tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post8396176483174872580..comments2024-03-06T08:29:13.333-08:00Comments on stuff white people do: watch dancing-kid videosmacon dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795547197817128339noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-50582624997638845042013-04-08T20:19:42.343-07:002013-04-08T20:19:42.343-07:00How on earth did I just find this blog. I complete...How on earth did I just find this blog. I completely agree with you. I feel that videos of non-blacks dancing "black" are significantly praised. Meanwhile those with blacks dancing "black" are viewed as hood dancing with comments such as "meanwhile at school...." "...weave flying off...." or some other stereotypical comment about blacks using welfare or another. I've seen videos of white girls twerking not so good, yet they are praised as being amazing yet if the girl were black everyone would diss her and say that she is a horrendous dancer. colorfultextureshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09174227023545804151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-79170635956409665252010-02-16T10:47:05.512-08:002010-02-16T10:47:05.512-08:00I think that was a really trashy song period but t...I think that was a really trashy song period but the baby was very cute and obviously has a thing for keeping up with beats and remembering simple moves. I didn't find the second video as cute, just unlady like.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09297753310920759062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-87632512830513642512009-12-04T07:59:24.126-08:002009-12-04T07:59:24.126-08:00I watched these two videos and just thought how ta...I watched these two videos and just thought how talented and fluid both of these children are with natural rhythm and everyone involved seem to be having a great time, including myself watching, although I was worried about the kid falling off the table.<br /><br />My friends also saw it and they were like "wow" on both kids' dancing, nothing about colour was mentioned. <br /><br />I also agree with Robin's comments.<br /><br />Now on another note, that is the first time I listed to stanky leg or whatever it's called. I generally don't listen to that kind of music (typical of all this modern day rubbish music and that's why I no longer really buy music). Bring back the old school proper music and enough of these ghetto tunes already!Antonia - Beauty Health Finance and Green Issues Editorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18105675673609631392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-29042131131593906012009-12-03T17:36:59.229-08:002009-12-03T17:36:59.229-08:00I am Black specifically West Indian and used to ou...I am Black specifically West Indian and used to outsiders seeing my cultural way of dancing as sexual and promiscuous. It's primarily the reason why I've stopped dancing since living in a majority white city few people would understand that just because I'm shaking my hips doesn't mean I'm a whore. <br /><br />Watching the first video I had a good laugh, the baby was soo cute and had good rhythm and coordination. I didn't see anything wrong with it especially when I saw another family mmember dancing too. (And no I didn't worry about the baby falling off the table. Lighten up!)<br /><br />I enjoyed the second video and thought the little girl danced very well. I didn't like the part about her touching her chest though, but that was the only sexual part I saw about the dancing. <br /><br />It's really hard for me to articulate when I see a dance as sexual on a child and when it is it. Again, being of West Indian background I am quite used to children gyrating their hips. In fact it's not necessarily sexual when adults do it either. However there are some youtube videos that are overtly sexual (including some unfortunate boy-girl pairings that I've seen). I wish I could articulate exactly when that line is crossed. <br /><br />Btw I grew up in the Bronx and I'm used to teen pregnancy but I don't "feel" for any of these two children because of this. Again there was nothing sexual about the baby dancing and only one small part in the French child dancing.Camnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-66055221399849472092009-12-02T16:32:33.807-08:002009-12-02T16:32:33.807-08:00In the black community dance is such a rich and tr...In the black community dance is such a rich and traditional form of expression; and we blacks learn how to dance through osmosis. A cousin, or uncle- or our own momma will teach us how to dance. I learned how to do the Diamond Jerk and the Four Corners from my older female cousin. We are encouraged to dance at family reunions; we dance in political struggles and as a means of celebration and mourning. So it comes more natural to us than most. With that being said, some things considered cute in our culture are really damaging. Sometimes we can just be too ignorant to notice it until the damage reveals itself over time. More often than not- black households are headed up by 20-25 year-old single women, who sometimes entertain numerous male friends who bring their own brand of ignorance to the house. Young women, who