some African American women greet other African American women and African American men by briefly and lightly hugging each other. This form of hugging is usually to the side and not belly to belly.
Sometimes African American women will pat each other or Black men on the back while hugging and sometimes we will give air kisses (pretend to give a kiss on each cheek of the person being hugged).
"The hug" with or without patting on the back and/or air kisses is the expected form of greeting that most Black women do and expect to receive at Black functions such as an African dance program and a Kwanzaa gathering.
I've also given "the hug" to some non-Black women-and less often, some non-Black men- depending on our setting and how familiar and comfortable with African American culture I believe they are.
-snip-
UPDATE: This pancocojams post was written before cases of the coronavirus became known in China and throughout the world, including in the United States.
UPDATE: March 8, 2020
There's no doubt in my mind that that virus has changed and will continue to change the physical ways that people greet each other and say goodbye. My guess is that there will be a significant decrease in hugs, handshakes, daps, giving fist bumps, and slapping five. I wonder if those greetings/farewell gestures will even be put aside completely if the coronovirus becomes a pandemic-even more so than it already is.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/giving-daps-intricate-handshakes.html for a 2012 pancocojams post entitled Elbow Bump, Namaste, ASL Sign For Love, Wakanda Salute, And Other Alternatives To Handshakes & Hugs".
That pancocojams post was published after coronavirus (COVID-19) resulted in more people throughout the world considering alternates to handshakes, hugs, daps, and also "slapping five".
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS
1. The Ben Show - Black Women Hugging
Comedy Central, Apr 23, 2014
When you're feelin' down and you need some lovin', just look at black women hugging.
-snip-
In my experience, the longer, more enthusiastic hugs that are shown in this video with huggers rocking back and forth are only done between people who know each other well and may not have seen each other for some time.
****
2. Greetings and Goodbyes, Hug or Handshake? Hugging and American Culture
Rachel's English, Oct 20, 2015
Americans usually hug when saying 'hello' or 'good-bye'. But sometimes it's a handshake instead -- and sometimes it gets awkward! In this video, Rachel goes over when to hug and when to shake hands in American culture.
-snip-
In my experience, in some settings (as I mentioned in Pancocojams Editor's Note above), a hug is expected even if you are just meeting a person. This differs from the statement that is made at .40 in this video "You don't do this [give a hug] to someone you've never met. However, I agree with the woman speaking in this video that hugs are usually not done in formal settings.
By the way, the comments in this video's discussion thread are quite interesting as they include comments about hugging/air kissing as greetings/goodbyes from people from various nations throughout the world.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
I haven't found a video of African American women giving air kisses.
However, here's a video of air kissing for greeting and saying goodbye in European cultures. That air kissing is somewhat similar to some African American women (in certain settings) when greeting or saying goodbye to other women or to men.
The Etiquette of Social Kissing
engclass0, Dec 20, 2007
How do many Europeans greet each other at social gatherings?
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label African American customs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label African American customs. Show all posts
Sunday, February 16, 2020
The History & Meanings Of African American's Dap Handshakes (with YouTube videos)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part IV of a four part pancocojams series on American hand gestures. Part IV of this series focuses on dap (handshakes).
Each of the posts in this series focus on hand gestures that were either created by African Americans or have been most closely associated with African Americans.
For Part I of this series (Five On The Black Hand Side handshakes), click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-on-black-hand-side-handshake.html.
For Part II of this series (High Fives),
click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/high-five-handshake-videos.html
For Part III of this series (Fist Bump/"Pound") click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/fist-bump-pound-handshakes.html.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
The copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those quoted in this post, and to all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
-snip-
Most of this pancocojams post was originally published in May 2012. http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/giving-daps-intricate-handshakes.html.
The 2012 post has a section that isn't included in this post.
Some of the videos in this 2020 post are different than the videos in the 2012 post.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
Daps are usually done only by men to other men.
Here's how some African American women often greet each other and how we often greet African American men:
Depending on who they are and where they are (for instance, whether or not they are in a predominately Black setting or a predominately White setting) some African American women greet other African American women and African American men by briefly and lightly hugging each other. This form of hugging is usually to the side and not belly to belly.
Sometimes African American women will pat each other or Black men on the back while hugging and sometimes we will give air kisses (pretend to give a kiss on each cheek of the person being hugged).
"The hug" with or without patting on the back and/or air kisses is the expected form of greeting that most Black women do and expect to receive at Black functions such as an African dance program and a Kwanzaa gathering.
I've also given "the hug" to some non-Black women-and less often, some non-Black men- depending on our setting and how familiar and comfortable with African American culture I believe they are.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/information-about-videos-of-african.html for the pancocojams post entitled "Information About & Videos Of African American Women Giving Hugs When Greeting People Or Saying Goodbye"
****
PART IV
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF DAP HANDSHAKES
From http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dap-greeting.htm
"A dap greeting is a series of arranged gestures exchanged between two individuals. Although a dap greeting can be exchanged upon meeting someone, it can also be used to indicate agreement, celebration or fellowship at any time. A dap greeting can include slapping hands, bumping fists in any direction, snapping, wiggling fingers and other forms of contact, and it can last anywhere from a few seconds to more than a minute. Dap greetings originated in the black community and have since spread to other racial groups, with many subcultures and groups of friends developing their own very specific dap greetings...
Origins
This type of greeting typically is non-verbal, and it is exchanged as a gesture of affection and solidarity. Dap greetings are believed to have originated in Africa, where people from different tribes might exchange such greetings upon meeting each other to indicate peaceful and friendly intentions. Blacks who emigrated to other parts of the world — including those forcefully transported as slaves — developed their own dap greetings...
Meaning of "Dap"
Some people believe that “dap” is an acronym for “dignity and pride,” reflecting the adoption of the dap greeting by the black power movement. Others suggest that “dignity and pride” is merely what is sometimes called a "backronym" — an acronym thought up after a word already existed. "Dap" also might be a shortening of another word or an onomatopoeia — a word that imitates the noise produced by this type of greeting; some dap greetings create a sound much like “dap,” which is produced by pulling the slightly cupped hands of the participants against each other."
**
From http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Shake-That--The-Right-Way/3669693
Shake That! The Right Way By: liss
"[In] Benin [West Africa], young men snap fingers while shaking hands. In Botswana [South Africa], people touch hands with a slight grazing of the palms and fingers. In Singapore [Asia], after you handshake its customary to place the other persons hand over your heart. Among Scandinavian [Europe] teens, exchanging spit by means of a handshake seals a deal...
Jamaicans complain that Americans are distant and Americans complain that Germans are cold and unfriendly. Sure, when you first meet them, Jamaicans dont shake hands with you. But once you get acquainted, they expect a casual lock and fly or a one harmed hug or a shug or a bro grab or a hetero-hug or whatever its known as in your country" ...
**
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dap_greeting:
"Though it can refer to many kinds of greetings involving hand contact, dap is best known as a complicated routine of shakes, slaps, snaps, and other contact that must be known completely by both parties involved. Dap greeting sometimes include a pound hug."
****
DAPS: EXCERPT FROM THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN VIETNAM: BROTHERS IN ARMS
*ADDED SECTION [February 25, 2018] : The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms
By James E. Westheider
https://books.google.com/books?id=VHEL34ALzO4C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=fist+pounding+heart+handshake&source=bl&ots=McVvUG2DxW&sig=AnQNKfKkpEk2V9WQZ0wUecSa-VA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin19vV7MHZAhXIUt8KHdCYB9w4ChDoAQgvMAE#v=onepage&q=fist%20pounding%20heart%20handshake&f=false
page 76
..."African Americans who remained in the armed services often reacted to racism by seeking comfort and safety in racial solidarity and by establishing their own sub-culture within the military. They called each other “brother”, “soul brother”, or “bloods”, and they were proud of being black. Two popular methods of greeting fellow black soldiers and demonstrating racial solidarity were the black power salute, a clenched fist in the air, and the “dab”, which developed in Vietnam, probably among inmates of the notorious Long Binh stockade. Dap is a corruption of the word “dep” Vietnamese slang for something beautiful. The dap, also known as “checking in”, was an intricate ritualized handshake, involving numerous gestures and movements. There was no standard dap, but there were many common gestures. There were countless variations of dap, and some of the more common greetings could go on for five or more minutes. Each move had a specific meaning: Pounding on the heart with a clenched fist, for example, symbolized brotherly love and solidarity; clenching fingers together and then touching the backside of the hand meant “My brother, I’m with you”. Most of the gestures signified solidarity, respect, and pride, but a few had darker meanings. A slicing movement across the throat symbolized cutting the throats of white MPs, never a favorite group among black recruits."...
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Video #1: Handshake Tutorial
Michael W Gaskins, July 24, 2009
****
Video #2: lebrons Pre-game handshakes
Uploaded by nlnodoubt on Dec 20, 2009
lebron james secret handshakes with his Cleveland cavaliers teammates, He is truly an incredible talent.
-snip-
Actually, I don't think these handshakes are secret. "Personalized" is probably a better word to describe them, as Lebron appears to have a different dap handshake for each person.
****
Video #3: Monta Ellis' Amazing Handshake
Uploaded by SciFientology on Jan 14, 2010
-snip-
WARNING! A number of viewers of this video connected the handshake shown in this video with the Gangster Disciple Nation (GDN or GD).
Certain handshakes are associated with specific gangs. Those handshakes absolutely should NOT be done by people who aren’t members of those gangs.
[This prohibition against non-members doing this handshake doesn't apply to the high five that followed it.]
-snip-
In this clip, Monta Ellis said "I told ya I'd warm that thang up." (referring to the basketball shots that he made.]
****
Video #4: Ebony & Ivory Handshake - The Bert Show
Uploaded by q100atlanta on Jun 19, 2011
****
Video #5: Everybody Hates Chris and Albert Hand Shake
Sly Cooper, Aug 3, 2012
from season Season 3 Episode 9 of Everbody Hates Chris
-snip-
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_Hates_Chris
"This television show is inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock (who is also the narrator). The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years 1978-1983."
****
Video #6: Fresh Prince - Will Jazz Handshake Compilation
Jibb's Compilations, Published on May 7, 2014
****
Video #6: Wake Forest's Cortez Lewis Has A Handshake With Every Teammate
ACC Digital Network, Aug 17, 2015
Wake Forest redshirt freshman receiver Cortez Lewis has a different choreographed handshake for nearly everyone that he comes across. It has been written that he has more than 50 handshakes with members of the Demon Deacon football program. Watch as Lewis shows off his collection everywhere he goes from the football field, to the cafeteria and even the coaches' offices in this ACC Must See Moment.
****
Video #7: Dignity and Pride Communicated by a Handshake
Great Big Story, Feb 5, 2018
The dap is more than just a handshake, it’s a symbol of solidarity, one with a long and proud history behind it. The origins of this greeting trace back to young Black American soldiers stationed abroad during the Vietnam War. With racism prevalent in the military and a new Black consciousness emerging during the civil rights movement, the young soldiers developed a physical language as a gesture of unity. Thus was born the dap, an acronym for “Dignity and Pride.” Photographer LaMont Hamilton has been studying the historical impact of the dap in his series “Five on the Black Hand Side,” telling the story of how the handshake came to hold such a profound place in Black culture.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part IV of a four part pancocojams series on American hand gestures. Part IV of this series focuses on dap (handshakes).
Each of the posts in this series focus on hand gestures that were either created by African Americans or have been most closely associated with African Americans.
For Part I of this series (Five On The Black Hand Side handshakes), click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-on-black-hand-side-handshake.html.
For Part II of this series (High Fives),
click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/high-five-handshake-videos.html
For Part III of this series (Fist Bump/"Pound") click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/fist-bump-pound-handshakes.html.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
The copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those quoted in this post, and to all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
-snip-
Most of this pancocojams post was originally published in May 2012. http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/giving-daps-intricate-handshakes.html.
The 2012 post has a section that isn't included in this post.
Some of the videos in this 2020 post are different than the videos in the 2012 post.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
Daps are usually done only by men to other men.
Here's how some African American women often greet each other and how we often greet African American men:
Depending on who they are and where they are (for instance, whether or not they are in a predominately Black setting or a predominately White setting) some African American women greet other African American women and African American men by briefly and lightly hugging each other. This form of hugging is usually to the side and not belly to belly.
Sometimes African American women will pat each other or Black men on the back while hugging and sometimes we will give air kisses (pretend to give a kiss on each cheek of the person being hugged).
"The hug" with or without patting on the back and/or air kisses is the expected form of greeting that most Black women do and expect to receive at Black functions such as an African dance program and a Kwanzaa gathering.
I've also given "the hug" to some non-Black women-and less often, some non-Black men- depending on our setting and how familiar and comfortable with African American culture I believe they are.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/information-about-videos-of-african.html for the pancocojams post entitled "Information About & Videos Of African American Women Giving Hugs When Greeting People Or Saying Goodbye"
****
PART IV
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF DAP HANDSHAKES
From http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dap-greeting.htm
"A dap greeting is a series of arranged gestures exchanged between two individuals. Although a dap greeting can be exchanged upon meeting someone, it can also be used to indicate agreement, celebration or fellowship at any time. A dap greeting can include slapping hands, bumping fists in any direction, snapping, wiggling fingers and other forms of contact, and it can last anywhere from a few seconds to more than a minute. Dap greetings originated in the black community and have since spread to other racial groups, with many subcultures and groups of friends developing their own very specific dap greetings...
Origins
This type of greeting typically is non-verbal, and it is exchanged as a gesture of affection and solidarity. Dap greetings are believed to have originated in Africa, where people from different tribes might exchange such greetings upon meeting each other to indicate peaceful and friendly intentions. Blacks who emigrated to other parts of the world — including those forcefully transported as slaves — developed their own dap greetings...
Meaning of "Dap"
Some people believe that “dap” is an acronym for “dignity and pride,” reflecting the adoption of the dap greeting by the black power movement. Others suggest that “dignity and pride” is merely what is sometimes called a "backronym" — an acronym thought up after a word already existed. "Dap" also might be a shortening of another word or an onomatopoeia — a word that imitates the noise produced by this type of greeting; some dap greetings create a sound much like “dap,” which is produced by pulling the slightly cupped hands of the participants against each other."
**
From http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Shake-That--The-Right-Way/3669693
Shake That! The Right Way By: liss
"[In] Benin [West Africa], young men snap fingers while shaking hands. In Botswana [South Africa], people touch hands with a slight grazing of the palms and fingers. In Singapore [Asia], after you handshake its customary to place the other persons hand over your heart. Among Scandinavian [Europe] teens, exchanging spit by means of a handshake seals a deal...
Jamaicans complain that Americans are distant and Americans complain that Germans are cold and unfriendly. Sure, when you first meet them, Jamaicans dont shake hands with you. But once you get acquainted, they expect a casual lock and fly or a one harmed hug or a shug or a bro grab or a hetero-hug or whatever its known as in your country" ...
**
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dap_greeting:
"Though it can refer to many kinds of greetings involving hand contact, dap is best known as a complicated routine of shakes, slaps, snaps, and other contact that must be known completely by both parties involved. Dap greeting sometimes include a pound hug."
