I might be overthinking this

January 12, 2016 4:12 PM

I'm a non-black person of color. I tried a street dance class and I feel conflicted about the appropriative aspect of it. Are my concerns legitimate and are there ways I can carry on respectfully?

Forgive me for bean-plating. It's difficult for me to turn off my social-justice filter.

My concerns are as follows:

1) It feels uncomfortable learning in an exclusively white, professional dance studio environment. The other people in the class are largely older suburban white women. I'm unnerved by the "it's for fun and fitness!" just-like-Zumba aspect of it.

2) I'm also fairly suburban (working-class immigrant origins but now I'm a pretentious academic in a predominantly-white, semi-rural part of England) and somehow it just feels wrong to partake in the commercialisation of street culture.


Am I over-thinking this? Is there anything I can do to make this more okay or is abstention the right thing to do?

posted by quadrant seasons to Society & Culture (15 answers total)

Cultures have been stealing dance moves from each other since forever. If you're having fun in the class, go for it.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:32 PM on January 12, 2016 [5 favorites]

I like this article on fashion: Appropriation vs. Appreciation and think it may be useful in helping you think through this. I don't think it is a 100% good or 100% bad proposition and you have to see how comfortable you are with that murkiness.
posted by munchingzombie at 4:34 PM on January 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Are my concerns legitimate and are there ways I can carry on respectfully?

it's good to be thoughtful about these things, but yeah, overthinking it. You're in a predominately white, semi-rural part of England. If you're interested in street dane, thi sounds like the best option for you at the moment.

See if the teacher are others are interested in learning more about the dance style and if so, study some more about it. Relax and have fun, that's the point of all this right?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:34 PM on January 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Who's teaching the class? Who owns the dance studio?
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:37 PM on January 12, 2016

I'm a white person, and I did belly dance for a while. The way I see it, would the dancers of the culture in question be happy that you were sharing and enjoying their heritage, and are you expanding your worldview because of it? If so, I think you're okay.
posted by Liesl at 4:40 PM on January 12, 2016 [6 favorites]

Perspective: I'm a white person who has been breaking/popping for ~5 years. I had never danced before, had a similarly professional/academic background, and started taking classes in order to learn more about hip-hop.

I don't think there's anything wrong with beginning in the kind of environment you describe (it's also a bit late to worry about commercializing street dance--that boat sailed with the Rocksteady crew). My first classes were a very similar situation. But if you're interested in the background of the dance and the culture around it, I would absolutely recommend talking to your teacher (or any savvy-seeming students) to see if there are any events or workshops going on that are run by the local dance community. You might also check Facebook or other social networks--I know here in Seattle, there's a couple of breaking/funk styles groups on Facebook that exist to keep people posted about events.

By going to jams when I first started out, I was able to start making friends with people who had been dancing for years. I got to talk from them, and learn about the history and culture of the styles I liked. Also, they taught me some moves! Gradually, I got a lot more comfortable with how I'm a piece of that culture, and how to be respectful while still doing my thing. It takes a little bit of time, but it's been enormously rewarding.
posted by Four String Riot at 4:43 PM on January 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I talked to all the other black people, and we said it was OK for you to go.

In all seriousness, I'm a black person who hopes you enjoy yourself. I would be bothered by a class like this only if the teacher said something like, "We're going to learn about twerking, which was invented by Miley Cyrus a few years ago." That statement is ridiculous and false and I would laugh while packing up my stuff to leave.

For me, "stealing" or acting in bad faith racially pretty much means hiding the real origins or taking credit for something that is clearly not "yours".

Feeling self-conscious (there's some academic phrase for this) about something that is not usually done by your ethnic group is familiar to me, but not you I guess? Do your best.
posted by Freecola at 4:44 PM on January 12, 2016 [43 favorites]

Hip hop comes from Black America but its participation has always been multicultural. Anybody who tries to do b-boy and b-girl stuff is participating in hip hop culture and it doesn't matter how good or authentic you are. Hip hop is interested in you. Hip hop has also tended to be a source of commercialization in our world.

Not that it can't be exploited, but it's all still hip hop.

Now, after all that puffery, whether these other participants are there for the same or good reasons seems immaterial. I do think it's important to appreciate the "rural England" part of the equation: what other outlets do you even have? You can outgrow this class, find your interests lead you to other people. Maybe other people will join this class and it provides a point of departure for your area. I can see how "Zumba housewife" is the one of the most mainstream-possible transcriptions of street dancing and you feel like you're at a Vanilla Ice convention, but you take what you can get.
posted by rhizome at 4:45 PM on January 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't think Misty Copeland is appropriating anything and neither are you nor are your classmates.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:48 PM on January 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Toni Basil was one of the original Lockers.
posted by rhizome at 4:49 PM on January 12, 2016 [5 favorites]

Best answer: An alternative viewpoint (title of blog potentially nsfw) to those put forward in the thread so far.
posted by en forme de poire at 4:57 PM on January 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

Cultures are not univocal. Within any POC community, there are some who would support your learning this dance style as a way to broaden your cultural understanding, some would find it offensive and appropriative, and some wouldn't care.

My personal checklist for these things is:

1) Are you approaching the culture with respect?
2) Are you taking sacred or religious symbols (whether these are dance moves, costumes, images, etc) and using them for something other than they were intended?
3) Are you using cultural forms in a way that exploits, mocks or diminishes them?
4) Are you assigning proper credit to the origin of what you're doing if someone asks?

If the answers to these are yes, no, no, and yes, then go ahead -- but keep in mind that there may be some who still disagree with your choice.
posted by ananci at 6:54 PM on January 12, 2016 [4 favorites]

Honest comparison here: Your question in the 1930's in America would read like "Woman of color here wondering if she should patronize a club outside of Harlem that is playing jazz to an all white audience. Not sure if this is right or if there is anything I can do about it?" That form of music was indeed outside of the mainstream of American culture but emerged from that period to become one of America's most venerated cultural touchstones- Almost nothing was left untouched by its influence- cinema, poetry, literature, painting... Many bigoted people at the time (of all skin colors) argued for its sequester, and what a shame that would have been, but luckily enough of the public saw in the music the rich, substantive form of art that it was. Do we say that Woody Allen wrongly "appropriated" jazz to enhance his movies? Did McDonald's commercials "appropriate" jazz in some egregious injury to the community where the music came from? Of course not. Who would you give the power to determine what is celebration and what is appropriation? What happens when they turn to judge your art?
posted by incolorinred at 10:05 PM on January 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: (Not to be snarky to the other answerers, but the OP is asking about something very specific, and simply saying "you're overthinking it" is not so helpful and leads me to think that most of the answerers have never felt what the OP is feeling. )

Personally, I get exactly what you mean. I'm a non-black POC and feel a bit weird about taking yoga or meditation full of all-white students and a white teacher. To me, this is a clear signal of a kind of appropriation that, whether good-natured or not, is more complex than "yoga is good! Lots of people do it!" -- after all, why would it happen that the enjoyment of a specific culture's practice is done by a highly homogeneous group?

I have no easy answers, but to say that whenever I've encountered situations like this, it has always benefitted me to do more research and find other classes or practices that might be deeper/less visible. Maybe there's a dance class in the next town over that feels more 'street dance for those who don't think of street dance as exotic'? 'Yoga for brown people?' Etc.
posted by suedehead at 1:56 AM on January 13, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm a black man and you've got my approval
posted by Kwadeng at 4:18 AM on January 13, 2016 [5 favorites]