have neither the tools nor the wisdom to raise a family, but do the best they can. We start going to house parties at an early age and we begin to hone our dancing skills. It becomes intertwined in culture and emotional expression. We dance in church and we dance at home before going to the club. Oftentimes you will see little black girls listening and singing lyrics to songs that are way too mature for them, and again we thinks it’s cute. But there are some things you just don’t teach a 2-5 year old. Knowing that whatever seed you sow in their youth they will reap negative consequences once they come of age. For it affects us negatively in far greater numbers.M. Gibsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15412079628160690200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-68132788843521728812009-12-02T16:11:56.476-08:002009-12-02T16:11:56.476-08:00Those of us who live in the inner-city and are use...Those of us who live in the inner-city and are used to seeing girls as young as 14 pushing baby carriages up the street, feel for this child. To watch this child perform a dance at such a young age with such associations reminds me of the young men who were letting a two yr old smoke pot on YouTube. It reminds me of the cumulative images using children on http://www.hotghettomess.com. Her ability to perform this dance with such proficiency means she is mimicking what she sees on a daily basis. I lived across the street from a young black woman whose favorite names for her children were Bitches and Ho’s. I kid you not. If they had real names you would never know it. Her ignorance and the music she choose to play clearly had an effect on her small children. This damage will be evident once these children begin school. This child is being fed a steady diet of her elder's ignorance and as this continues it will eat away at her innocence. Because there is no moral guidance she will grow up thinking this to be the norm. It may be cute to the young people edging her on right now; but as she ages and becomes exposed to more ignorance she may end up a young unwed mother at 14 and wonder how she got there. It’s something we don’t want to talk about in the black community, but we see it every day. We are in denial when we fail to recognize it takes an entire village; a coalition of both grandma and grandpa. Teacher and Pastors working together to raise this child. If she is not the beneficiary of this type of positive intervention that stinky leg song becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The white child can do those dances and because of environment- nurturing, privilege and skin color; she will come away from her appropriations virtually unscathed. Little black girls who knew more than their years were called “Fast” in my day. Way too fast and curious for her own good. With no proper guidance from Mom, who is often young, and ignorant herself; with father absent from the home, she is destined to repeat Mom’s mistakes. Its why I as a black person cringed more when I saw the black child dance, than I did the white child try and dance.M. Gibsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15412079628160690200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-4617301734301971192009-11-25T05:41:09.128-08:002009-11-25T05:41:09.128-08:00My initial reaction to the first video was that li...My initial reaction to the first video was that lil baby is good she has been watching somebody in her family do those moves.....My second thought was I hope they make her learn her ABC's just as well. Maybe a poor assumption on my part.<br /><br />My inital thought when I saw the second video was she is really doing a dance and the music has elements of Soca/Calypso, then I focused on the language and said, hummm not Soca at least not from the Caribbean. When I looked at the little girl dancing I said the something similar about her as I did about the first child, that she has watched someone do this dance she is not free styling. Then it occured to me that maybe she lives where this music is part of the culture.Amentahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13876681992868014576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-72845723583359288482009-11-24T23:21:03.819-08:002009-11-24T23:21:03.819-08:00First:
Watched most of both, twice. For some reaso...First:<br />Watched most of both, twice. For some reason, the <i>second</i> one was the one that I had to work to feel comfortable with. I watched it the first time with a distinct feeling of... dread? I was tense. But I can't put my finger on why. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but it definitely felt... race-related somehow. I finally had to just force myself to relax. Even after reading all the comments, I still can't even make something up to explain the feeling. (Disclosure: I'm black and I grew up in the US, though I'm not a citizen. If any of that matters, which it very well might.) <br /><br /><br />Second:<br />I'm surprised that no one has mentioned what I see as the primary difference between the two videos: the little black girl's dance seems pretty much spontaneous; the young white girl's doesn't. I highly doubt the baby was purposely taught that dance; I think she's just seen people doing it. And she's probably dancing along with someone off-screen (I suspect everyone in the room was dancing) and feeling their happy/upbeat vibe. Which: babies totally do that. All colors. Babies love to get down.