****
DAPS: EXCERPT FROM THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN VIETNAM: BROTHERS IN ARMS
*ADDED SECTION [February 25, 2018] : The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms
By James E. Westheider
https://books.google.com/books?id=VHEL34ALzO4C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=fist+pounding+heart+handshake&source=bl&ots=McVvUG2DxW&sig=AnQNKfKkpEk2V9WQZ0wUecSa-VA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin19vV7MHZAhXIUt8KHdCYB9w4ChDoAQgvMAE#v=onepage&q=fist%20pounding%20heart%20handshake&f=false
page 76
..."African Americans who remained in the armed services often reacted to racism by seeking comfort and safety in racial solidarity and by establishing their own sub-culture within the military. They called each other “brother”, “soul brother”, or “bloods”, and they were proud of being black. Two popular methods of greeting fellow black soldiers and demonstrating racial solidarity were the black power salute, a clenched fist in the air, and the “dab”, which developed in Vietnam, probably among inmates of the notorious Long Binh stockade. Dap is a corruption of the word “dep” Vietnamese slang for something beautiful. The dap, also known as “checking in”, was an intricate ritualized handshake, involving numerous gestures and movements. There was no standard dap, but there were many common gestures. There were countless variations of dap, and some of the more common greetings could go on for five or more minutes. Each move had a specific meaning: Pounding on the heart with a clenched fist, for example, symbolized brotherly love and solidarity; clenching fingers together and then touching the backside of the hand meant “My brother, I’m with you”. Most of the gestures signified solidarity, respect, and pride, but a few had darker meanings. A slicing movement across the throat symbolized cutting the throats of white MPs, never a favorite group among black recruits."...
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Video #1: Handshake Tutorial
Michael W Gaskins, July 24, 2009
****
Video #2: lebrons Pre-game handshakes
Uploaded by nlnodoubt on Dec 20, 2009
lebron james secret handshakes with his Cleveland cavaliers teammates, He is truly an incredible talent.
-snip-
Actually, I don't think these handshakes are secret. "Personalized" is probably a better word to describe them, as Lebron appears to have a different dap handshake for each person.
****
Video #3: Monta Ellis' Amazing Handshake
Uploaded by SciFientology on Jan 14, 2010
-snip-
WARNING! A number of viewers of this video connected the handshake shown in this video with the Gangster Disciple Nation (GDN or GD).
Certain handshakes are associated with specific gangs. Those handshakes absolutely should NOT be done by people who aren’t members of those gangs.
[This prohibition against non-members doing this handshake doesn't apply to the high five that followed it.]
-snip-
In this clip, Monta Ellis said "I told ya I'd warm that thang up." (referring to the basketball shots that he made.]
****
Video #4: Ebony & Ivory Handshake - The Bert Show
Uploaded by q100atlanta on Jun 19, 2011
****
Video #5: Everybody Hates Chris and Albert Hand Shake
Sly Cooper, Aug 3, 2012
from season Season 3 Episode 9 of Everbody Hates Chris
-snip-
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_Hates_Chris
"This television show is inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock (who is also the narrator). The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years 1978-1983."
****
Video #6: Fresh Prince - Will Jazz Handshake Compilation
Jibb's Compilations, Published on May 7, 2014
****
Video #6: Wake Forest's Cortez Lewis Has A Handshake With Every Teammate
ACC Digital Network, Aug 17, 2015
Wake Forest redshirt freshman receiver Cortez Lewis has a different choreographed handshake for nearly everyone that he comes across. It has been written that he has more than 50 handshakes with members of the Demon Deacon football program. Watch as Lewis shows off his collection everywhere he goes from the football field, to the cafeteria and even the coaches' offices in this ACC Must See Moment.
****
Video #7: Dignity and Pride Communicated by a Handshake
Great Big Story, Feb 5, 2018
The dap is more than just a handshake, it’s a symbol of solidarity, one with a long and proud history behind it. The origins of this greeting trace back to young Black American soldiers stationed abroad during the Vietnam War. With racism prevalent in the military and a new Black consciousness emerging during the civil rights movement, the young soldiers developed a physical language as a gesture of unity. Thus was born the dap, an acronym for “Dignity and Pride.” Photographer LaMont Hamilton has been studying the historical impact of the dap in his series “Five on the Black Hand Side,” telling the story of how the handshake came to hold such a profound place in Black culture.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Saturday, March 3, 2018
African American Soldiers In Vietnam & The Custom Of Giving Daps (Black Handshakes)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides information about and comments regarding African American soldiers in Vietnam and the custom of dapping* (giving "daps"; giving Black handshakes").
This post also provides excerpts about the fist bump (pound) which is often said to have come from the custom of dapping.
Videos of daps and fist bumps are also included in this post.
*"Daps" isn't the same thing as "the dab".
"Dap" is general term for styles of African American originated "intricate ritualized handshake, involving numerous gestures and movements" [quote from The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms by James E. Westheider].
People say that they are "giving some daps" and "dapping [a person] up" (giving a form of the "Black handshake").
In contrast, "dabbing" ("the dab"), is a simple dance move or playful gesture, in which a person drops their head into the bent crook of a slanted arm, while raising the opposite arm in a parallel direction but out straight. The move looks similar to someone sneezing into the "inside" of the elbow.[1][2]....From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dab_(dance) [retrieved July 9, 2017]
-snip-
People say that they are "doing the dap" (doing that dance movement).
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-meanings-of-boujee-dab-dab-of-ranch.html for a 2017 pancocojams post entitled The Meanings Of "Boujee", "Dab", "Dab Of Ranch", "JuJu On The Beat" & Some Other African American Vernacular English Terms From Viral Hip Hop Dance Songs
****
The content of this post is provided for historical, linguistic, and cultural purposes.
All copyright remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to publishers of these videos on YouTube.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-on-black-hand-side-handshake.html.
for one post in a four part series on Black Handshakes. The links to the other posts in that series are found in that post.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-significance-in-black-panther-movie.html for the pancocojams post entitled "The Significance In The Black Panther Movie Of Black Panther's Sister Shuri Giving A Dap (A Black Power Handshake)"
Also, click the "black handshakes tag" below for additional pancocojams posts on this subject.
****
THEORIES ABOUT THE ETYMOLOGY (origins & meanings) OF THE WORD "DAP"
The three different etymologies are given in the excerpts below for the word "dap".
1. "Dap" is an acronym for “dignity and pride"
2. "Dap" is a corruption of the word “dep” Vietnamese slang for something beautiful.
3. "Dap" is a clip of the word "dapper" meaning “neat, fashionably smart"
#1 above appears to be the most common online etymology for "daps" (handshakes), but that doesn't necessarily mean it is the correct etymology for this term. It's possible that that etymology was created after the term "dap" became at least somewhat familiar (among certain populations of African Americans).
****
EXCERPTS ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE DAP AND FIST BUMP (POUND)
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1
From https://folklife.si.edu/talkstory/2014/five-on-the-black-hand-sideorigins-and-evolutions-of-the-dap
"Five on the Black Hand Side: Origins and Evolutions of the Dap"; September 22, 2014 | LaMont Hamilton
..."Five on the Black Hand Side is a project exploring gestural languages that were born in African American communities during the 1960s and 1970s, including the “the dap” and the black power handshake. When we see youths, athletes, or even President Obama giving a fist bump or dap, we think of these gestures as mere greetings and are not aware of the origins and historical significance of these languages.
Historically, the dap is both a symbol among African American men that expresses unity, strength, defiance, or resistance and a complex language for communicating information. The dap and the black power handshake, which evolved from the dap, were important symbols of black consciousness, identity, and cultural unity throughout black America.
The dap originated during the late 1960s among black G.I.s stationed in the Pacific during the Vietnam War. At a time when the Black Power movement was burgeoning, racial unrest was prominent in American cities, and draft reforms sent tens of thousands of young African Americans into combat, the dap became an important symbol of unity and survival in a racially turbulent atmosphere. Scholars on the Vietnam War and black Vietnam vets alike note that the dap derived from a pact black soldiers took in order to convey their commitment to looking after one another. Several unfortunate cases of black soldiers reportedly being shot by white soldiers during combat served as the impetus behind this physical act of solidarity.
Such events, combined with the racism and segregation faced by black G.I.s, created a pressing need for an act and symbol of unity. The dap, an acronym for “dignity and pride” whose movements translate to “I’m not above you, you’re not above me, we’re side by side, we’re together,” provided just this symbol of solidarity and served as a substitute for the Black Power salute prohibited by the military.
White soldiers and commanding officers deemed the handshake a threat under the misconception that the dap was a coded language of potential black insurrection. In fact the dap was also a coded form of communication between soldiers that conveyed necessary information for survival, such as what to expect at the battlefront or what had transpired during an operation. The dap was banned at all levels of the military, and thus many black soldiers were court-martialed, jailed, and even dishonorably discharged as a punishment for dapping. Military repression of the dap further cemented a desire for a symbol of solidarity and protection among black men.
Conversely, later in the war, the military saw the utility of using the dap in medical treatment of black combatants with post-traumatic stress disorder, creating a program of “dap therapy.” The military would bring in black G.I.s fluent in the dap to dap with these men to build their trust up to accept treatment from white doctors and staff."...
****
Excerpt #2: The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms
By James E. Westheider
https://books.google.com/books?id=VHEL34ALzO4C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=fist+pounding+heart+handshake&source=bl&ots=McVvUG2DxW&sig=AnQNKfKkpEk2V9WQZ0wUecSa-VA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin19vV7MHZAhXIUt8KHdCYB9w4ChDoAQgvMAE#v=onepage&q=fist%20pounding%20heart%20handshake&f=false
page 76
..."African Americans who remained in the armed services often reacted to racism by seeking comfort and safety in racial solidarity and by establishing their own sub-culture within the military. They called each other “brother”, “soul brother”, or “bloods”, and they were proud of being black. Two popular methods of greeting fellow black soldiers and demonstrating racial solidarity were the black power salute, a clenched fist in the air, and the “dab”, which developed in Vietnam, probably among inmates of the notorious Long Binh stockade. Dap is a corruption of the word “dep” Vietnamese slang for something beautiful. The dap, also known as “checking in”, was an intricate ritualized handshake, involving numerous gestures and movements. There was no standard dap, but there were many common gestures. There were countless variations of dap, and some of the more common greetings could go on for five or more minutes. Each move had a specific meaning: Pounding on the heart with a clenched fist, for example, symbolized brotherly love and solidarity; clenching fingers together and then touching the backside of the hand meant “My brother, I’m with you”. Most of the gestures signified solidarity, respect, and pride, but a few had darker meanings. A slicing movement across the throat symbolized cutting the throats of white MPs, never a favorite group among black recruits."...
****
Except #3
From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06wwln-safire-t.html "On Language: Fist Bump by William Safire
"Prof. Geneva Smitherman, director of African-American language study at Michigan State University, says:... "Pound is when knuckles touch in a horizontal position. That’s the gesture that Michelle and Barack used. Dap is when the knuckles touch in a vertical position. Both gestures can be used as a greeting, to signal respect, agreement, bonding.”
Dap started among black soldiers during the Vietnam War; to give “some dap” (not usually “a” dap) means “to offer kudos, congratulations”; Prof. James Peterson of Bucknell, a hip-hop historian, says he thinks it is rooted in dapper, “neat, fashionably smart.” Pound came out of hip-hop in the late 1980s. Fist bump came later: a 1996 note in the Sports Network wire service reported that Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles was accepting congratulations from baseball teammates with “high-fives, handshakes or fist bumps.” Peterson says the new phrase robs the gesture of its cultural significance, which includes the Obamas’ “quiet but pronounced in-group affiliation with all of black America.” "
****
Excerpt #4
From http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1812102,00.html "A Brief History of the Fist Bump" by M.J. Stephey Thursday, June 05, 2008
"It's a hand gesture normally associated with sporting events and Bud Lite commercials. But on Tuesday night, millions of people witnessed Michelle Obama daintily knocking knuckles with her husband as the Illinois Senator took the stage to claim the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The Washington Post called it "the fist bump heard 'round the world."
The origins of the bump are murky, though most communication experts agree on a basic — if fuzzy — evolutionary timeline: the handshake (which itself dates back to ancient times) begat the "gimme-five" palm slap that later evolved into the now universal "high-five" and, finally, the fist bump.
Some claim the act of knuckle-bumping began in the 1970s with NBA players like Baltimore Bullets guard Fred Carter. Others claim the fist bump's national debut occurred off the court, citing the Wonder Twins, minor characters in the 1970s Hanna-Barbera superhero cartoon The Superfriends, who famously touched knuckles and cried "Wonder Twin powers, activate!' before morphing into animals or ice sculptures. One might also credit germaphobics for the fist bump's popularity. Deal or No Deal host Howie Mandel reportedly adopted the gesture as a friendly way to avoid his contestants' germs.
Even the terminology used to describe the manual move is under dispute. On reporting Obama's speech, The New York Times described it stuffily as a "closed-fisted high-five" while Human Events reader racily suggested it was closer to "Hezbollah-style fist-jabbing," (the comment was later removed from the article). One Internet poster even referred to it as "the fist bump of hope." Other terms for the move include "power five," "fist pound," "knuckle bump," "Quarter Pounder" and "dap."
The fist bump's precursor, the low- and high-fives, originated in the 1950s, again mostly among athletes, who deemed handshakes too muted and formal for celebrating teamwork and triumph. The 1980s are generally regarded as the heyday of the high-five, though the gesture has enjoyed a revival of sorts in recent years “...
****
Excerpt #5
From http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/who-made-that-fist-bump.html Who Made That Fist Bump?
By Pagan Kennedy, October. 26, 2012
..."The fist bump may have arisen spontaneously on city basketball courts, where kids developed slaps and shakes to celebrate wins. It can also be traced to the boxing ring, where opponents kiss gloves before a match. In the 1970s, the basketball star Fred Carter stamped it with his own exuberant personality, and some credit him as its inventor. However, fist-bump-ologists point out (as does Carter) that the gesture probably predates him.
[Pastor Scott] Williams said that he realized the power of the bump 10 years ago, while working as a prison warden. “I wanted to interact with the inmates, to pay respect to them, and I could do that by giving them the fist bump.” Since then, Williams has encouraged people in countries from Tanzania to Ecuador to adopt the salute. At SeaWorld San Diego, he proffered his fist to a walrus named Obie for an interspecies bump. (The walrus used its snout.)
Williams believes that Barack Obama deserves credit for reinventing the fist bump. In 2008, when Obama locked knuckles with Michelle after his nomination, the cable stations erupted, and a Fox newscaster denounced the “terrorist fist jab.” Yet the bump emerged from the brouhaha looking presidential. “Obama’s fist bump caught the attention of the world,” Williams says. “And so, because of that platform, it’s not just people who are watching sports that are seeing it. It’s the leaders.” For the stiffest of shirts, the Obama moment helped the fist bump cross over “into the professional realm and become business casual,” Williams adds, and now “it’s the Swiss Army knife of gestures.”
The editors of the Merriam-Webster dictionary appear to agree. Noticing a surge in the use of the phrase “fist bump” in recent years, they anointed it as official English in 2011. “Fist bump” took its place in the dictionary, along with “tweet,” “helicopter parent” and “bromance.”...
-snip-
Here are some comments from this article's discussion thread:
1. Rocker Trple Creek Ma, October 26, 2012
"It was invented in prison to avoid the spread of gearms."..
**
2. citizen314 new york, new york, October 27, 2012
"Whether or not the fist bump was started in prison to avoid spreading germs - I am not sure. However as a creative working class musician person who has been street level for around 25 years in NYC (20) and 5 in LA - the first group of folks to fist bump in Manhattan were on the Lower East Side and East Village and were the Rastas from the Caribbean. They once had food shops when rent was affordable in the East Village and I remember the day they fist bumped me around 1990. I feel the reasons are a mix including solidarity - first touching your chest with your fist as in one heart, one people and then the fist bump to connect. Germs and and not wanting to be embarrassed by sweaty palms are other reasons."
**
3. Bettina Arlington, Va, October 28, 2012
"While this article mentions what the author calls the 'soul handshake,' it leaves out the 'dap', which predates the fist bump and is a sign of black solidarity. There are several references in the scholarly literature that provide a broader explanation of the origin of the dap in popular culture and politics. Including some reference to the influence of the black power movement in the article would have provided a more accurate representation of the origins of today's fist bump."
**
4. a-man, New York, NY, October 29, 2012
"It comes from dapping, which was common among black soldiers in Vietnam. The army brass banned it and it became even cooler as a result."
