Let’s Talk about Lindy Hop and Blackness - Part 1 - White Lindy Actions and Black Lindy Realities

How can we create and celebrate dance scenes where we can all have fun, honor the culture that roots the dance, and share the spotlight?

https://ilindy.com/blog/lets-talk-lindy-hop-and-blackness/
Welcome to Let’s Talk About Lindy Hop And Blackness, a seven-part series discussing race, specifically Blackness in the Lindy Hop community. Over the last few years, there has been a slow increase in discussions about being Black in the swing dance community. Yet, there has also been a lot of pushback around talking about racism in the community. Worse still, there has been limited action taken to do anything about it. In big and small ways, we haven’t really impacted the Black experience beyond discussing it. With the BLM gaining more “mainstream” — aka white— awareness and a wider-spread acceptance that, “Oh no! Racism is real,” only now has the community really started to seriously look at this problem.

This series is for dancers around the world who have questions about racism in the community, how it shows up, and how it affects the Black members of the community. Most importantly, it’s here to prompt thoughtfulness and give ideas on how this community can be more respectful and welcoming to the people of this heritage and legacy belong to. This is for people who want guidance on how to extend that to outside the dance community.

This first article, White Lindy Actions and Black Lindy Realities, will focus on the current state of things. I sent out a questionnaire to members of the African diaspora who are swing dancers, and some folks got back to me. For various cultural and safety reasons we often don’t speak up on our experiences bluntly. I think one of the reasons this issue remains in the community is a lack of trust and awareness around what it’s like to be Black in the community. Here are some quotes from your fellow dancers about their experiences.*

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