<br /><br />The white girl's dance, on the other hand, is clearly a purposely-learned routine (from a music video, I'd guess). Which could be why some people get a "showoff" vibe from it: it's a performance, and while she seems to be having fun, she's also visibly concentrating. Which seems... less fun. She's not feeling it as much, and that dampened my enthusiasm. It's not an entirely natural expression, you can tell. After a while I was like, "Just <i>dance,</i> little girl! Be free; move however you want!"karinovanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-32601427905746283692009-11-23T10:29:08.449-08:002009-11-23T10:29:08.449-08:00My thoughts: kid 1 registered as "aww! adorab...My thoughts: kid 1 registered as "aww! adorable dancing baby", the second as "holy crap, that kid can dance!" Not sure if that's racial. I think it's probably mostly because of the difference in age.<br /><br />What does horrify me is that so many of the commenters here are all talking about how the dance style is sexual. This is DANCING, people. You use your body to dance. Adults do, in fact, also use their bodies to have sex! So if you never dance and you do fuck, I can see how you would get confused. But these are kids, dude! The pedophiles, they are in your head.octopodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13527567851222207553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-16049652221898110862009-11-20T05:36:14.021-08:002009-11-20T05:36:14.021-08:00I do see a difference between these two videos oth...I do see a difference between these two videos other than race.<br /><br />In the first video there is a baby dancing on a table wearing nothing but a diaper and socks. In the second video there is a young child dancing on the floor fully dressed.<br /><br />In the first video the child is dancing to a song with blatantly provocative lyrics. I can't tell what they're saying in the second video, the rhythm is more prominent.<br /><br />In the first video there are adults swearing in front of the child ("shit" and "hell" in the first minute) while there's none of that in the second video.<br /><br />I doubt I'd react any differently to a young well dressed black girl dancing to non sexually provocative music, on the floor, without any adults swearing in the background.Elisabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939100173998555327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-23813787326539868592009-11-19T13:36:46.888-08:002009-11-19T13:36:46.888-08:00I love baby dancing videos. Get her off the table...I love baby dancing videos. Get her off the table though! I thought the second one was gross and way too sexual for that aged child.derknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-90278393276463588782009-11-18T09:51:01.716-08:002009-11-18T09:51:01.716-08:00Ok, to clarify:
The second video is from the DRC ...Ok, to clarify:<br /><br />The second video is from the DRC and the little girl is actually doing the dance from the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSjjqhQ_99g (By Jessy Matador, btw, and there is a kid doing the same dance in the video). Interview with the little girl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6p8cURugV0<br /><br />My reaction: damn kids are cute when they dance.sputnicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-35994222748758542332009-11-17T22:22:24.616-08:002009-11-17T22:22:24.616-08:00@Lisa, A few days ago, I thought something pretty ...@Lisa, A few days ago, I thought something pretty similar to what I'm hearing you say. And my thinking was not a good thing. Furthermore, I was mean about how I said it. The only silver lining to this is that some people called on me to try to account for my hatefulness.<br /><br />Ask yourself what's wrong with those lyrics that you called wrong. When I went through why about four or five times, I realised that most of my "problem" with the lyrics is that they were "black" - and I was arrogantly trying to shame black people for MY hate.<br /><br />About "engrained racism": macon d's exercise was for us to connect our thoughts about the videos to the race of the people in them. But you didn't say a single explicit thing about race. Any reason? Even after not saying anything about race, you went on to list a bunch of reasons to imply that you couldn't possibly be racist. Any reason? Then you pretty much outright said you weren't racist, on any level, even an engrained level. You're protesting too much, I think. <br /><br />Just because you're not understanding (or not thinking about) engrained racism doesn't mean you're not tied up in it. In fact, the opposite is probably true.Karen Lnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-24551224052958356362009-11-17T19:48:50.344-08:002009-11-17T19:48:50.344-08:00I'm somewhat saddened to see so many people fo...I'm somewhat saddened to see so many people focusing on pedophilia rather than kids having fun. Once upon a time it was possible to watch kids having fun just for the fun of it; this was before Concerned Parties™ sexualised watching children play.