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS
These videos are presented in chronological order based on their publication date on YouTube, with the oldest dated video given first.
Example #1: black GI greetings
flaper, Published on Apr 6, 2009
from "Sir! No Sir! The Vietnam GI Revolt" by David Zeiger (Docurama, 2005)
-snip-
Here's my transcription of the comments that are given in this the film clip from .03-.018:
black GI greetings
Darrell Summers- “On my whole tour of Vietnam, you know, when you met a Black soldier, you know, he had a dap, he had a special handshake. You could even it got to the point where you could even tell ah, what part of the, ah, what part of the country he was from, ‘cause everybody had their distinctive, ah, their dap or handshake and you definitely could tell if he wasn’t in your company ‘cause everybody knew, everybody had their own moves."
-end of transcription-
In the context of this comment, the word “company” means the unit of soldiers that you were assigned to.
This video includes a film clip from 1972. The commenter also said that in Vietnam Black soldiers were jailed just for greeting each other with a dap.
****
Example #2: Usain Bolt fist bumps Glasgow volunteer | Unmissable Moments
Commonwealth Games, Published on Aug 3, 2014
Great scenes at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as Jamaica's Usain Bolt shares a low five and a fist bump with a young volunteer.
****
Example #3: Obama's finest fist bumps
CNN, Published on Nov 30, 2016
A look back at President Obama's countless fist bumps.
****
Example #4: NBA BEST HANDSHAKES COMPILATION!
Prime Time Ballers, Published on May 28, 2017
****
Example #5: The Historic Origins of the Dap
Great Big Story, Published on Feb 5, 2018
The dap is more than just a handshake, it’s a symbol of solidarity, one with a long and proud history behind it. The origins of this greeting trace back to young Black American soldiers stationed abroad during the Vietnam War. With racism prevalent in the military and a new Black consciousness emerging during the civil rights movement, the young soldiers developed a physical language as a gesture of unity. Thus was born the dap, an acronym for “Dignity and Pride.” Photographer LaMont Hamilton has been studying the historical impact of the dap in his series “Five on the Black Hand Side,” telling the story of how the handshake came to hold such a profound place in Black culture.
-snip-
Here are some comments from this video's discussion thread (All of these comments are from February 2018):
1. Bill Loman
"Ive been familiar with the dap most of my life but I never knew it had such a history. This is fascinating"
**
2. john richhardson
"Why they gotta make it a racial thing??
I’m white and I dap my black homies up - can I not do that now??"
**
Reply
3. Bunny1412
"this is about the history of the dap, there was nothing in it about you or your right to do it with your black friends.."
**
Reply
5. Jansen Yabes
"Alden Richardson No one in the video said white people can't do it. Stop reaching"
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This pancocojams post provides information about and comments regarding African American soldiers in Vietnam and the custom of dapping* (giving "daps"; giving Black handshakes").
This post also provides excerpts about the fist bump (pound) which is often said to have come from the custom of dapping.
Videos of daps and fist bumps are also included in this post.
*"Daps" isn't the same thing as "the dab".
"Dap" is general term for styles of African American originated "intricate ritualized handshake, involving numerous gestures and movements" [quote from The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms by James E. Westheider].
People say that they are "giving some daps" and "dapping [a person] up" (giving a form of the "Black handshake").
In contrast, "dabbing" ("the dab"), is a simple dance move or playful gesture, in which a person drops their head into the bent crook of a slanted arm, while raising the opposite arm in a parallel direction but out straight. The move looks similar to someone sneezing into the "inside" of the elbow.[1][2]....From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dab_(dance) [retrieved July 9, 2017]
-snip-
People say that they are "doing the dap" (doing that dance movement).
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-meanings-of-boujee-dab-dab-of-ranch.html for a 2017 pancocojams post entitled The Meanings Of "Boujee", "Dab", "Dab Of Ranch", "JuJu On The Beat" & Some Other African American Vernacular English Terms From Viral Hip Hop Dance Songs
****
The content of this post is provided for historical, linguistic, and cultural purposes.
All copyright remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to publishers of these videos on YouTube.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-on-black-hand-side-handshake.html.
for one post in a four part series on Black Handshakes. The links to the other posts in that series are found in that post.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-significance-in-black-panther-movie.html for the pancocojams post entitled "The Significance In The Black Panther Movie Of Black Panther's Sister Shuri Giving A Dap (A Black Power Handshake)"
Also, click the "black handshakes tag" below for additional pancocojams posts on this subject.
****
THEORIES ABOUT THE ETYMOLOGY (origins & meanings) OF THE WORD "DAP"
The three different etymologies are given in the excerpts below for the word "dap".
1. "Dap" is an acronym for “dignity and pride"
2. "Dap" is a corruption of the word “dep” Vietnamese slang for something beautiful.
3. "Dap" is a clip of the word "dapper" meaning “neat, fashionably smart"
#1 above appears to be the most common online etymology for "daps" (handshakes), but that doesn't necessarily mean it is the correct etymology for this term. It's possible that that etymology was created after the term "dap" became at least somewhat familiar (among certain populations of African Americans).
****
EXCERPTS ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE DAP AND FIST BUMP (POUND)
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1
From https://folklife.si.edu/talkstory/2014/five-on-the-black-hand-sideorigins-and-evolutions-of-the-dap
"Five on the Black Hand Side: Origins and Evolutions of the Dap"; September 22, 2014 | LaMont Hamilton
..."Five on the Black Hand Side is a project exploring gestural languages that were born in African American communities during the 1960s and 1970s, including the “the dap” and the black power handshake. When we see youths, athletes, or even President Obama giving a fist bump or dap, we think of these gestures as mere greetings and are not aware of the origins and historical significance of these languages.
Historically, the dap is both a symbol among African American men that expresses unity, strength, defiance, or resistance and a complex language for communicating information. The dap and the black power handshake, which evolved from the dap, were important symbols of black consciousness, identity, and cultural unity throughout black America.
The dap originated during the late 1960s among black G.I.s stationed in the Pacific during the Vietnam War. At a time when the Black Power movement was burgeoning, racial unrest was prominent in American cities, and draft reforms sent tens of thousands of young African Americans into combat, the dap became an important symbol of unity and survival in a racially turbulent atmosphere. Scholars on the Vietnam War and black Vietnam vets alike note that the dap derived from a pact black soldiers took in order to convey their commitment to looking after one another. Several unfortunate cases of black soldiers reportedly being shot by white soldiers during combat served as the impetus behind this physical act of solidarity.
Such events, combined with the racism and segregation faced by black G.I.s, created a pressing need for an act and symbol of unity. The dap, an acronym for “dignity and pride” whose movements translate to “I’m not above you, you’re not above me, we’re side by side, we’re together,” provided just this symbol of solidarity and served as a substitute for the Black Power salute prohibited by the military.
White soldiers and commanding officers deemed the handshake a threat under the misconception that the dap was a coded language of potential black insurrection. In fact the dap was also a coded form of communication between soldiers that conveyed necessary information for survival, such as what to expect at the battlefront or what had transpired during an operation. The dap was banned at all levels of the military, and thus many black soldiers were court-martialed, jailed, and even dishonorably discharged as a punishment for dapping. Military repression of the dap further cemented a desire for a symbol of solidarity and protection among black men.
Conversely, later in the war, the military saw the utility of using the dap in medical treatment of black combatants with post-traumatic stress disorder, creating a program of “dap therapy.” The military would bring in black G.I.s fluent in the dap to dap with these men to build their trust up to accept treatment from white doctors and staff."...
****
Excerpt #2: The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms
By James E. Westheider
https://books.google.com/books?id=VHEL34ALzO4C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=fist+pounding+heart+handshake&source=bl&ots=McVvUG2DxW&sig=AnQNKfKkpEk2V9WQZ0wUecSa-VA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin19vV7MHZAhXIUt8KHdCYB9w4ChDoAQgvMAE#v=onepage&q=fist%20pounding%20heart%20handshake&f=false
page 76
..."African Americans who remained in the armed services often reacted to racism by seeking comfort and safety in racial solidarity and by establishing their own sub-culture within the military. They called each other “brother”, “soul brother”, or “bloods”, and they were proud of being black. Two popular methods of greeting fellow black soldiers and demonstrating racial solidarity were the black power salute, a clenched fist in the air, and the “dab”, which developed in Vietnam, probably among inmates of the notorious Long Binh stockade. Dap is a corruption of the word “dep” Vietnamese slang for something beautiful. The dap, also known as “checking in”, was an intricate ritualized handshake, involving numerous gestures and movements. There was no standard dap, but there were many common gestures. There were countless variations of dap, and some of the more common greetings could go on for five or more minutes. Each move had a specific meaning: Pounding on the heart with a clenched fist, for example, symbolized brotherly love and solidarity; clenching fingers together and then touching the backside of the hand meant “My brother, I’m with you”. Most of the gestures signified solidarity, respect, and pride, but a few had darker meanings. A slicing movement across the throat symbolized cutting the throats of white MPs, never a favorite group among black recruits."...
****
Except #3
From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06wwln-safire-t.html "On Language: Fist Bump by William Safire
"Prof. Geneva Smitherman, director of African-American language study at Michigan State University, says:... "Pound is when knuckles touch in a horizontal position. That’s the gesture that Michelle and Barack used. Dap is when the knuckles touch in a vertical position. Both gestures can be used as a greeting, to signal respect, agreement, bonding.”
Dap started among black soldiers during the Vietnam War; to give “some dap” (not usually “a” dap) means “to offer kudos, congratulations”; Prof. James Peterson of Bucknell, a hip-hop historian, says he thinks it is rooted in dapper, “neat, fashionably smart.” Pound came out of hip-hop in the late 1980s. Fist bump came later: a 1996 note in the Sports Network wire service reported that Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles was accepting congratulations from baseball teammates with “high-fives, handshakes or fist bumps.” Peterson says the new phrase robs the gesture of its cultural significance, which includes the Obamas’ “quiet but pronounced in-group affiliation with all of black America.” "
****
Excerpt #4
From http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1812102,00.html "A Brief History of the Fist Bump" by M.J. Stephey Thursday, June 05, 2008
"It's a hand gesture normally associated with sporting events and Bud Lite commercials. But on Tuesday night, millions of people witnessed Michelle Obama daintily knocking knuckles with her husband as the Illinois Senator took the stage to claim the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The Washington Post called it "the fist bump heard 'round the world."
The origins of the bump are murky, though most communication experts agree on a basic — if fuzzy — evolutionary timeline: the handshake (which itself dates back to ancient times) begat the "gimme-five" palm slap that later evolved into the now universal "high-five" and, finally, the fist bump.
Some claim the act of knuckle-bumping began in the 1970s with NBA players like Baltimore Bullets guard Fred Carter. Others claim the fist bump's national debut occurred off the court, citing the Wonder Twins, minor characters in the 1970s Hanna-Barbera superhero cartoon The Superfriends, who famously touched knuckles and cried "Wonder Twin powers, activate!' before morphing into animals or ice sculptures. One might also credit germaphobics for the fist bump's popularity. Deal or No Deal host Howie Mandel reportedly adopted the gesture as a friendly way to avoid his contestants' germs.
Even the terminology used to describe the manual move is under dispute. On reporting Obama's speech, The New York Times described it stuffily as a "closed-fisted high-five" while Human Events reader racily suggested it was closer to "Hezbollah-style fist-jabbing," (the comment was later removed from the article). One Internet poster even referred to it as "the fist bump of hope." Other terms for the move include "power five," "fist pound," "knuckle bump," "Quarter Pounder" and "dap."
The fist bump's precursor, the low- and high-fives, originated in the 1950s, again mostly among athletes, who deemed handshakes too muted and formal for celebrating teamwork and triumph. The 1980s are generally regarded as the heyday of the high-five, though the gesture has enjoyed a revival of sorts in recent years “...
****
Excerpt #5
From http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/who-made-that-fist-bump.html Who Made That Fist Bump?
By Pagan Kennedy, October. 26, 2012
..."The fist bump may have arisen spontaneously on city basketball courts, where kids developed slaps and shakes to celebrate wins. It can also be traced to the boxing ring, where opponents kiss gloves before a match. In the 1970s, the basketball star Fred Carter stamped it with his own exuberant personality, and some credit him as its inventor. However, fist-bump-ologists point out (as does Carter) that the gesture probably predates him.
[Pastor Scott] Williams said that he realized the power of the bump 10 years ago, while working as a prison warden. “I wanted to interact with the inmates, to pay respect to them, and I could do that by giving them the fist bump.” Since then, Williams has encouraged people in countries from Tanzania to Ecuador to adopt the salute. At SeaWorld San Diego, he proffered his fist to a walrus named Obie for an interspecies bump. (The walrus used its snout.)
Williams believes that Barack Obama deserves credit for reinventing the fist bump. In 2008, when Obama locked knuckles with Michelle after his nomination, the cable stations erupted, and a Fox newscaster denounced the “terrorist fist jab.” Yet the bump emerged from the brouhaha looking presidential. “Obama’s fist bump caught the attention of the world,” Williams says. “And so, because of that platform, it’s not just people who are watching sports that are seeing it. It’s the leaders.” For the stiffest of shirts, the Obama moment helped the fist bump cross over “into the professional realm and become business casual,” Williams adds, and now “it’s the Swiss Army knife of gestures.”
The editors of the Merriam-Webster dictionary appear to agree. Noticing a surge in the use of the phrase “fist bump” in recent years, they anointed it as official English in 2011. “Fist bump” took its place in the dictionary, along with “tweet,” “helicopter parent” and “bromance.”...
-snip-
Here are some comments from this article's discussion thread:
1. Rocker Trple Creek Ma, October 26, 2012
"It was invented in prison to avoid the spread of gearms."..
**
2. citizen314 new york, new york, October 27, 2012
"Whether or not the fist bump was started in prison to avoid spreading germs - I am not sure. However as a creative working class musician person who has been street level for around 25 years in NYC (20) and 5 in LA - the first group of folks to fist bump in Manhattan were on the Lower East Side and East Village and were the Rastas from the Caribbean. They once had food shops when rent was affordable in the East Village and I remember the day they fist bumped me around 1990. I feel the reasons are a mix including solidarity - first touching your chest with your fist as in one heart, one people and then the fist bump to connect. Germs and and not wanting to be embarrassed by sweaty palms are other reasons."
**
3. Bettina Arlington, Va, October 28, 2012
"While this article mentions what the author calls the 'soul handshake,' it leaves out the 'dap', which predates the fist bump and is a sign of black solidarity. There are several references in the scholarly literature that provide a broader explanation of the origin of the dap in popular culture and politics. Including some reference to the influence of the black power movement in the article would have provided a more accurate representation of the origins of today's fist bump."
**
4. a-man, New York, NY, October 29, 2012
"It comes from dapping, which was common among black soldiers in Vietnam. The army brass banned it and it became even cooler as a result."
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS
These videos are presented in chronological order based on their publication date on YouTube, with the oldest dated video given first.
Example #1: black GI greetings
flaper, Published on Apr 6, 2009
from "Sir! No Sir! The Vietnam GI Revolt" by David Zeiger (Docurama, 2005)
-snip-
Here's my transcription of the comments that are given in this the film clip from .03-.018:
black GI greetings
Darrell Summers- “On my whole tour of Vietnam, you know, when you met a Black soldier, you know, he had a dap, he had a special handshake. You could even it got to the point where you could even tell ah, what part of the, ah, what part of the country he was from, ‘cause everybody had their distinctive, ah, their dap or handshake and you definitely could tell if he wasn’t in your company ‘cause everybody knew, everybody had their own moves."
-end of transcription-
In the context of this comment, the word “company” means the unit of soldiers that you were assigned to.
