The Origin of Twerking

I know I'm fairly late on the "twerking" think pieces, but a lot of older generation still have a problem with this. So, I figured I'd say what I always wanted to say now that I have a platform to do so.

The "booty popping" or twerking did not originate to please men or anything like that as many think. It's not anything new to our culture, and being apart of this generation, I'm shocked to see that so many of our elders don't know the origin or care to learn it. The origin of "booty popping" most commonly known as twerking is the West African dance Mapouka, hailing from Cote d'lvoire also known as la dance du fessier or dance of the behind.

There were dances that the elders of your generation (because I know you were once young) felt were raunchy and sexual but also came from our African ancestors just modernized because the original knowledge of the dance was stolen and thrown away.

Something else that comes into play when talking about twerking is the attire most wear when twerking. I've heard plenty of people attack the way women, especially black women, dress and how it pertains to how people will treat us or that we won't have a legitimate future.

The way they are dressed should NOT determine our future. You are the ones who feel that it is sexualized, not my generation. We are classy and sophisticated. I don't know why this dress has to be excluded from being a lady. We include it because this is OUR generation. Times have changed. Pants were once seen as raunchy and also skirts above the ankles as well, but that changed as well, right? 

Maybe you all should stop judging us before you get to know us. You all did raise our generation. Stop attacking us for such frivolous things and focus on the fact that many people were educated, despite their dress and dancing because that wasn't the focus. We, my generation, are insightful, intelligent, and sophisticated. Just because we don't show the same way your generation did, doesn't mean it doesn't exists.

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How Colorism Affected Me

My whole life I've seen myself as darker than I actually am.

All of my friends have been lighter than me. I’ve always been the darkest one. So, when people would say “oh you’re pretty for a black girl” they would always be talking to me. My glorious amount of melanin never made people question my blackness. I mistook that for “darkness”. I never had a problem with being the “dark” one. I don't know. I kinda owned that and embraced, now that I know I’m not that, I have to adjust my whole way of thinking.

I know why I made sure my female friends were lighter than me, but at the same time I don’t. What I do know is that I always had an excuse as to why guys wouldn’t date me. My friends were light skin and I wasn’t. So, I never really had to deal with rejection because of who I am, personality wise, but because of my skintone…I always wondered how colorism was used against me, personally…I did it. I used it to feed my own insecurities.

Then, there's this thing called representation. In all the movies and shows I watched, Clueless (Dionne) and The Proud Family (Dijonay), Kim Possible (Monique) , A Different World (Kim) and Martin (Pam) for example, the best friend or back up or sidekick was always the darker one, usually "ghetto" or "the strong black woman" or the one there for comedic relief. That's who I saw myself as. That was who I could relate to. That's all I thought I was good for. So, it was easy for me to step into that role. I knew it so well.

Now, it hasn't been until recently, that I realized that this is a huge problem. I shouldn't equate my skintone to a certain type of person I need to be. I am more than that. I define myself and no one and not one stereotype can take that away from me. I deserve to be treated as human not a shade of brown.

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