I'm gifting the latest column by the excellent @crampell.https://t.co/FthgoO0XBq
— David Darmofal (@david_darmofal) December 20, 2023
Catherine Rampell, who usually writes about economics for the Washington Post, explains why “Right-wing pundits tremble in fear of … tap-dancing”. [Unpaywalled gift link]:
… Last week, first lady Jill Biden shared a festive holiday video of tap troupe Dorrance Dance performing their swingin’ spin on “The Nutcracker,” set to a jazz arrangement by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.
Festooned with wide smiles, whimsical headpieces and a healthy helping of sequins, the dancers percuss their way around the White House. Familiar characters from the “Nutcracker” — such as a rodent king and the young heroine Clara — sprinkle kinetic joy through the East Wing’s Christmas trees. The video opens and closes with saucy flourishes from “Sugar Rum Cherry” (performed by co-choreographer Josette Wiggan).
The piece is wholesome and exuberant. As a longtime admirer of Dorrance Dance, I watched the two-minute clip over and over when it was released and gushed over it with my dance-nerd friends.
Not every viewer was enthralled, though. Over in the right-wing mediaverse, people practically lost their minds…
Some were pretty explicit that what set them off about the tap-dance troupe was that it has — gasp! — Black people in it. (“It’s diverse as hell. They had to do that. It had to be a DEI video,” said Newsmax host Rob Schmitt.) Most, however, objected to materials on the dance organization’s website devoted to fighting racism and lifting up Black artists.
“It is our job to tell the history of tap dance as a celebration of Black culture and also the never-ending struggle against systemic racism and white supremacy in this country — the origin story of appropriation in American culture,” writes the troupe’s founder, MacArthur “Genius” grantee Michelle Dorrance, who is White…
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Across our nation, there is a full-on attack on a woman's fundamental freedom to make decisions about her own body.
In the new year, I will be traveling the country to organize, build community, and fight back.
Because when we fight, we win. pic.twitter.com/wvZF94FJZa
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 19, 2023
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Reproductive Rights Are Human RightsPost + Comments (201)