This video includes a film clip from 1972. The commenter also said that in Vietnam Black soldiers were jailed just for greeting each other with a dap.
****
Example #2: Usain Bolt fist bumps Glasgow volunteer | Unmissable Moments
Commonwealth Games, Published on Aug 3, 2014
Great scenes at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as Jamaica's Usain Bolt shares a low five and a fist bump with a young volunteer.
****
Example #3: Obama's finest fist bumps
CNN, Published on Nov 30, 2016
A look back at President Obama's countless fist bumps.
****
Example #4: NBA BEST HANDSHAKES COMPILATION!
Prime Time Ballers, Published on May 28, 2017
****
Example #5: The Historic Origins of the Dap
Great Big Story, Published on Feb 5, 2018
The dap is more than just a handshake, it’s a symbol of solidarity, one with a long and proud history behind it. The origins of this greeting trace back to young Black American soldiers stationed abroad during the Vietnam War. With racism prevalent in the military and a new Black consciousness emerging during the civil rights movement, the young soldiers developed a physical language as a gesture of unity. Thus was born the dap, an acronym for “Dignity and Pride.” Photographer LaMont Hamilton has been studying the historical impact of the dap in his series “Five on the Black Hand Side,” telling the story of how the handshake came to hold such a profound place in Black culture.
-snip-
Here are some comments from this video's discussion thread (All of these comments are from February 2018):
1. Bill Loman
"Ive been familiar with the dap most of my life but I never knew it had such a history. This is fascinating"
**
2. john richhardson
"Why they gotta make it a racial thing??
I’m white and I dap my black homies up - can I not do that now??"
**
Reply
3. Bunny1412
"this is about the history of the dap, there was nothing in it about you or your right to do it with your black friends.."
**
Reply
5. Jansen Yabes
"Alden Richardson No one in the video said white people can't do it. Stop reaching"
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Somali Bantus In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (article excerpts & videos)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides general information about Somali Bantus and extensively quotes a Pittsburgh Pennsylvania newspaper about Somali Bantus who live in that United States community.
This post also showcases two videos of Somali Bantu weddings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, historical, sociological, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to those who are featured in these videos and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
****
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT SOMALI BANTUS
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantus_(Somalia)
"The Bantu (also called Jareer, Gosha, and Mushunguli) are an ethnic minority group in Somalia who primarily reside in the southern part of the country, near the Juba and Shabelle rivers. They are descendants of people from various Bantu ethnic groups, whom were captured from Southeast Africa and sold into slavery in Somalia and other areas in Northeast Africa and Asia as part of the 19th-century Arab slave trade.[2][3] Bantus are ethnically, physically, and culturally distinct from Somalis, and they have remained marginalized ever since their arrival in Somalia.[4]
These Bantu are not to be confused with the members of Swahili society in coastal towns, such as the Bajuni, who speak dialects of the Bantu Swahili language.
All in all, the number of Bantu inhabitants in Somalia before the civil war is thought to have been about 80,000 (1970 estimate), with most concentrated between the Juba and Shabelle rivers in the south.[5] However, recent estimates place the figure as high as 900,000 persons.[1]
Etymology
The term "Somali Bantu" is an ethnonym that was invented by humanitarian aid-supplying agencies shortly after the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia in 1991. Its purpose was to help the staff of these aid agencies better distinguish between, on the one hand, Bantu minority groups hailing from Somalia and thus in need of immediate humanitarian attention and on the other hand, other Bantu groups from elsewhere in Africa that did not require immediate humanitarian assistance. The neologism further spread through the media, which repeated verbatim what the aid agencies' increasingly began indicating in their reports as the new name for Somalia's ethnically Bantu minorities. Prior to the civil war, the Bantu were simply referred to in the literature as Bantu, Gosha, Mushunguli or Jareer, as they still, in fact, are within Somalia proper.[6]”...
Resettlement in the United States
In 1999, the United States classified the Bantu refugees from Somalia as a priority and the United States Department of State first began what has been described as the most ambitious resettlement plan ever from Africa, with thousands of Bantus scheduled for resettlement in America.[27] In 2003, the first Bantu immigrants began to arrive in U.S. cities, and by 2007, around 13,000 had been resettled to cities throughout the United States with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.S. State Department, and refugee resettlement agencies across the country.[27]
Among the resettlement destinations, it is known that Salt Lake City, Utah received about 1,000 Bantus. Other cities in the southwest such as Denver, Colorado, San Antonio, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona have received a few thousand as well. In New England, Manchester, New Hampshire and Burlington, Vermont were also destinations selected for resettlement of several hundred. Plans to resettle the Bantu in smaller towns, such as Holyoke, Massachusetts and Cayce, South Carolina, were scrapped after local protests. There are also communities of several hundred to a thousand Bantu people in cities that also have high concentrations of ethnic Somalis such as the Minneapolis-St. Paul area,[28] Columbus, Ohio,[29] Atlanta,[30] San Diego,[31] Boston,[32] Pittsburgh,[33] and Seattle,[34] with a notable presence of about 1,000 Bantus in Lewiston, Maine.[35][36] “...
****
ARTICLE EXCERPT: A NUMBER OF SOMALI BANTU REFUGEES HAVE RESETTLED IN PITTSBURGH, BUT HOW ARE THEY ADJUSTING?
From http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/a-number-of-somali-bantu-refugees-have-resettled-in-pittsburgh-but-how-are-they-adjusting/Content?oid=1953072
by Ryan Deto @RyanDeto, September 21, 2016
“I am Somali Bantu, but that does not mean that I am not also American.”
... Welcoming Week (Sept. 16-26) is currently being celebrated throughout the county. The week-long celebration highlights the city’s success in attracting and resettling immigrants to Pittsburgh — more than 18,000 since 2000 — and the diversity they bring to the region.
But for refugee groups like the Somali Bantu, there is little to celebrate. The community, comprising 200 to 300 people, has been living in Pittsburgh since 2004, but hasn’t achieved many markers of immigrant success. Few of their children are attending college, few families have purchased homes, and discrimination is still very much a part of their lives.
“There are not a lot of Bantu in Pittsburgh,” says Mwaliya. “We cannot live the same life we lived back home. If you don’t have enough people to open [Americans’] eyes and to advocate, our struggles will continue.”
So what is holding Bantus back? The answer may be as complex as the journeys many of them took to arrive on U.S. soil.
Mwaliya is a Somali Bantu who originally resettled in Salt Lake City in the early 2000s, and came to Pittsburgh in 2011. “Most people I knew lived here,” he says. “The community here needed help. We were missing an organization so we could help ourselves.”
Mwaliya says when he arrived, only five elders in the community had received citizenship, and there were problems obtaining interpreters in the county courts and area hospitals. He started the Somali Bantu Community Association of Pittsburgh in 2012. Since, he says, most Bantus have gained citizenship, and interpreters have been provided in schools, courts and medical centers.
Some of these achievements came with a fight. In 2006, Education Law Project on behalf of the Bantu community sued Pittsburgh Public Schools for better language and cultural services. PPS settled and developed policies to help second-language learners and guard against ethnic intimidation.
But these improvements haven’t propelled Bantus into great educational attainment. Kristen Tsapis, who has volunteered with the community for years, says the several young Bantu are currently working towards associate degrees at schools across Southwestern Pennsylvania. But according to Mwaliya, only three college-age Bantus are currently enrolled in four-year universities, and few Pittsburgh Bantus have obtained degrees. “Wherever we go, we are educationally behind,” says Mwaliya.
The Bantus, while living in Somalia, were banned from going to school, and many are illiterate as a result. When they were sent to refugee camps in Kenya, schooling was available, but girls didn’t attend and the classes were taught in English and Swahili, not the Bantus’ native language, Kizigawa.
To understand the Bantus’ struggles is to understand their history. Originally brought to Somalia as slaves from west and southeast Africa during the 1800s, Bantus were freed during the Italian colonization of Somalia in the early 1900s. Many converted to Islam to avoid persecution by ethnic Somalis during the slave-trade era and continue to practice the religion today.
Bantus eventually settled in the Jubba Valley of southwestern Somalia. However, they were denied access to modern amenities due to their minority status. The Somali civil war broke out in 1988, and military groups invaded the Jubba Valley, bringing violence, rape, starvation and death.
A few years later, many Bantus walked to refugee camps in Kenya, and while they were safe from Somalis, the camps still had a litany of problems. Mwaliya says that both he and many other Bantus he knew spent more than 12 years in the camps, where they were brutalized by Kenyan authorities, and no real jobs were offered. Farmland was not provided, and many Bantus abandoned their farming traditions.
Mwaliya recognizes the problems of the camps, but says nothing was as bad as their lives in Somalia during the civil war.
“You can’t even compare the camps to Somalia,” says Mwaliya. “You can see a kid dying there, just asking for something to eat or drink.”...
Mwaliya says without work or farming access, and with little education, the camps put many Bantus into a cycle of dependency, something he wants to see his community break out of.
“You can advocate when your rights are violated, and you can advocate to move forward,” says Mwaliya. “You don’t get people to move you forward without moving yourself forward.”
In order to help refugees transition more easily, resettlement agencies offer language, housing, and job-placement services as well as a few months’ cash for rent and food. But agencies often have limited resources. After about a year, many refugees must provide for themselves.
Local groups like Northern Area Multi-Service Center offer cultural-assimilation programs, and the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council offer free English classes. These programs have helped thousands of refugees and immigrants adjust to life in Pittsburgh, but those programs might not be reaching the Bantus.
A 2007 graduate thesis by Leah Taylor on Pittsburgh’s Bantus from University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health points to some problems in the early years of the Bantus’ resettlement: “This lack of cooperation among providers and the system of resettlement in the U.S. that encourages refugees to work as soon as possible, regardless of language ability, further hindered the ability of the Somali Bantus to exercise personal agency after arriving in the U.S.”...
Page 2 http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/a-number-of-somali-bantu-refugees-have-resettled-in-pittsburgh-but-how-are-they-adjusting/Content?oid=1953072&storyPage=2 by Ryan Deto @RyanDeto, September 21, 2016
...."unlike the Bhutanese, Ervin Dyer, of Pitt Magazine, who wrote a graduate research paper on Pittsburgh’s Bantus in 2012, says Bantus have an insular nature that has kept them from accessing services that could help.
When Bantus arrived in Pittsburgh, the community spent years moving from subpar housing to subpar housing: from Lawrenceville and Homewood to the Hill District and Manchester in the North Side, and finally to Northview Heights, where around 80 percent of them live today.
“They were used to operating alone. They were excluded in Somalia, they were used to operating in their own world,” says Dyer. “... [Many] don’t even speak and write in their native language, let alone English. They were really up against it.”
A 2007 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal article on Bantus argued that if they were not given adequate support, they would become vulnerable to “an intergenerational cycle of poverty, which is hardly a humanitarian act and could have dire consequences for both the African refugee and their American neighbors.”
The Bantus also differ starkly from their African counterparts in terms of education. Slyvester Mejer hails from Nigeria and is the associate director of the Union of African Communities of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Unlike most of the Bantu, he says 60-70 percent of other Africans arriving to Pittsburgh come from educated backgrounds.
Despite such challenges, Dyer believes Pittsburgh’s Bantus are on the right track. He says many youth performed well in high school, an “extreme achievement considering their background,” and almost none of them have criminal records. Dyer adds that while living in Northview Heights presents problems (census figures show that 41 percent of households in the neighborhood make less than $10,000 a year), it has provided Bantus an opportunity to live close to one another, and has provided a safe place for them to practice their cultural traditions.
“They found a challenge of concentrate[ed] poverty, but they also found a community that understood social challenges,” says Dyer. “Perhaps it wasn’t so broken to the Somali Bantu. It gave them this sort-of village. They could recreate the life they wanted.”
...In Pittsburgh, many African refugees, including the Bantus, were resettled in predominantly African-American neighborhoods. And while relationships between American and immigrant communities in Northview Heights are going smoothly now, Fatuma Muya, a Bantu from Northview Heights, told City Paper in December 2015 that many African Americans have bullied Bantu youth over the years, calling them names like “Africa” and “stink.”
Police relations haven’t gone over very well either. Chirambo says when some Bantus in Pittsburgh call the police to settle disputes, the police sometimes arrest the father out of confusion. In December 2015, five boys were arrested by Port Authority Police during a ruckus at Wood Street T station. Out of hundreds present during the commotion, all the boys arrested were Bantu and at least four of the five cases never went to trial. The boys’ families claimed they were discriminated against, which Port Authority denied.
“The events of last year, when you see stuff like that happening, it is disappointing,” says Mwaliya. “It seems hopeless. The solution is to have it come from the inside.”
But the county seems to be providing more outside help too. Betty Cruz, formerly of Mayor Peduto’s Welcoming Pittsburgh initiative, helped create a community blueprint with Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services to make it easier for immigrant communities to connect to services and funding. She says more can, and needs, to be done to help immigrant and refugee groups in the Pittsburgh region...
Cruz says while Pittsburgh groups do offer English as a Second Language classes, the region doesn’t offer professional English-language services to help immigrants obtain high-skilled jobs like engineering and health-care work. Mwaliya says many Bantu men work as janitors and dishwashers and the women work in laundry service.
“It makes the difference from being stuck in survival jobs, to moving along the pipeline into [high-skilled] work,” says Cruz. “It is a big barrier right now.”
Another Bantu group was recently created to take on these issues. Abdulkadir Chirambo came to Pittsburgh from Erie to study at Pitt eight years ago, where he earned a degree in criminal justice. Chirambo, a relative of two of the boys arrested during the Wood Street ruckus, was recently tapped by community elders to start the United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh group. He has been integral in the Northview Heights garden project and has started providing family crisis counseling within the community.
“We want to let people know we are alive and here,” said Chirambo, while weeding the community garden one Saturday. “[We were invisible] in Somalia, we don’t want that here.”....
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS: SOMALI BANTU WEDDINGS IN PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
Example #1: madina and dadiri wedding [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]
Abdikadir muya Published on Aug 24, 2013
mjomba Audio & video Center in Pittsburgh, PA (Abdikadir Muya)
-SNIP-
Notice the custom of giving paper money to the bride and groom (as seen at around 6:00 in this video and at other times.) I've noticed this custom of "spraying money" -and other referents - in other African videos, but particularly in Nigerian wedding and party videos.
****
Example #2: somali bantu Pittsburgh wedding mberwa and Asia A new journey together
Fato Mada Published on Jun 29, 2014
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This pancocojams post provides general information about Somali Bantus and extensively quotes a Pittsburgh Pennsylvania newspaper about Somali Bantus who live in that United States community.
This post also showcases two videos of Somali Bantu weddings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, historical, sociological, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to those who are featured in these videos and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
****
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT SOMALI BANTUS
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantus_(Somalia)
"The Bantu (also called Jareer, Gosha, and Mushunguli) are an ethnic minority group in Somalia who primarily reside in the southern part of the country, near the Juba and Shabelle rivers. They are descendants of people from various Bantu ethnic groups, whom were captured from Southeast Africa and sold into slavery in Somalia and other areas in Northeast Africa and Asia as part of the 19th-century Arab slave trade.[2][3] Bantus are ethnically, physically, and culturally distinct from Somalis, and they have remained marginalized ever since their arrival in Somalia.[4]
These Bantu are not to be confused with the members of Swahili society in coastal towns, such as the Bajuni, who speak dialects of the Bantu Swahili language.