<br /><br />I guess I'm not watching enough trashy current affairs shows.<br /><br />As for the videos, I just saw them as "yet more dancing kids videos". The only real difference in my thoughts was that early in the first video, the kid leans back to one side a bit, and I was wondering if there was a neurological issue there (I used to work in neurology). Continuing to watch it, it seemed not to be the case.<br /><br />Regarding the music choices, I've had plenty of friends whose children love one weird 'non-kids' song so much they go nuts to it - the actual content of the music being irrelevant. It's something kids do, like the dinosaur phase or dressups or smearing icecream across their cheeks.EPTnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-69647339050921166352009-11-17T17:08:18.893-08:002009-11-17T17:08:18.893-08:00@Lawrence Welk Fan - It's SAD that you can see...@Lawrence Welk Fan - It's SAD that you can see 'trashy' and 'ghetto' in a bubbly toddler in...for goodness sakes, diapers. You've basically given us a good analogy for understanding how pedophiles see 'sexual' in toddlers. (I'm not saying that it's the same, but that it works as an analogy.) It's all about the lens that people see things through.fromthetropicsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-37861322163582576152009-11-17T13:34:49.231-08:002009-11-17T13:34:49.231-08:00You people are warped! Keep trying to convince you...You people are warped! Keep trying to convince yourselves of your "racist evolution" but while both of the children are adorable, the "dancing" in BOTH of those videos is the same.... trashy, ghetto, and SAD.Lawrence Welk Fannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-28607592328932798702009-11-17T11:17:03.663-08:002009-11-17T11:17:03.663-08:00Other than the lyrics of the first song, nothing s...Other than the lyrics of the first song, nothing seemed off about either video. My first thought was "Wow. that baby is really talented!I can't dance like that!" <br /><br />For the second video all I could think of was that the music wasn't necessarily 'African'; it sounded like Jamaican patios to me. I didn't watch it all the way through. Good dancer though!<br /><br />I'm a little confused as to this exercise. Maybe it's because I grew up in a multi-cultural and multi-coloured family. My mum's a white Jamaican who married a 1st generation Dutch-Canadian and her sister married a black Canadian. Then we spent 2 years in Jamaica where I went to school. I'm just not tied up in this whole 'ingrained racism' that you all seem to be talking about.Lisanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-35925677017777477772009-11-16T12:59:11.456-08:002009-11-16T12:59:11.456-08:00I thought both of them could bust a pretty good gr...I thought both of them could bust a pretty good groove!Jamie Suehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16715946854484449804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-45071197305402761192009-11-16T08:36:20.981-08:002009-11-16T08:36:20.981-08:00@Soul
I didn't know the Stanky Leg was a part...@Soul<br /><br />I didn't know the Stanky Leg was a participation dance. Interesting! I really should have googled it beforehand.<br /><br />You said: "The fact is the very movement of that baby is enough to cause offense because she is black."<br /><br />No. Like I stated, my first reaction was amusement because the baby was dancing. Then I noticed the song and the movements the baby was doing and I felt yucky. <br /><br />As I stated previously, this yuckyness does stem from aversion to what I perceived to be "sexualized dancing" from such a small child. <b>This has everything to do with my upbringing and has nothing to do with anything "wrong" that the child was doing.</b><br /><br />After I veiwed both videos (I had a yucky feeling about BOTH of them) I realized that I felt yucky because I just KNEW there was going to be some pervert out there who was watching these with a whole different kind of amusement. <br /><br />I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world, but the US has quite a large problem with pedophilia. Children who are using dance moves that are commonly seen and portrayed as "sexual" in the USA may attract unwanted attention from people who think it's okay to abuse children sexually.<br /><br />This is where my aversion is coming from. I wish it weren't the case. I'd love to be able to watch these videos with amusement and embrace the joy these kids are feeling while they are dancing. In some part, I can, actually. But I can't fully because of the reasons I stated above. <br /><br />This is MY problem, though. Like I said, I don't think badly at all of the children or their parents.Elsarielnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-60274931148601073712009-11-15T15:00:32.399-08:002009-11-15T15:00:32.399-08:00@soul, continued. My cut-and-paste for my comment ...@soul, continued. My cut-and-paste for my comment might repeat this first paragraph, sorry if it's a duplicate.