John humorously notes that giving dap (sorry guys "fist-bump" is just dead wrong) is so widely practiced that even his thoroughly white lacrosse team did it. I don't doubt it a minute, but again that's the point. Just because many more people other than blacks are now giving dap, doesn't mean that it didn't start with black folks. Like I said, a lotta non-Mexicans eat enchiladas. That don't make enchiladas non-Mexican. Still, this whole thing has my head swimming now. It's quite possible that I have this backwards, I mean I first encountered the art of giving dap amongst black folks. But I also grew up de facto segregated--hell I first encountered french fries amongst black folks, so that isn't proof of authorship.
That said, the very fact that in
all the instances where whites have claimed giving dap is common involve athletics is telling. Black folks give each other dap in all
sorts of instances--not just competition. I may
give my man a "fist-bump" (arrrgggghh!!! it burns!!!) because my
fingers are greasy, because I've got something in my hand, or just
because I feel like it. In fact, one of the more awkward moments in
black life occurs when two brothers greet each other and one isn't sure
whether to use the open hand or the closed fist. You can end up with
some pretty awkward exchanges--like shaking a dude's fist. Anyway, the place where "dap" is most likely to be
transmitted to other ethnicities is in athletic competition. So the mere fact that many of
the cats who are questioning its origins are citing their encounters
with dap in competition kind of makes me think I'm right.
When I got my first job around white folks, in the mid-90s, I had to stop myself from shaking my co-worker's hands every time I saw him, as was normal among the brothers. This has changed over the years, I think, with black culture going mainstream. So when I was working at TIME, for instance, I had some white friends who I shook hands with every time I saw them, because they were acculturated. Others I didn't because they weren't. But I shook hands with every brother I saw, whenever I saw him for the first time during the day. And then maybe again during the course of conversation. And then maybe again when I left. It just depended.
For those of you saying that you'd have to be from Mars to have never seen someone giving dap, dig this quote John dug up from over at from Human Events:
Michelle is not as “refined” as Obama at hiding her TRUE feelings about America—etc. Her “Hezbollah” style fist-jabbing—mouth-twisted anti-American speeches is STRAIGHT from ISLAM!
Oh my white people, we have so very very far to go...
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
I'm not sure that Cal Thomas, author of the hezbollah comment, qualifies as human on the scale of evolution. I think he's somewhere down there in the prehistoric eras.
As a bartender, I love the idea of giving dap. It makes interactions with guests faster and more sanitary.
I had no idea it was sacred, though.
"“Hezbollah” style fist-jabbing?" Good God, does that mean all these years I've been risking incurring the wrath of Michelle Malkin?
I'm a 38 year old white guy. I've seen people dap a million times, but can never get it straight when it's offered to me. I've twice shaken a fist when I thought someone was coming w/ a high five and it turned out to be dap (a dap?). I think it's probably bad form to offer unless you're sure the person knows it's coming and will reciprocate. I felt like a total smacked ass both times I shook the fist. Each time it was w/ a much younger guy, so it made me feel old/out of touch, but it did make for a good self-deprecating story. I see the one guy now and again and he always goes w/ dap. I feel like a bit of a tool when I do it – like trying to speak my broken-ass high school Spanish to the guys who sheetrocked my kitchen. Giving dap seems to be something one should do w/ conviction.
Wait, you mean I'm subtly undermining my Jewish street cred by giving dap? Oh no... ;-)
I'm a European-American woman sociology teacher in the south with a specialization in race relations. My African-American male students sometimes greet me by giving me dap. I always thought it was a male thing and so was pretty self-conscious about it, but I've assumed that they do it as a way of "including" me, showing respect and appreciation for the work I do and the way I do it, sort of an act of affection. Anyway, it makes me feel good. Regardless, though, as far as I'm concerned, in the same way that folks who look like me will say they're going out for "Mexican" food, giving dap is a Black thing -- no matter who does it.
P.S. I plugged The Beautiful Struggle on my blog last week at http://whyaminotsurprised.blogspot.com/2008/05/summer-reading.html. Thanks for writing a truly extraordinary book.
The period at the end of the link makes it not work. Try this one instead: http://whyaminotsurprised.blogspot.com/2008/05/summer-reading.html
LOL....I think this goes right along with the great confusion that was caused when Donna Brazile told Anderson Cooper that he was "not her boo" on a CNN broadcast. Anderson didn't know what the term "boo" meant,and it seems like he wasn't alone. Google Trends showed a spike yesterday in search terms containing the term "boo." (i.e. What does boo mean?) I took it for granted that everyone knew what boo meant! LOL!
Here's my post on it, complete with video of the Brazile-Cooper exchange...
http://pcashperspective.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/who-doesnt-know-what-boo-means/
P.Cash
Hi Ta-Nahesi,
I'm truly surprised at the amount of white folks reading black blogs these days. I hope that's a good thing that we've gotten from this Democratic race.
But it's funny the stuff that some white people want to take ownership of. I mean, can't we have shit??? We had to concede basketball after the Argentine team won the gold medal, then sprinting after Jeremy Wariner, and even Paul Wall wears diamond fronts. (Can't claim golf, cause Tiger says he's not black.) Now we got to concede giving people a pound? What's next...the black handshake, too? What about those Kappas that kept being shown during Obama's victory speech, do we have to give the Nupes up to?
Damn, I guess at least we can still have locs, cocoa and shea butter, barbeque (I had to check on this and Wikipedia says it traces back to the Taino Indians whew) the inner city, goo macaroni and cheese, and of course, the Black church!
And of course if nothing else, we keep the correct name -- that would be "dap" or "pound" ...because if it's now a "fist bump," we won't be doing it anymore anyway!
I mentioned this in my column on Capitol Hill Blue ( http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/8239 ) and was mocked for not knowing it was called a dap in The New Republic's "The Plank" -
I added a reference once I found out the name for the gesture. Now that I think of it I recall seeing some blacks using it during the early 1970s on campus during the protest days. But not being a sports buff I never saw it since then.
As I wrote in my column I think it was a loving expression between Barak and Michelle.
WTF. I would love to find that Hezbollah fist-jab quote in context. That's remarkably stupid.
So Fox news is referring to this dap as a "Terrorist Fist Jab". Watch the video on the top right corner.
So all you fools giving daps, ya'll better cut it out or the FISA courts will be examining your communications real soon.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200806060007?f=s_search
Fox=Yellow Journalism
Yeah, this white girl does the dap thing every time she goes to mosque, right after the salaam. After all, it's a well-known sunnah of the Prophet, right? Um, yeah.
Like they say, once white folks start doing it (anything)it's played out, or you should be playing it out! Here are a few examples:
- ya (you) feel me
- Biatch!
- and especially... the "N" word
This just goes to show how out of the loop most of America is when it comes to race relations - particularly the older folks. The younger crowd knows what "dap" is, and probably isn't all that surprised to see it - especially when it's given by someone who's shown them that he's in touch with their needs.
It's the older crowd that's going, "WOW, what was that? A black militant thing?". *sigh* No, it's not black code for "kill Whitey". It's a positive statement, for sure, but did it deserve seventeen news articles written about it? Please...
The fact that Michelle clearly gives Barack a thumbs-up after the dap should be enough to quell the fears of unhip America who still believes that the Obamas are planning to paint the White House black.
Wow I had no idea it was called dap. I always just called it knuckles. As in "knuckles dude, that was awesome".
What I loved was this happened a couple months after Dave Matthews and the Dalai Lama bumped at a joint appearance: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/358730_dalai12.html
I mean, how out of touch with culture are you when you don't follow either Dave Matthews or the Dalai Lama enough to have this cross your radar screen?