All in all, the number of Bantu inhabitants in Somalia before the civil war is thought to have been about 80,000 (1970 estimate), with most concentrated between the Juba and Shabelle rivers in the south.[5] However, recent estimates place the figure as high as 900,000 persons.[1]
Etymology
The term "Somali Bantu" is an ethnonym that was invented by humanitarian aid-supplying agencies shortly after the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia in 1991. Its purpose was to help the staff of these aid agencies better distinguish between, on the one hand, Bantu minority groups hailing from Somalia and thus in need of immediate humanitarian attention and on the other hand, other Bantu groups from elsewhere in Africa that did not require immediate humanitarian assistance. The neologism further spread through the media, which repeated verbatim what the aid agencies' increasingly began indicating in their reports as the new name for Somalia's ethnically Bantu minorities. Prior to the civil war, the Bantu were simply referred to in the literature as Bantu, Gosha, Mushunguli or Jareer, as they still, in fact, are within Somalia proper.[6]”...
Resettlement in the United States
In 1999, the United States classified the Bantu refugees from Somalia as a priority and the United States Department of State first began what has been described as the most ambitious resettlement plan ever from Africa, with thousands of Bantus scheduled for resettlement in America.[27] In 2003, the first Bantu immigrants began to arrive in U.S. cities, and by 2007, around 13,000 had been resettled to cities throughout the United States with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.S. State Department, and refugee resettlement agencies across the country.[27]
Among the resettlement destinations, it is known that Salt Lake City, Utah received about 1,000 Bantus. Other cities in the southwest such as Denver, Colorado, San Antonio, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona have received a few thousand as well. In New England, Manchester, New Hampshire and Burlington, Vermont were also destinations selected for resettlement of several hundred. Plans to resettle the Bantu in smaller towns, such as Holyoke, Massachusetts and Cayce, South Carolina, were scrapped after local protests. There are also communities of several hundred to a thousand Bantu people in cities that also have high concentrations of ethnic Somalis such as the Minneapolis-St. Paul area,[28] Columbus, Ohio,[29] Atlanta,[30] San Diego,[31] Boston,[32] Pittsburgh,[33] and Seattle,[34] with a notable presence of about 1,000 Bantus in Lewiston, Maine.[35][36] “...
****
ARTICLE EXCERPT: A NUMBER OF SOMALI BANTU REFUGEES HAVE RESETTLED IN PITTSBURGH, BUT HOW ARE THEY ADJUSTING?
From http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/a-number-of-somali-bantu-refugees-have-resettled-in-pittsburgh-but-how-are-they-adjusting/Content?oid=1953072
by Ryan Deto @RyanDeto, September 21, 2016
“I am Somali Bantu, but that does not mean that I am not also American.”
... Welcoming Week (Sept. 16-26) is currently being celebrated throughout the county. The week-long celebration highlights the city’s success in attracting and resettling immigrants to Pittsburgh — more than 18,000 since 2000 — and the diversity they bring to the region.
But for refugee groups like the Somali Bantu, there is little to celebrate. The community, comprising 200 to 300 people, has been living in Pittsburgh since 2004, but hasn’t achieved many markers of immigrant success. Few of their children are attending college, few families have purchased homes, and discrimination is still very much a part of their lives.
“There are not a lot of Bantu in Pittsburgh,” says Mwaliya. “We cannot live the same life we lived back home. If you don’t have enough people to open [Americans’] eyes and to advocate, our struggles will continue.”
So what is holding Bantus back? The answer may be as complex as the journeys many of them took to arrive on U.S. soil.
Mwaliya is a Somali Bantu who originally resettled in Salt Lake City in the early 2000s, and came to Pittsburgh in 2011. “Most people I knew lived here,” he says. “The community here needed help. We were missing an organization so we could help ourselves.”
Mwaliya says when he arrived, only five elders in the community had received citizenship, and there were problems obtaining interpreters in the county courts and area hospitals. He started the Somali Bantu Community Association of Pittsburgh in 2012. Since, he says, most Bantus have gained citizenship, and interpreters have been provided in schools, courts and medical centers.
Some of these achievements came with a fight. In 2006, Education Law Project on behalf of the Bantu community sued Pittsburgh Public Schools for better language and cultural services. PPS settled and developed policies to help second-language learners and guard against ethnic intimidation.
But these improvements haven’t propelled Bantus into great educational attainment. Kristen Tsapis, who has volunteered with the community for years, says the several young Bantu are currently working towards associate degrees at schools across Southwestern Pennsylvania. But according to Mwaliya, only three college-age Bantus are currently enrolled in four-year universities, and few Pittsburgh Bantus have obtained degrees. “Wherever we go, we are educationally behind,” says Mwaliya.
The Bantus, while living in Somalia, were banned from going to school, and many are illiterate as a result. When they were sent to refugee camps in Kenya, schooling was available, but girls didn’t attend and the classes were taught in English and Swahili, not the Bantus’ native language, Kizigawa.
To understand the Bantus’ struggles is to understand their history. Originally brought to Somalia as slaves from west and southeast Africa during the 1800s, Bantus were freed during the Italian colonization of Somalia in the early 1900s. Many converted to Islam to avoid persecution by ethnic Somalis during the slave-trade era and continue to practice the religion today.
Bantus eventually settled in the Jubba Valley of southwestern Somalia. However, they were denied access to modern amenities due to their minority status. The Somali civil war broke out in 1988, and military groups invaded the Jubba Valley, bringing violence, rape, starvation and death.
A few years later, many Bantus walked to refugee camps in Kenya, and while they were safe from Somalis, the camps still had a litany of problems. Mwaliya says that both he and many other Bantus he knew spent more than 12 years in the camps, where they were brutalized by Kenyan authorities, and no real jobs were offered. Farmland was not provided, and many Bantus abandoned their farming traditions.
Mwaliya recognizes the problems of the camps, but says nothing was as bad as their lives in Somalia during the civil war.
“You can’t even compare the camps to Somalia,” says Mwaliya. “You can see a kid dying there, just asking for something to eat or drink.”...
Mwaliya says without work or farming access, and with little education, the camps put many Bantus into a cycle of dependency, something he wants to see his community break out of.
“You can advocate when your rights are violated, and you can advocate to move forward,” says Mwaliya. “You don’t get people to move you forward without moving yourself forward.”
In order to help refugees transition more easily, resettlement agencies offer language, housing, and job-placement services as well as a few months’ cash for rent and food. But agencies often have limited resources. After about a year, many refugees must provide for themselves.
Local groups like Northern Area Multi-Service Center offer cultural-assimilation programs, and the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council offer free English classes. These programs have helped thousands of refugees and immigrants adjust to life in Pittsburgh, but those programs might not be reaching the Bantus.
A 2007 graduate thesis by Leah Taylor on Pittsburgh’s Bantus from University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health points to some problems in the early years of the Bantus’ resettlement: “This lack of cooperation among providers and the system of resettlement in the U.S. that encourages refugees to work as soon as possible, regardless of language ability, further hindered the ability of the Somali Bantus to exercise personal agency after arriving in the U.S.”...
Page 2 http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/a-number-of-somali-bantu-refugees-have-resettled-in-pittsburgh-but-how-are-they-adjusting/Content?oid=1953072&storyPage=2 by Ryan Deto @RyanDeto, September 21, 2016
...."unlike the Bhutanese, Ervin Dyer, of Pitt Magazine, who wrote a graduate research paper on Pittsburgh’s Bantus in 2012, says Bantus have an insular nature that has kept them from accessing services that could help.
When Bantus arrived in Pittsburgh, the community spent years moving from subpar housing to subpar housing: from Lawrenceville and Homewood to the Hill District and Manchester in the North Side, and finally to Northview Heights, where around 80 percent of them live today.
“They were used to operating alone. They were excluded in Somalia, they were used to operating in their own world,” says Dyer. “... [Many] don’t even speak and write in their native language, let alone English. They were really up against it.”
A 2007 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal article on Bantus argued that if they were not given adequate support, they would become vulnerable to “an intergenerational cycle of poverty, which is hardly a humanitarian act and could have dire consequences for both the African refugee and their American neighbors.”
The Bantus also differ starkly from their African counterparts in terms of education. Slyvester Mejer hails from Nigeria and is the associate director of the Union of African Communities of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Unlike most of the Bantu, he says 60-70 percent of other Africans arriving to Pittsburgh come from educated backgrounds.
Despite such challenges, Dyer believes Pittsburgh’s Bantus are on the right track. He says many youth performed well in high school, an “extreme achievement considering their background,” and almost none of them have criminal records. Dyer adds that while living in Northview Heights presents problems (census figures show that 41 percent of households in the neighborhood make less than $10,000 a year), it has provided Bantus an opportunity to live close to one another, and has provided a safe place for them to practice their cultural traditions.
“They found a challenge of concentrate[ed] poverty, but they also found a community that understood social challenges,” says Dyer. “Perhaps it wasn’t so broken to the Somali Bantu. It gave them this sort-of village. They could recreate the life they wanted.”
...In Pittsburgh, many African refugees, including the Bantus, were resettled in predominantly African-American neighborhoods. And while relationships between American and immigrant communities in Northview Heights are going smoothly now, Fatuma Muya, a Bantu from Northview Heights, told City Paper in December 2015 that many African Americans have bullied Bantu youth over the years, calling them names like “Africa” and “stink.”
Police relations haven’t gone over very well either. Chirambo says when some Bantus in Pittsburgh call the police to settle disputes, the police sometimes arrest the father out of confusion. In December 2015, five boys were arrested by Port Authority Police during a ruckus at Wood Street T station. Out of hundreds present during the commotion, all the boys arrested were Bantu and at least four of the five cases never went to trial. The boys’ families claimed they were discriminated against, which Port Authority denied.
“The events of last year, when you see stuff like that happening, it is disappointing,” says Mwaliya. “It seems hopeless. The solution is to have it come from the inside.”
But the county seems to be providing more outside help too. Betty Cruz, formerly of Mayor Peduto’s Welcoming Pittsburgh initiative, helped create a community blueprint with Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services to make it easier for immigrant communities to connect to services and funding. She says more can, and needs, to be done to help immigrant and refugee groups in the Pittsburgh region...
Cruz says while Pittsburgh groups do offer English as a Second Language classes, the region doesn’t offer professional English-language services to help immigrants obtain high-skilled jobs like engineering and health-care work. Mwaliya says many Bantu men work as janitors and dishwashers and the women work in laundry service.
“It makes the difference from being stuck in survival jobs, to moving along the pipeline into [high-skilled] work,” says Cruz. “It is a big barrier right now.”
Another Bantu group was recently created to take on these issues. Abdulkadir Chirambo came to Pittsburgh from Erie to study at Pitt eight years ago, where he earned a degree in criminal justice. Chirambo, a relative of two of the boys arrested during the Wood Street ruckus, was recently tapped by community elders to start the United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh group. He has been integral in the Northview Heights garden project and has started providing family crisis counseling within the community.
“We want to let people know we are alive and here,” said Chirambo, while weeding the community garden one Saturday. “[We were invisible] in Somalia, we don’t want that here.”....
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS: SOMALI BANTU WEDDINGS IN PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
Example #1: madina and dadiri wedding [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]
Abdikadir muya Published on Aug 24, 2013
mjomba Audio & video Center in Pittsburgh, PA (Abdikadir Muya)
-SNIP-
Notice the custom of giving paper money to the bride and groom (as seen at around 6:00 in this video and at other times.) I've noticed this custom of "spraying money" -and other referents - in other African videos, but particularly in Nigerian wedding and party videos.
****
Example #2: somali bantu Pittsburgh wedding mberwa and Asia A new journey together
Fato Mada Published on Jun 29, 2014
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Giving Daps (Intricate Black Handshakes)
Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Revision: February 16, 2020
This is Part IV of a four part pancocojams series on American hand gestures. Part IV of this series focuses on dap (handshakes).
Each of the posts in this series focus on hand gestures that were either created by African Americans or have been most closely associated with African Americans.
For Part I of this series (Five On The Black Hand Side handshakes), click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-on-black-hand-side-handshake.html.
For Part II of this series (High Fives),
click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/high-five-handshake-videos.html
For Part III of this series click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/fist-bump-pound-handshakes.html.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
The copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those quoted in this post, and to all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
****
PART IV
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF DAP HANDSHAKES
From http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dap-greeting.htm
"A dap greeting is a series of arranged gestures exchanged between two individuals. Although a dap greeting can be exchanged upon meeting someone, it can also be used to indicate agreement, celebration or fellowship at any time. A dap greeting can include slapping hands, bumping fists in any direction, snapping, wiggling fingers and other forms of contact, and it can last anywhere from a few seconds to more than a minute. Dap greetings originated in the black community and have since spread to other racial groups, with many subcultures and groups of friends developing their own very specific dap greetings...
Origins
This type of greeting typically is non-verbal, and it is exchanged as a gesture of affection and solidarity. Dap greetings are believed to have originated in Africa, where people from different tribes might exchange such greetings upon meeting each other to indicate peaceful and friendly intentions. Blacks who emigrated to other parts of the world — including those forcefully transported as slaves — developed their own dap greetings...
Meaning of "Dap"
Some people believe that “dap” is an acronym for “dignity and pride,” reflecting the adoption of the dap greeting by the black power movement. Others suggest that “dignity and pride” is merely what is sometimes called a "backronym" — an acronym thought up after a word already existed. "Dap" also might be a shortening of another word or an onomatopoeia — a word that imitates the noise produced by this type of greeting; some dap greetings create a sound much like “dap,” which is produced by pulling the slightly cupped hands of the participants against each other."
**
From http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Shake-That--The-Right-Way/3669693
Shake That! The Right Way By: liss
"[In] Benin [West Africa], young men snap fingers while shaking hands. In Botswana [South Africa], people touch hands with a slight grazing of the palms and fingers. In Singapore [Asia], after you handshake its customary to place the other persons hand over your heart. Among Scandinavian [Europe] teens, exchanging spit by means of a handshake seals a deal...
Jamaicans complain that Americans are distant and Americans complain that Germans are cold and unfriendly. Sure, when you first meet them, Jamaicans dont shake hands with you. But once you get acquainted, they expect a casual lock and fly or a one harmed hug or a shug or a bro grab or a hetero-hug or whatever its known as in your country" ...
**
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dap_greeting:
"Though it can refer to many kinds of greetings involving hand contact, dap is best known as a complicated routine of shakes, slaps, snaps, and other contact that must be known completely by both parties involved. Dap greeting sometimes include a pound hug."
*ADDED SECTION [February 25, 2018] : The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms
By James E. Westheider
https://books.google.com/books?id=VHEL34ALzO4C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=fist+pounding+heart+handshake&source=bl&ots=McVvUG2DxW&sig=AnQNKfKkpEk2V9WQZ0wUecSa-VA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin19vV7MHZAhXIUt8KHdCYB9w4ChDoAQgvMAE#v=onepage&q=fist%20pounding%20heart%20handshake&f=false
page 76
..."African Americans who remained in the armed services often reacted to racism by seeking comfort and safety in racial solidarity and by establishing their own sub-culture within the military. They called each other “brother”, “soul brother”, or “bloods”, and they were proud of being black. Two popular methods of greeting fellow black soldiers and demonstrating racial solidarity were the black power salute, a clenched fist in the air, and the “dab”, which developed in Vietnam, probably among inmates of the notorious Long Binh stockade. Dap is a corruption of the word “dep” Vietnamese slang for something beautiful. The dap, also known as “checking in”, was an intricate ritualized handshake, involving numerous gestures and movements. There was no standard dap, but there were many common gestures. There were countless variations of dap, and some of the more common greetings could go on for five or more minutes. Each move had a specific meaning: Pounding on the heart with a clenched fist, for example, symbolized brotherly love and solidarity; clenching fingers together and then touching the backside of the hand meant “My brother, I’m with you”. Most of the gestures signified solidarity, respect, and pride, but a few had darker meanings. A slicing movement across the throat symbolized cutting the throats of white MPs, never a favorite group among black recruits."...
-snip-
Click the "black handshakes" tab below for more pancocojams posts about this subject.