<br /><br />And that is only the (mostly-) conscious thinking about sex-as-entertainment. Add on top of this, the unconscious centuries-old reviling of black bodies that I can only acknowledge in myself intellectually. Seriously, I'm in denial that I projected sexuality on to the dancing black baby, so instead I'm examining my racist reaction to the lyrics, which is already identity-threatening. My <i>conscious</i> reaction was that the baby kicked some serious ass and was awesomely adorable and happy at the same time.<br /><br />A side note on how I guess white feminism has been at the expense of POC. Did you notice that earlier I wrote that my "one" resource prized by men was my sexuality? That's not entirely true, but it's truER now that white women have been somewhat "liberated" from domestic work that white men valued in us. And where did that domestic work go? Even white feminists know that it didn't just go away and it certainly isn't white men who picked up much the slack. You guessed it again: POC! The work of our POC babysitters is liberating us. I don't actually have a babysitter; I have even MORE privilege: well-off inlaws who retired young. No inconvenient feelings about paying other people to raise my children! Yay ME!<br /><br />You point out that white women and white men have <i>both</i> been reviling and sexualising black bodies for centuries, never mind feminism. My first reaction to that was just because white women also over-sexualise black people doesn't make it not-sexist*. Underlying the over-sexualisation, I see white women being complicit in spreading sexism around all along. Another two-for-one for white men! White men use one end of the madonna/whore stick on white women and all white people use the other end on black people (not just black women, I think, but I'm in no position to tie this into the white men/black men dynamics.) Marginalised people, women and POC, only get to be under- or over-sexualised. Another part is just white women over-sexualising black people to get a taste of superiority, this time base on our race.<br /><br />*Caveat: I've heard of but not studied a sociological definition of racism that per se precludes POC being racist; so, maybe the corollary is that women can't be sexist? Well, if white women's over-sexualising black people is enabled by the <i>power</i> of our race, I'd still want to call it sexist. It just seems weird to call it racist <i>and</i> sexist if men do it but only racist if women do it.<br /><br />Finally, when I mentioned jealousy, it wasn't jealousy of dancing skill, <i>if</i> that's what you meant. It was jealousy of feeling free to use your body in perfectly normal ways (like dancing) without hating yourself. And yes (@ the pale observer), I'd probably dance more and be a better dancer if I did feel that freedom. Luckily not all white people have the SAME hangups that I have.Karen Lnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-50854005781441733552009-11-15T14:56:13.000-08:002009-11-15T14:56:13.000-08:00@randy. You wrote:i sometimes wonder if this hatre...@randy. You wrote:<i>i sometimes wonder if this hatred of hip hop is a safe way to express some of their feelings about PoC.</i>. My answer is a great big YES. You'll see that in my comments above and in the following. But for me, it's ALSO a safe way for me to express my feelings about men, mainly white men.<br /><br />@soul. I will keep working on it and your appreciation and calling out or challenging does go a long way. Thanks. <br /><br />So, about the projection. I called it projecting because when I see blackness in dancing, I _imagine_ that doing the exact same motions, that aren't <i>my</i> norm, would make <i>me</i> feel sexual. I can't mentally disentangle my body, motion, and sexuality. So I assume (unconsciously) that the dancer feels sexual, like I would. Actually, my imagination is failing because I've had good clean fun shaking my butt.<br /><br />About packaging sexuality as entertainment for white men. Sex-as-entertainment was my conscious thought about the lyrics and why I was critising the video's song rather than addressing her dancing. Over-generalising, I see lots of popular music that is sold by white people to white people, using black performers, that is IMO _deliberately_ packaged with T&A sexuality. (Notice how I've already mentally denied black people agency by writing "using black performers" and "over-generalising.") <br /><br />The sexualised entertainment undermines <i>my</i> privilege in a couple of ways: 1) it reinforces the madonna/whore complex that already represses me and 2) it makes sex into something readily and acceptably consumable by men. That reduces the value of my sexuality - the one distinctly female "resource" that men might value in me. Madonnas are invested in sex being scarce, not readily available. <br /><br />These threats to madonna-privilege (Can you tell I just made that word up? LOL) leads to slut-shaming, even by women - a total win-win for white men. It holds up the madonna/whore thing, shaming chaste women into keeping their sexuality scarce so that it can be prized AND marginalising unchaste women, who are now easier to exploit because they have less power. <br /><br />I think that my rapid charge of "sexism" is not just about pushing back against male enjoyment of sexualised entertainment but it is also MY unconscious way of slut-shaming any woman who would so much as CONDONE, let alone enjoy those lyrics that supposedly oppress me. WOW. That is really mean of me. I don't think sorry even really cuts it. Womanist Musings has <a href="http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/11/slut-shaming-comes-to-twitter.html" rel="nofollow">a new post about slut-shaming</a>. <br /><br />Here's <i>but one</i> racist part of my white feminist thinking: The black musical influence and the presence of black performers in popular music and dance invites me put most of the BLAME for sexualised entertainment on (you guessed it!) black people. Never mind that I *know* where all the money comes from and ends up.