Throughout Reading "The Games Black Girls Play" I could not get many of my childhood experiences, games, and the song "The Double Dutch Bus." I am guilty of dismissing some of this games as childs play and not making big picture, African/ African American culture, and popular culture connections.
I am reminded of the movie "Taps" with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr. were the free-style hooffing is different than just tap dancing. It is an expression of indivuality, creativity, and performance. As much as it is about the individual, hoofing is also a group activity with complex choregraphy using the body as an instrument. From musical expressions in Africa like the boot dance, to dances during enslavement like the ring-shout, through tap dancing, stepp'in, and beat-boxing, we find traditions of using the boday as an instrument all of which we have seen influence popular culture as Gaunt illustrates.
Guant challenged me to think and rethink many of the games played in my childhood. However, with comments like the Hispanics in Denver borrowing these traditions were not as sophisticated or complex, and the Whites on American Bandstand "extracting Black dance" was mediorcre, do you think that she is suggesting that it is only Black people who can fully capture and express these traditions? Does she Blackness in this text?
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