****
FEATURED VIDEOS
Video #1: Ebony & Ivory Handshake - The Bert Show
Uploaded by q100atlanta on Jun 19, 2011
****
Video #2: lebrons Pre-game handshakes
Uploaded by nlnodoubt on Dec 20, 2009
lebron james secret handshakes with his Cleveland cavaliers teammates, He is truly an incredible talent.
-snip-
Actually, I don't think these handshakes are secret. "Personalized" is probably a better word to describe them, as Lebron appears to have a different dap handshake for each person.
****
Video #3: Monta Ellis' Amazing Handshake
Uploaded by SciFientology on Jan 14, 2010
-snip-
WARNING! A number of viewers of this video connected the handshake shown in this video with the Gangster Disciple Nation (GDN or GD).
Certain handshakes are associated with specific gangs. Those handshakes absolutely should NOT be done by people who aren’t members of those gangs.
[This prohibition against non-members doing this handshake doesn't apply to the high five that followed it.]
-snip-
In this clip, Monta Ellis said "I told ya I'd warm that thang up." (referring to the basketball shots that he made.]
****
Video #4: Everybody Hates Chris and Albert Hand Shake
Sly Cooper, Aug 3, 2012
from season Season 3 Episode 9 of Everbody Hates Chris
-snip-
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_Hates_Chris
"This television show is inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock (who is also the narrator). The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years 1978-1983."
****
Video #5: Fresh Prince - Will Jazz Handshake Compilation
Jibb's Compilations, Published on May 7, 2014
Every scene of Will and Jazz high five from every season of Fresh Prince. Featuring other cast members and guest stars.
Episodes in order of appearance:
1x02 Bang the Drum, Ashley 0:01
3x07 Here Comes the Judge 0:02
2x19 Eyes on the Prize 0:04
2x17 Community Action 0:05
1x07 Def Poets Society 0:07
1x10 Kiss my Butler 0:09
4x13 'Twas the Night Before Christening 0:11
3x23 The Way We Were 0:13
4x20 The 'Ol Ball and Chain 0:14
6x23 I, Done Part 1 0:16
5x25 For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll 0:18
4x01 Where There's a Will, There's a Way 0:20
1x07 Def Poets Society 0:22
1x23 72 Hours 0:24
3x01 How I Spent My Summer Vacation 0:26
4x19 You'd Better Shop Around 0:28
4x16 I know Why the Caged Bird Screams 0:30
3x17 The Best Laid Plans 0:32
5x01 What's Will Got to do With It 0:34
5x16 A Decent Proposal 0:37
1x09 Someday Your Prince Will Be in Effect 0:39
1x09 Someday Your Prince Will Be in Effect 0:40
1x16 The Lucky Charm 0:42
3x18 The Alma Matter 0:45
5x21 Save the Last Trance for Me 0:46
2x24 Strip-Tease for Two 0:48
4x07 Hex and the Single Guy 0:52
2x19 Eyes on the Prize 0:54
4x09 Fresh Prince After Dark 0:56
3x13 Mommy Nearest 0:58
4x23 Mother's Day 1:01
****
Video #6 Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Carlton playing gangster in Compton.flv
Anmol Warsi, Jan 22, 2011
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's Note: This television clip from an episode of the early 1990s to mid 1990s American television show, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air contains several examples of dap handshakes.
1:27-1:28 - an agreement handshake
2:02-2:03 - a departure handshake
2:09 - 2:10 - a handshake as a sign of approval
2:34 - a handshake as a sign of approval
-snip-
This episode also includes an example of the vertical fist bump [1:41-1:42]
Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fresh_Prince_of_Bel-Air for information about that television show.
****
THE WAYS THAT AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE GREET OTHER FEMALES & MALES
As demonstrated by Michelle Obama, African American females may give "pounds" (fist bumps). And African American females also may give "high fives". However, what I have experienced and observed since the 1960s is that the way that Black American teenage girls and Black American women informally greet & say goodbye to Black females & Black males (or to some non-Black people who they are "cool" with) is usually different from the informal ways that males informally greet & say goodbye to other males.
In my experience, the way that many African American women informally greet & say goodbye other females and males by hugging each other, with our face turned to the side. This is the same way that many African American males informally greet females. And some African American females may informally greet & say goodbye to females & males by giving double hugs with air kisses, similar to the gesture that is shown in this video:
Etiquette of Social Kissing
Uploaded by engclass0 on Dec 20, 2007
-snip-
African American men may often informally greet and say goodbye to females in that same way instead of giving them dap handshakes.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Latest Revision: February 16, 2020
This is Part IV of a four part pancocojams series on American hand gestures. Part IV of this series focuses on dap (handshakes).
Each of the posts in this series focus on hand gestures that were either created by African Americans or have been most closely associated with African Americans.
For Part I of this series (Five On The Black Hand Side handshakes), click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-on-black-hand-side-handshake.html.
For Part II of this series (High Fives),
click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/high-five-handshake-videos.html
For Part III of this series click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/fist-bump-pound-handshakes.html.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
The copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those quoted in this post, and to all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
****
PART IV
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF DAP HANDSHAKES
From http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dap-greeting.htm
"A dap greeting is a series of arranged gestures exchanged between two individuals. Although a dap greeting can be exchanged upon meeting someone, it can also be used to indicate agreement, celebration or fellowship at any time. A dap greeting can include slapping hands, bumping fists in any direction, snapping, wiggling fingers and other forms of contact, and it can last anywhere from a few seconds to more than a minute. Dap greetings originated in the black community and have since spread to other racial groups, with many subcultures and groups of friends developing their own very specific dap greetings...
Origins
This type of greeting typically is non-verbal, and it is exchanged as a gesture of affection and solidarity. Dap greetings are believed to have originated in Africa, where people from different tribes might exchange such greetings upon meeting each other to indicate peaceful and friendly intentions. Blacks who emigrated to other parts of the world — including those forcefully transported as slaves — developed their own dap greetings...
Meaning of "Dap"
Some people believe that “dap” is an acronym for “dignity and pride,” reflecting the adoption of the dap greeting by the black power movement. Others suggest that “dignity and pride” is merely what is sometimes called a "backronym" — an acronym thought up after a word already existed. "Dap" also might be a shortening of another word or an onomatopoeia — a word that imitates the noise produced by this type of greeting; some dap greetings create a sound much like “dap,” which is produced by pulling the slightly cupped hands of the participants against each other."
**
From http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Shake-That--The-Right-Way/3669693
Shake That! The Right Way By: liss
"[In] Benin [West Africa], young men snap fingers while shaking hands. In Botswana [South Africa], people touch hands with a slight grazing of the palms and fingers. In Singapore [Asia], after you handshake its customary to place the other persons hand over your heart. Among Scandinavian [Europe] teens, exchanging spit by means of a handshake seals a deal...
Jamaicans complain that Americans are distant and Americans complain that Germans are cold and unfriendly. Sure, when you first meet them, Jamaicans dont shake hands with you. But once you get acquainted, they expect a casual lock and fly or a one harmed hug or a shug or a bro grab or a hetero-hug or whatever its known as in your country" ...
**
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dap_greeting:
"Though it can refer to many kinds of greetings involving hand contact, dap is best known as a complicated routine of shakes, slaps, snaps, and other contact that must be known completely by both parties involved. Dap greeting sometimes include a pound hug."
*ADDED SECTION [February 25, 2018] : The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms
By James E. Westheider
https://books.google.com/books?id=VHEL34ALzO4C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=fist+pounding+heart+handshake&source=bl&ots=McVvUG2DxW&sig=AnQNKfKkpEk2V9WQZ0wUecSa-VA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin19vV7MHZAhXIUt8KHdCYB9w4ChDoAQgvMAE#v=onepage&q=fist%20pounding%20heart%20handshake&f=false
page 76
..."African Americans who remained in the armed services often reacted to racism by seeking comfort and safety in racial solidarity and by establishing their own sub-culture within the military. They called each other “brother”, “soul brother”, or “bloods”, and they were proud of being black. Two popular methods of greeting fellow black soldiers and demonstrating racial solidarity were the black power salute, a clenched fist in the air, and the “dab”, which developed in Vietnam, probably among inmates of the notorious Long Binh stockade. Dap is a corruption of the word “dep” Vietnamese slang for something beautiful. The dap, also known as “checking in”, was an intricate ritualized handshake, involving numerous gestures and movements. There was no standard dap, but there were many common gestures. There were countless variations of dap, and some of the more common greetings could go on for five or more minutes. Each move had a specific meaning: Pounding on the heart with a clenched fist, for example, symbolized brotherly love and solidarity; clenching fingers together and then touching the backside of the hand meant “My brother, I’m with you”. Most of the gestures signified solidarity, respect, and pride, but a few had darker meanings. A slicing movement across the throat symbolized cutting the throats of white MPs, never a favorite group among black recruits."...
-snip-
Click the "black handshakes" tab below for more pancocojams posts about this subject.
****
FEATURED VIDEOS
Video #1: Ebony & Ivory Handshake - The Bert Show
Uploaded by q100atlanta on Jun 19, 2011
****
Video #2: lebrons Pre-game handshakes
Uploaded by nlnodoubt on Dec 20, 2009
lebron james secret handshakes with his Cleveland cavaliers teammates, He is truly an incredible talent.
-snip-
Actually, I don't think these handshakes are secret. "Personalized" is probably a better word to describe them, as Lebron appears to have a different dap handshake for each person.
****
Video #3: Monta Ellis' Amazing Handshake
Uploaded by SciFientology on Jan 14, 2010
-snip-
WARNING! A number of viewers of this video connected the handshake shown in this video with the Gangster Disciple Nation (GDN or GD).
Certain handshakes are associated with specific gangs. Those handshakes absolutely should NOT be done by people who aren’t members of those gangs.
[This prohibition against non-members doing this handshake doesn't apply to the high five that followed it.]
-snip-
In this clip, Monta Ellis said "I told ya I'd warm that thang up." (referring to the basketball shots that he made.]
****
Video #4: Everybody Hates Chris and Albert Hand Shake
Sly Cooper, Aug 3, 2012
from season Season 3 Episode 9 of Everbody Hates Chris
-snip-
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_Hates_Chris
"This television show is inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock (who is also the narrator). The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years 1978-1983."
****
Video #5: Fresh Prince - Will Jazz Handshake Compilation
Jibb's Compilations, Published on May 7, 2014
Every scene of Will and Jazz high five from every season of Fresh Prince. Featuring other cast members and guest stars.
Episodes in order of appearance:
1x02 Bang the Drum, Ashley 0:01
3x07 Here Comes the Judge 0:02
2x19 Eyes on the Prize 0:04
2x17 Community Action 0:05
1x07 Def Poets Society 0:07
1x10 Kiss my Butler 0:09
4x13 'Twas the Night Before Christening 0:11
3x23 The Way We Were 0:13
4x20 The 'Ol Ball and Chain 0:14
6x23 I, Done Part 1 0:16
5x25 For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll 0:18
4x01 Where There's a Will, There's a Way 0:20
1x07 Def Poets Society 0:22
1x23 72 Hours 0:24
3x01 How I Spent My Summer Vacation 0:26
4x19 You'd Better Shop Around 0:28
4x16 I know Why the Caged Bird Screams 0:30
3x17 The Best Laid Plans 0:32
5x01 What's Will Got to do With It 0:34
5x16 A Decent Proposal 0:37
1x09 Someday Your Prince Will Be in Effect 0:39
1x09 Someday Your Prince Will Be in Effect 0:40
1x16 The Lucky Charm 0:42
3x18 The Alma Matter 0:45
5x21 Save the Last Trance for Me 0:46
2x24 Strip-Tease for Two 0:48
4x07 Hex and the Single Guy 0:52
2x19 Eyes on the Prize 0:54
4x09 Fresh Prince After Dark 0:56
3x13 Mommy Nearest 0:58
4x23 Mother's Day 1:01
****
Video #6 Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Carlton playing gangster in Compton.flv
Anmol Warsi, Jan 22, 2011
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's Note: This television clip from an episode of the early 1990s to mid 1990s American television show, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air contains several examples of dap handshakes.
1:27-1:28 - an agreement handshake
2:02-2:03 - a departure handshake
2:09 - 2:10 - a handshake as a sign of approval
2:34 - a handshake as a sign of approval
-snip-
This episode also includes an example of the vertical fist bump [1:41-1:42]
Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fresh_Prince_of_Bel-Air for information about that television show.
****
THE WAYS THAT AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE GREET OTHER FEMALES & MALES
As demonstrated by Michelle Obama, African American females may give "pounds" (fist bumps). And African American females also may give "high fives". However, what I have experienced and observed since the 1960s is that the way that Black American teenage girls and Black American women informally greet & say goodbye to Black females & Black males (or to some non-Black people who they are "cool" with) is usually different from the informal ways that males informally greet & say goodbye to other males.
In my experience, the way that many African American women informally greet & say goodbye other females and males by hugging each other, with our face turned to the side. This is the same way that many African American males informally greet females. And some African American females may informally greet & say goodbye to females & males by giving double hugs with air kisses, similar to the gesture that is shown in this video:
Etiquette of Social Kissing
Uploaded by engclass0 on Dec 20, 2007
-snip-
African American men may often informally greet and say goodbye to females in that same way instead of giving them dap handshakes.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Fist Bump (Pound) Black Handshakes
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post is Part III of a four part series on American hand gestures. Part III of this series focuses on fist bumps and other examples of dap handshakes.
Each of the posts in this series focus on hand gestures that were either created by African Americans or have been most closely associated with African Americans.
For Part I of this series (Five On The Black Hand Side handshakes), click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-on-black-hand-side-handshake.html.
For Part II of this series (High Fives),
click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/high-five-handshake-videos.html
For Part IV of this series "Giving Daps (Intricate Handshakes)", click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/giving-daps-intricate-handshakes.html.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. The copyrights remain with their owners.
My thanks to the authors of the quoted article, the producers of the featured videos, and those persons appearing in the videos. My thanks also to the uploaders of those videos.
****
PART III
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF FIST BUMP AND DAP HANDSHAKES
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fist_bump
"The fist bump (also called Pound, Bro Fist, Fist Pound, Fo' Knucks, Bones, knuckle bump, knuckle touch or Spud and Cuff (British slang), is a gesture similar in meaning to a handshake or high five. A fist bump can also be a symbol of giving respect. It can be followed by various other hand and body gestures and may be part of a dap greeting. It is commonly used in baseball as a form of celebration with teammates, and with opposition players at the end of a game.
The gesture is performed when two participants each form a closed fist with one hand and then lightly tap the front of their fists together. The participant's fists may be either vertically-oriented (perpendicular to the ground) or horizontally-oriented. Unlike the standard handshake, which is typically performed only with each participants' right hand, a fist bump may be performed with participants using either hand."
-end of quote-
[Italics added to highlight that sentence.]
Note that there are multiple ways that a fist bump can be performed. This article doesn't mention the two handed "pound" - two people exchanging a pound (fist bump) with both of their hands at the same time.
The horizontal fist bump appears to be much more familiar to the general American public than the horizontal form of this hand gesture. I think this is largely due to that being the form that is most used by basketball & baseball players. Also, on June 3, 2008, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama exchanged a horizontal fist bump during a televised presidential campaign speech in St. Paul, Minnesota upon clenching the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. As a result of that -I believe- spontaneous gesture, the fist bump has received a great deal of exposure in the mainstream American media. The Obamas exchanging a fist bump appeared to be the first time that many non-Black Americans were aware of that hand gesture, to the point that a number of media commentators were unsure what to call it. And some used that action for their own political agendas [i.e. calling it a "terrorist fist jab"].
Notwithstanding the increased awareness of the horizontal fist bump, I believe that the vertical pound is an older form of that hand gesture. A common African American term for the fist bump ("pound") comes from the vertical form of that hand gesture in which one fist is hit on top of another. In this context "pound" means to "hit down on something- like pounding a nail with a hammer".