<br />And that is only the (mostly-) conscious thinking about sex-as-entertainment. Add on top of this, the unconscious centuries-old reviling of black bodies that I can only acknowledge in myself intellectually. Seriously, I'm in denial that I projected sexuality on to the dancing black baby, so instead I'm examining my racist reaction to the lyrics, which is already identity-threatening. My <i>conscious</i> reaction was that the baby kicked some serious ass and was awesomely adorable and happy at the same time.<br /><br />To be continued ...Karen Lnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-32922600619898533162009-11-15T12:09:39.802-08:002009-11-15T12:09:39.802-08:00I had the same reaction to both videos: cute kids,...I had the same reaction to both videos: cute kids, having fun moving to music. I found both pieces of music enjoyable. I didn't see anything inappropriately sexual in the dancing--I just saw kids imitating the ways that adults dance, throwing their whole bodies into it.<br /><br />I come from a kind of hippie family, where we danced at home a lot. My one brother liked Arlo Guthrie, my other brother liked "The Turkish Rondo" and I liked Irish jigs. To me, "cultural appropriation" only comes into play if you're making it a performance... as far as I'm concerned, if you're eight years old and dancing in your own living room, you're allowed to get your groove on to whatever you like. This kind of enjoyment of their own bodies is going to serve both kids well in their lives.<br /><br />Besides, what did Emma Goldman say? "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."clairificationhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11035041681518529615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-86244564237052206472009-11-15T12:05:01.328-08:002009-11-15T12:05:01.328-08:00Reaction to the first vid : why on a table ? That&...Reaction to the first vid : why on a table ? That's dangerous ! The boy can move. Don't know what he's dancing to though.<br /><br />Reactions to the second vid : 1) Wow, looks like my brother's living room. 2) The girl can move. 3) A 9 year old girl shouldn't be doing some of these moves.<br /><br />There's an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6p8cURugV0" rel="nofollow">interview of the french girl</a> about this video. It's in french with english subs (they could be better). She's dancing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup%C3%A9-D%C3%A9cal%C3%A9" rel="nofollow">coupé-décalé</a>.CarlosFnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-21686602062107025802009-11-15T12:03:43.581-08:002009-11-15T12:03:43.581-08:00Everybody is so PC. I'm white. I've lived ...Everybody is so PC. I'm white. I've lived in Ghana West Africa for the past 13 years. <br /><br />EVERY kid here is trained from age 1 to dance and they can DANCE!!!<br /><br />I have NEVER met any white person at age 1,2,3 etc. who could dance like ANY of these kids. Not to mention as grown ups.<br /><br />It is a pretty verifiable stereotype that white guys can't dance.<br /><br />Why can't people admit this???The pale observerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01597175124251218057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-55910356515461749972009-11-15T11:23:26.211-08:002009-11-15T11:23:26.211-08:00My first thought on watching the first video: &quo...My first thought on watching the first video: "Wow, that kid is good!" and all the instruction was coming from observation (of the older sibling.) At first it seemed like a contradiction; how could someone so young be so good at anything. Then I realized that, well, for the most part, as people grow into adults, they have to be socialized to feel embarrassment and shame to keep them from dancing.<br /><br />I watched the videos before I read underneath each, and it was interesting to me that I talked myself out of being concerned that the baby was on the table. I didn't see that the kid was on a table until after I had marveled at his/her dancing skills for a moment. Then, I had a momentary "OMG the baby's gauna fall!!!" reaction, followed by, "Well, this baby, like all kids, likely has more self-awareness than people give them credit for; the baby knows (s)he is on a table, has a sense of balance, and knows what (s)he's doing." <br /><br />The second child's dance seemed more choreographed, and she is older, but I was impressed by the skill in both.Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01134116554971956983noreply@blogger.com