**
From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06wwln-safire-t.html "On Language: Fist Bump by William Safire
"Prof. Geneva Smitherman, director of African-American language study at Michigan State University, says:... "Pound is when knuckles touch in a horizontal position. That’s the gesture that Michelle and Barack used. Dap is when the knuckles touch in a vertical position. Both gestures can be used as a greeting, to signal respect, agreement, bonding.”
Dap started among black soldiers during the Vietnam War; to give “some dap” (not usually “a” dap) means “to offer kudos, congratulations”; Prof. James Peterson of Bucknell, a hip-hop historian, says he thinks it is rooted in dapper, “neat, fashionably smart.” Pound came out of hip-hop in the late 1980s. Fist bump came later: a 1996 note in the Sports Network wire service reported that Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles was accepting congratulations from baseball teammates with “high-fives, handshakes or fist bumps.” Peterson says the new phrase robs the gesture of its cultural significance, which includes the Obamas’ “quiet but pronounced in-group affiliation with all of black America.” "
-snip-
There are many theories about the origin & popularization of the fist bump. Rather than delve into those theories in this post, I'll showcase a few video examples of that hand gesture. In Part IV of this series, I'll present more information about "dap" and showcase examples of athletes and others exchanging "dap" (intricate) handshakes that may include fist bumps.
FEATURED VIDEOS
Video #1: hanes charlie sheen and mj spot
Uploaded by postadvertising on May 30, 2008
This is hanes' new commercial with charlie sheen and mj. [Michael Jordan]
-snip-
This ad, published before the Obamas fist bump, includes a comedic attempt at a fist bump by a non-Black actor while the Black basketball player starts to greet him with a standard handshake.
****
Video #2: Obama's finest fist bumps
CNN
Published on Nov 30, 2016
A look back at President Obama's countless fist bumps.
-snip-
This video replaces the one that was previously embedded in this post but is no longer available.
****
Video #3: Usain Bolt fist bumps Glasgow volunteer | Unmissable Moments
Commonwealth Games, Published on Aug 3, 2014
Great scenes at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as Jamaica's Usain Bolt shares a low five and a fist bump with a young volunteer.
-snip-
This video replaces one that featured daps instead of fist bumps.
****
RELATED LINK
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Carlton playing gangster in Compton.flv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPeDAFTgPTA&feature=related
embedding disabled by request
1:41-1:42 - an example of a vertical fist bump between Carton & Will. In this example, that fist bump appears to be made as both a sign of greeting and sign of approval. More examples from this video clip will be cited in Part IV of this pancocojams series.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post is Part III of a four part series on American hand gestures. Part III of this series focuses on fist bumps and other examples of dap handshakes.
Each of the posts in this series focus on hand gestures that were either created by African Americans or have been most closely associated with African Americans.
For Part I of this series (Five On The Black Hand Side handshakes), click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-on-black-hand-side-handshake.html.
For Part II of this series (High Fives),
click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/high-five-handshake-videos.html
For Part IV of this series "Giving Daps (Intricate Handshakes)", click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/giving-daps-intricate-handshakes.html.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. The copyrights remain with their owners.
My thanks to the authors of the quoted article, the producers of the featured videos, and those persons appearing in the videos. My thanks also to the uploaders of those videos.
****
PART III
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF FIST BUMP AND DAP HANDSHAKES
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fist_bump
"The fist bump (also called Pound, Bro Fist, Fist Pound, Fo' Knucks, Bones, knuckle bump, knuckle touch or Spud and Cuff (British slang), is a gesture similar in meaning to a handshake or high five. A fist bump can also be a symbol of giving respect. It can be followed by various other hand and body gestures and may be part of a dap greeting. It is commonly used in baseball as a form of celebration with teammates, and with opposition players at the end of a game.
The gesture is performed when two participants each form a closed fist with one hand and then lightly tap the front of their fists together. The participant's fists may be either vertically-oriented (perpendicular to the ground) or horizontally-oriented. Unlike the standard handshake, which is typically performed only with each participants' right hand, a fist bump may be performed with participants using either hand."
-end of quote-
[Italics added to highlight that sentence.]
Note that there are multiple ways that a fist bump can be performed. This article doesn't mention the two handed "pound" - two people exchanging a pound (fist bump) with both of their hands at the same time.
The horizontal fist bump appears to be much more familiar to the general American public than the horizontal form of this hand gesture. I think this is largely due to that being the form that is most used by basketball & baseball players. Also, on June 3, 2008, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama exchanged a horizontal fist bump during a televised presidential campaign speech in St. Paul, Minnesota upon clenching the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. As a result of that -I believe- spontaneous gesture, the fist bump has received a great deal of exposure in the mainstream American media. The Obamas exchanging a fist bump appeared to be the first time that many non-Black Americans were aware of that hand gesture, to the point that a number of media commentators were unsure what to call it. And some used that action for their own political agendas [i.e. calling it a "terrorist fist jab"].
Notwithstanding the increased awareness of the horizontal fist bump, I believe that the vertical pound is an older form of that hand gesture. A common African American term for the fist bump ("pound") comes from the vertical form of that hand gesture in which one fist is hit on top of another. In this context "pound" means to "hit down on something- like pounding a nail with a hammer".
**
From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06wwln-safire-t.html "On Language: Fist Bump by William Safire
"Prof. Geneva Smitherman, director of African-American language study at Michigan State University, says:... "Pound is when knuckles touch in a horizontal position. That’s the gesture that Michelle and Barack used. Dap is when the knuckles touch in a vertical position. Both gestures can be used as a greeting, to signal respect, agreement, bonding.”
Dap started among black soldiers during the Vietnam War; to give “some dap” (not usually “a” dap) means “to offer kudos, congratulations”; Prof. James Peterson of Bucknell, a hip-hop historian, says he thinks it is rooted in dapper, “neat, fashionably smart.” Pound came out of hip-hop in the late 1980s. Fist bump came later: a 1996 note in the Sports Network wire service reported that Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles was accepting congratulations from baseball teammates with “high-fives, handshakes or fist bumps.” Peterson says the new phrase robs the gesture of its cultural significance, which includes the Obamas’ “quiet but pronounced in-group affiliation with all of black America.” "
-snip-
There are many theories about the origin & popularization of the fist bump. Rather than delve into those theories in this post, I'll showcase a few video examples of that hand gesture. In Part IV of this series, I'll present more information about "dap" and showcase examples of athletes and others exchanging "dap" (intricate) handshakes that may include fist bumps.
FEATURED VIDEOS
Video #1: hanes charlie sheen and mj spot
Uploaded by postadvertising on May 30, 2008
This is hanes' new commercial with charlie sheen and mj. [Michael Jordan]
-snip-
This ad, published before the Obamas fist bump, includes a comedic attempt at a fist bump by a non-Black actor while the Black basketball player starts to greet him with a standard handshake.
****
Video #2: Obama's finest fist bumps
CNN
Published on Nov 30, 2016
A look back at President Obama's countless fist bumps.
-snip-
This video replaces the one that was previously embedded in this post but is no longer available.
****
Video #3: Usain Bolt fist bumps Glasgow volunteer | Unmissable Moments
Commonwealth Games, Published on Aug 3, 2014
Great scenes at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as Jamaica's Usain Bolt shares a low five and a fist bump with a young volunteer.
-snip-
This video replaces one that featured daps instead of fist bumps.
****
RELATED LINK
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Carlton playing gangster in Compton.flv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPeDAFTgPTA&feature=related
embedding disabled by request
1:41-1:42 - an example of a vertical fist bump between Carton & Will. In this example, that fist bump appears to be made as both a sign of greeting and sign of approval. More examples from this video clip will be cited in Part IV of this pancocojams series.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Five On The Black Hand Side (Black Handshakes)
Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Revision: February 28, 2018
This post is Part I of a four part series on American hand gestures. Part I of this series focuses on "five on the black hand side" handshake, and other "low high five" handshakes.
Each of the posts in this series focus on hand gestures that were either created by African Americans or have been most closely associated with African Americans.
For Part II of this series (High Fives),
click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/high-five-handshake-videos.html
For Part III of this series click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/fist-bump-pound-handshakes.html.
For Part IV of this series "Giving Daps (Intricate Handshakes)", click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/giving-daps-intricate-handshakes.html.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. The copyrights remain with their owners.
My thanks to the authors of the quoted articles, the producers & cast of the featured film, and the uploader of the featured film clip.
****
PART I
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT "LOW FIVE" HAND GESTURES
Since the 1970s, the "high five" referent has become quite familiar to Americans. In contrast, the referent for older forms of hand gestures, the "low five", is much less familiar.
From
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/53146#ixzz1w0455qAi
"The roots of the high five go back to the Jazz Era of the early 20th Century. Black musicians of the time created numerous ways to say hello, such as “giving some skin,” “giving five,” and later a series of complicated, interconnected handshake gestures called a “dap.” Then, in the late-1970s, college and professional basketball players began raising their arms above their heads and slapping the palms of their hands together, in what would later be dubbed the “high five.” "
-snip-
In African American idiom, "give me five" and "give me some skin" is given as "gimme five", "gimme some skin", and "slap me five". "Five", of course, refers to "five fingers". In this context, "skin" refers to the palm of the hand or to the back of the hand.
"Five on the black hand side" is a now outdated, 1970s form of the "low five" hand gestures. "The black hand side" refers to the back of a Black person's hand.
Here's an urban definition entry for "black hand side":
From http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=black%20hand%20side by tRUnETIVOct 28, 2008
[given without corrections]
My only disagreement with this quote is that I believe "five on the black hand side" gestures were low five and not high five gestures.
The title of the 1973 blaxploitation comedy film Five On The Black Hand Side refers to a variant form of the low five hand gestures. To quote
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaxploitation, "Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States in the 1970s. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience appeal soon broadened to cross racial and ethnic lines."
-snip-
The narrator in the Five On The Black Hand Side movie trailer begins that clip by listing as verbs the titles of three previous hit blaxploitation films - "You've been coffy-tized, blacula-rized and super-flied - but now you're gonna be glorified, unified and filled-with-pride... when you see 'Five on the Black Hand Side'". That trailer also provides two examples of "five on the black hand side" and one example of the two hand low five gesture.
Five On The Black Hand Side Trailer Blaxploitation
Uploaded by thegroovetube on May 30, 2009
Here are the examples of low five gestures that are shown in that film clip:
0:22 - a clip of a hand that is held palm down [which means his “black hand side" is showing], and angled downward. The second person’s hand is palm up [which means his (or her) “black hand side" is touching the other person’s black hand side]. While it isn't shown in that clip, from my memory of this gesture, the top hand is slide outward over the first person’s hand.
2:01 - a clip of two men giving low fives with two hands (for agreement)
2:33- a clip of "five on the black hand side" in which a man's or woman's hand is held palm down and level [horizontal] and a woman's hand is held palm up on the top.
As an aside, at 1:43 in that video, the phrase “uptight is used to mean "something or someone that is very good". That same meaning for "uptight" is found in R&B artist Stevie Wonder’s 1966 hit song "Uptight (Everything's alright)" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDbyOLzEyfk. That vernacular meaning for "uptight" has been largely forgotten, and has been replaced by the standard American English meaning "anxious, tense, and overly controlled". However, the African American vernacular phrase "That's tight" has the same meaning as the vernacular term "uptight".
****
RELATED LINKS
Click http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070063/for information about Five On The Black Hand Side.
**
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/07/delta-rhythm-boys-and-andrews-sisters.html for film clips of & lyrics to the 1940 and 1941 jazz songs "Gimme Some Skin My Friend".
**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Sw7lZ1ZHs
Terminator 2 - Gimme Five
[embedding disabled by request]
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Latest Revision: February 28, 2018
This post is Part I of a four part series on American hand gestures. Part I of this series focuses on "five on the black hand side" handshake, and other "low high five" handshakes.
Each of the posts in this series focus on hand gestures that were either created by African Americans or have been most closely associated with African Americans.
For Part II of this series (High Fives),
click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/high-five-handshake-videos.html
For Part III of this series click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/fist-bump-pound-handshakes.html.
For Part IV of this series "Giving Daps (Intricate Handshakes)", click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/giving-daps-intricate-handshakes.html.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. The copyrights remain with their owners.
My thanks to the authors of the quoted articles, the producers & cast of the featured film, and the uploader of the featured film clip.
****
PART I
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT "LOW FIVE" HAND GESTURES
Since the 1970s, the "high five" referent has become quite familiar to Americans. In contrast, the referent for older forms of hand gestures, the "low five", is much less familiar.
From
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/53146#ixzz1w0455qAi
"The roots of the high five go back to the Jazz Era of the early 20th Century. Black musicians of the time created numerous ways to say hello, such as “giving some skin,” “giving five,” and later a series of complicated, interconnected handshake gestures called a “dap.” Then, in the late-1970s, college and professional basketball players began raising their arms above their heads and slapping the palms of their hands together, in what would later be dubbed the “high five.” "
-snip-
In African American idiom, "give me five" and "give me some skin" is given as "gimme five", "gimme some skin", and "slap me five". "Five", of course, refers to "five fingers". In this context, "skin" refers to the palm of the hand or to the back of the hand.
"Five on the black hand side" is a now outdated, 1970s form of the "low five" hand gestures. "The black hand side" refers to the back of a Black person's hand.
Here's an urban definition entry for "black hand side":
From http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=black%20hand%20side by tRUnETIVOct 28, 2008
[given without corrections]
black hand side-snip-
A diminished style of extension hi-fiving practically extinct coming from black people.
Involves the regular style of dapping, hi-five that black youth do except after 'fiving', someone says 'on the black hand side' and said particapants turn their palms to the outer side and five.
Denotes exclusivity, hence the name. Originated out of the black power and love movements of the '70s.
Might be considered corny by todays youth.
*Black adult* "What's up young blood!!" (proceeds to dap typical black youth of today)
*Black adult* "Now on the black hand side!!"
*Typical black youth of today* 'Blank stare' "O.K..." (slowly follows old schoolers lead)
My only disagreement with this quote is that I believe "five on the black hand side" gestures were low five and not high five gestures.
The title of the 1973 blaxploitation comedy film Five On The Black Hand Side refers to a variant form of the low five hand gestures. To quote
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaxploitation, "Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States in the 1970s. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience appeal soon broadened to cross racial and ethnic lines."
-snip-
The narrator in the Five On The Black Hand Side movie trailer begins that clip by listing as verbs the titles of three previous hit blaxploitation films - "You've been coffy-tized, blacula-rized and super-flied - but now you're gonna be glorified, unified and filled-with-pride... when you see 'Five on the Black Hand Side'". That trailer also provides two examples of "five on the black hand side" and one example of the two hand low five gesture.
Five On The Black Hand Side Trailer Blaxploitation
Uploaded by thegroovetube on May 30, 2009
Here are the examples of low five gestures that are shown in that film clip:
0:22 - a clip of a hand that is held palm down [which means his “black hand side" is showing], and angled downward. The second person’s hand is palm up [which means his (or her) “black hand side" is touching the other person’s black hand side]. While it isn't shown in that clip, from my memory of this gesture, the top hand is slide outward over the first person’s hand.
2:01 - a clip of two men giving low fives with two hands (for agreement)
2:33- a clip of "five on the black hand side" in which a man's or woman's hand is held palm down and level [horizontal] and a woman's hand is held palm up on the top.
As an aside, at 1:43 in that video, the phrase “uptight is used to mean "something or someone that is very good". That same meaning for "uptight" is found in R&B artist Stevie Wonder’s 1966 hit song "Uptight (Everything's alright)" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDbyOLzEyfk. That vernacular meaning for "uptight" has been largely forgotten, and has been replaced by the standard American English meaning "anxious, tense, and overly controlled". However, the African American vernacular phrase "That's tight" has the same meaning as the vernacular term "uptight".
****
RELATED LINKS
Click http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070063/for information about Five On The Black Hand Side.
**
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/07/delta-rhythm-boys-and-andrews-sisters.html for film clips of & lyrics to the 1940 and 1941 jazz songs "Gimme Some Skin My Friend".
**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Sw7lZ1ZHs
Terminator 2 - Gimme Five
[embedding disabled by request]
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The Blackface Tradition Of The Mardi Gras Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
Uploaded by vparlant on Mar 8, 2011
Scenes from the 2011 Zulu Parade on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans, La. Includes clip of St. Augustine's Marching 100, McDonogh 35 marching band,dance troupes and Zulus in black face. Video by Nordette Adams
****
Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Update- 2019
This pancocojams post provides information about and critique of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club (Mardi Gras krewe).
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural and historical purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos that are embedded in this post.
****
OVERVIEW OF THE BLACKFACE TRADITION OF THE MADRI GRAS ZULU SOCIAL AID & PLEASURE CLUB
Since 1909 - with the exception of the years 1965 and 1966 - most of the members of the Mardi Gras krewe* Zulus Social Aid & Pleasure Club (Zulus SA&PC) have worn black face paint and grass skirts during their annual Mardi Gras parade. Members of that predominately Black Mardi Gras krewe usually also wear large black afro wigs as part of their Mardi Gras costumes. These portrayals are stereotypical parodies of real South African Zulus and other dark skinned native people throughout the world that are based on black faced minstrelsy.
*"krewe" = an organization; a membership group that parades during New Orleans Mardi Gras and engages in other social functions.
The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club krewe was formed in 1909 after members of the African American social group Tramps witnessed a theatric skit about the Zulus South African ethnic group.
Here's information about the origin of this Mardi Gras krewe:
From http://www.kreweofzulu.com/history/
"Early in 1909, a group of laborers who had organized a club named “The Tramps,” went to the Pythian Theater to see a musical comedy performed by the Smart Set. The comedy included a skit entitled, “There Never Was and Never Will Be a King Like Me,” about the Zulu Tribe...
After seeing the skit, they retired to their meeting place (a room in the rear of a restaurant/bar in the 1100 block of Perdido Street), and emerged as Zulus. This group was probably made up of members from the Tramps, the Benevolent Aid Society [of that ward] and other ward-based groups.
While the “Group” marched in Mardi Gras as early as 1901, their first appearance as Zulus came in 1909, with William Story as King.
The group wore raggedy pants, and had a Jubilee-singing quartet in front of and behind King Story. His costume of “lard can” crown and “banana stalk” scepter has been well documented. The Kings following William Story, (William Crawford – 1910, Peter Williams – 1912, and Henry Harris – 1914), were similarly attired.
1915 heralded the first use of floats, constructed on a spring wagon, using dry good boxes. The float was decorated with palmetto leaves and moss and carried four Dukes along with the King. That humble beginning gave rise to the lavish floats we see in the Zulu parade today."
Editor: "Ward" here means "city neighborhood". To quote that article "Benevolent Societies were the first forms of insurance in the Black community where, for a small amount of dues, members received financial help when sick or financial aid when burying deceased members."
**
From http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zulu-Social-Aid-Pleasure-Club/111689455522994
"In 1908, John L. Metoyer and members of a New Orleans Mutual aid society called “The Tramps”, attended a vaudevillian comedy show called, “There Never Was and Never Will Be a King Like Me”. The musical comedy performed by the “Smart Set” at the Pythian Temple Theater on the corner of Gravier and Saratoga in New Orleans, included a skit where the characters wore grass skirts and dressed in blackface. Metoyer became inspired by the skit and reorganized his marching troupe from baggy-pant-wearing tramps to a new group called the “Zulus”. In 1909, Metoyer and the first Zulu king, William Story, wore a lard-can crown and carried a banana stalk as a scepter. Six years later in 1915, the first decorated platform was constructed with dry goods boxes on a spring wagon. The King’s float was decorated with tree moss and palmetto leaves.
In 1916, Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club became incorporated where the organization’s bylaws were established as well as its social mission and dedication to benevolence and goodwill.
In 1933, the Lady Zulu Auxiliary was formed by the wives of Zulu members, and in 1948, Edwina Robertson became the first Queen of Zulu making the club the first to feature a queen in a parade."
**
From http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/neworleans/sfeature/zulu.html provides additional information about the origins of the Zulu S&PC is found in this article:
"King Zulu has reigned in the streets of New Orleans nearly every Fat Tuesday since 1909. The first kings of Zulu wore lard cans for crowns and carried banana stalks as scepters. Jubilee-singers flanked the king, with Mr. Big Stuff and the Witch Doctor in grass-skirts and black face in attendance. By 2005 the Zulu parades were premiere Mardi Gras events with lavish floats. Gone was the raggedy pants parody of the original parade; the king and queen of Zulu reigned in elegant tuxedo and gown."
Another quote from that same article indicates that at least for a small period of time there was public pressure on the members of that Mardi Gras Krewe to cease wearing blackface:
“Zulus were not without their controversies, either. In the 1960’s during the height of Black awareness, it was unpopular to be a Zulu. Dressing in a grass skirt and donning a black face were seen as being demeaning. Large numbers of black organizations protested against the Zulu organization, and its membership dwindled to approximately 16 men. James Russell, a long-time member, served as president in this period, and is credited with holding the organization together and slowly bringing Zulu back to the forefront."
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_Social_Aid_%26_Pleasure_Club:
"In the 1960s, [Zulu SA&PC] membership dwindled as a result of social pressures from civil rights activists. The protesters advertised in the local black community's newspaper The Louisiana Weekly stating:
"We, the Negroes of New Orleans, are in the midst of a fight for our rights and for a recognition of our human dignity which underlies those rights. Therefore, we resent and repudiate the Zulu Parade, in which Negroes are paid by white merchants to wander through the city drinking to excess, dressed as uncivilized savages and throwing cocoanuts like monkeys. This caricature does not represent Us. Rather, it represents a warped picture against us. Therefore, we petition all citizens of New Orleans to boycott the Zulu Parade. If we want respect from others, we must first demand it from ourselves"."
According to that Wikipedia article, in response to those pressures, from 1965 to 1966 the Zulu SA&PC continued to parade wearing grass skirts but during those years stopped wearing blackface. However, from 1967 on that krewe returned to the custom of blackening their skin.
From http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm:
"Zulu came under pressure from portions of the black community who thought the krewe presented an undignified image. The king resigned and the parade was almost cancelled, but Zulu survived and was a main attraction by 1969".
-snip-
Furthermore, in 1973 the Zulu SA&PC began recruiting members regardless of race. And regardless of race, members of the Zulu S&PC wear black facial paint during their annual Mardi Gras Parade.
****
WHY DO MEMBERS OF THE ZULU SOCIAL AID & PLEASURE CLUB WEAR BLACKFACE?
From my online research, the reasons most often given (together or separately) are
1. The Zulus SA&PC and their costuming is -or at least started out as - a parody of White Mardi Gras krewes, it is tradition, and the parade (and therefore the method of parading) is done just for fun (and therefore shouldn’t be judged).
2. The "Zulu Mardi Gras parade" is a fun tradition that is part of the overarching contemporary (if not traditional) approach to Mardi Gras parades.
****
QUOTES ABOUT ZULU KWEWE WEARING BLACKFACE AS A PARODY OF WHITE MARDI GRAS KWEWES
From http://www.nola.com/mardigras/index.ssf/2011/02/zulu_mardi_gras_krewe_files_su.html
"Zulu is a predominantly black group that, during the Carnival season, wears grass skirts and blackface makeup in parody of stereotypes from the early 1900s."
**
From http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/neworleans/sfeature/zulu.html "The Zulu Parade of Mardi Gras" [two comments by Ari Kelman]
"The Zulu parade emerged around the turn of the twentieth century and grew out of New Orleans's powerful African American community. Members of benevolent organizations, groups that engaged in community organizing, decided that if Mardi Gras was going to be segregated, they would begin a Krewe (a Mardi Gras club) of their own. They crowned a king, who wore a lard can atop his head and held a banana stalk as a scepter, mocking the class privilege of most white Carnival Krewes...
I don't think Zulu is just about fun, just as all of the Mardi Gras parades have multiple meanings. In this case, Zulu is about the city's African-American community asserting its right to parade in public spaces, to subvert racist images, and to participate in civic culture. Given New Orleans's extraordinarily complicated racial dynamics, these are important and powerful impulses. And so Zulu isn't just about fun; it's also about people asserting their citizenship."
**
From http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/neworleans/sfeature/zulu.html "The Zulu Parade of Mardi Gras" [comment by Lawrence Powell]
"That Zulu was founded just as segregation was hardening and racial violence was on the upswing helps answer the question. New Orleans's bloodiest race riot -- the Robert Charles riot -- had occurred nine years earlier. Dissent from racial orthodoxy had become dangerous. By embracing and amplifying white stereotypes of black character, Zulu was a safe way to mock the mockers. Its clownish royalty punctured the pretensions of the ermine-bedecked white elite. As Thomas Brothers explains in Louis Armstrong's New Orleans, Zulu's deployment of double-edged racial symbolism was "a classic example of carnivalesque release of class tensions with the special twist of African American signifying." The strategy made the black bourgeoise uncomfortable, however."
****
QUOTES ABOUT ZULU KWEWE WEARING BLACKFACE AS A FUN TRADITION
From http://discoverblackheritage.com/zulu-social-aid-pleasure-club
"Established in the early 1900′s, the Zulu Krewe, initially known as the “Tramps,” developed first as a marching group. According to legend, its members adopted the idea for the group from a popular vaudeville skit from the period, “There Never Was and Will Never Be a King Like Me,” dressing up in grass skirts and wearing blackface, traditions that continue today. Zulu royalty has counted among its kings, Louis Armstrong , who served in 1949 and sport special “float characters of Zululand,” including the Big Shot, the Witch Doctor and the Soulful Warriors…
The organization was designed to provide blacks with a way to socialize during Jim Crow era and segregation, and later, as a vehicle to provide its members with much needed burial insurance in a time when African Americans were unable to buy such policies. As a side benefit, it was also a way for New Orleans’s black residents to participate in the city’s official Mardi Gras celebrations—which until the 1960′s was mostly a “whites only” affair—by holding their own parades and balls and crowning faux royalty. Of all the throws to rain down from the many floats in the parades during carnival, the Zulu coconut or “Golden Nugget” is the most sought after."
**
From http://heatherleila3.blogspot.com/2010/02/mardi-gras-gender-and-race-and-everyone.html
“Everyone who rides in Zulu wears blackface. Everyone. (Or maybe just the men.) That means when white people ride in Zulu, they wear blackface too. It's tradition. You don't question tradition. Or do you?"
**
With regard to blackface being a tradition, it should also be noted that from the late 19th century until the mid 20th century, it was traditional for Black actors as well as White actors to wear blackface.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface#20th_century_examples
"In both the United States and Britain, blackface was most commonly used in the minstrel performance tradition, but it predates that tradition, and it survived long past the heyday of the minstrel show. White blackface performers in the past used burnt cork and later greasepaint or shoe polish to blacken their skin and exaggerate their lips, often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tailcoats, or ragged clothes to complete the transformation. Later, black artists also performed in blackface...
In the Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA), an all-black vaudeville circuit organized in 1909, blackface acts were a popular staple....For example, one of the most famous stars of Haverly's European Minstrels was Sam Lucas, who became known as the "Grand Old Man of the Negro Stage". Lucas later played the title role in the 1914 cinematic production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. From the early 1930s to the late 1940s, New York City's famous Apollo Theater in Harlem featured skits in which almost all black male performers wore the blackface makeup and huge white painted lips, despite protests that it was degrading from the NAACP. The comics said they felt "naked" without it."
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S COMMENT
Editor's Comment
Customs that occur over time become tradition. Since the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club celebrated their one hundred anniversary of marching in Mardi Gras parades in 2009, there's no doubt that that organization's distinctive costuming is tradition.
With regard to "parody", it seems to me that the population being parodied by the blackface traditions of the Mardi Gras Zulus are Black people and Black African people in general, and KwaZulu people in particular. And it also seems to me that the Zulu S&PC's much sought after coconut “throw” is too close to the “black people as monkey” meme. I’m not one of those folk who think that negative stereotypes and pejorative words - For example, I don't believe that the “n word” should or can be reclaimed.
I believe that it’s important for people to be aware that the depictions of the Zulus by the Zulu SA&PC have nothing whatsoever to do with the KwaZulu people. In my opinion, no matter how much fun this parade is, and regardless of the fact that its members' costumes started as a way to safely mock White Mardi Gras customs, I believe that those costumes and that organization's name disrespect the South African KwaZulu's rich traditions, though no disrespect was intended. Although I have no association with the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, I am taking the liberty of apologizing to the KwaZulu people for this unintended disrespect.
****
UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2019
From https://www.yahoo.com/news/club-mardi-gras-tradition-not-same-blackface-015518893.html Club: Mardi Gras tradition is not the same as blackface
Associated Press February 13, 2019
"FILE - In this March 4, 2014 file photo, members of the Krewe of Zulu hold painted coconuts to give to parade-goers, as they march during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. New Orleans' widely recognized Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club says its tradition of using black makeup for its Mardi Gras float riders is not the same as "blackface," a controversy that has embroiled officials nationwide. The club Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019 distributed a statement in an effort to head off any criticism of its long-standing custom of parade riders blackening their faces. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
"NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans' widely recognized Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club says its tradition of using black makeup for its Mardi Gras float riders is not the same as "blackface," a controversy that has embroiled officials nationwide.
The club Wednesday distributed a statement in an effort to head off any criticism of its long-standing custom of parade riders blackening their faces. The statement says Zulu parade costumes bear no resemblance to those worn by "blackface" minstrel performers at the turn of the century. It also says Zulu's costumes are designed to honor garments worn by South African Zulu warriors> and notes the tradition hails from poverty in the post-Reconstruction South, when makeup — not masks —was the only option available to them.
The New Orleans Advocate reports the club's statement comes just weeks before it prepares to roll on March 5, Fat Tuesday."
-snip-
*This sentence is given in italics to highlight it.
The statement quoted above doesn't note that the members of the Mardi Gras Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure club are Black Americans and therefore don't need to wear black makeup on their face to depict South African Zulus. While it may be true that in the early 20th century members of this krewe didn't know what the traditional attire of South African Zulu males were, given the age of the internet, that is no longer true. Furthermore, the way that Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club members continue to paint their faces and the costumes that they continue to wear conform with stereotypical minstrel tropes of wild dark skinned native men not just in Africa but in Melanesia and elsewhere in the world. One example of these stereotypical costumes is the South Sea Island "wild man" who is portrayed in the 1933 Little Rascal's clip known as "Yum Yum Eat'em Up". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnA8NQBjjso. One scene of this video that shows the "wild man" (who is scripted as coming from Borneo and not Africa) is at 4:53. Note that a 5:13/5:14 in this clip the Black boy (Stymie) says "Is that your uncle? He looks like a gorilla ape to me".
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kid_from_Borneo for more information about this Little Rascals clip.
-snip-
In contrast to the statement from the Mardi Gras Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club that "Zulu's costumes are designed to honor garments worn by South African Zulu warriors", here's a video of Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club members parading in 2017
Zulu Parade - Mardi Gras 2017
Cosette Richard, Published on Mar 3, 2017
Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
Mardi Gras Parade 2017
New Orleans, La.
-snip-
And here's a video of real Zulu males dressed in their traditional clothing:
INDLONDLO ZULU DANCERS
Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
Mardi Gras Parade 2017
New Orleans, La.
-snip-
And here's a video of real Zulu males dressed in their traditional clothing:
INDLONDLO ZULU DANCERS
Indlondlo Zulu Dancers, Published on Sep 25, 2017
****
****
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Viewer comments are welcome.
Viewer comments are welcome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)