Are You Actually Dancing Tango If You Aren’t Dismantling Systems of Oppression?
/In response to my previous entry, an infrequent participant in the Oxygen Tango community--who has since left--expressed his belief that “anti-racism is racism,” that anti-racism doesn’t have a place in tango communities, and how he was sad and disappointed to see it in this community.
This statement was so general that it would take another whole tangent just to explain why it’s patently wrong. And while I can acknowledge that I don’t know his life, I would guess he’s never had to worry about his hair being deemed “unprofessional” in a workplace, or fear for his life in interactions with the police, or be harassed by people in his neighborhood demanding to prove that he actually lives there. Of all the times he chose to “speak up” in this community, it was to act as an authority on experiences he has never had and will never have. Of all the times he chose to engage, it was to deny the lived reality of a Black woman (I speak specifically about race here, but white supremacy encompasses misogyny, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and a whole realm of oppressive -isms). Being white isn’t the issue--weaponized whiteness is, and denying racism is an act of weaponized whiteness in the form of erasure.
I said it in response to that member, and I’ll say it here: how can we be expected to feel safe in our bodies and intimately physically connected to people who are so committed to erasing you? You can't. Or at least, I can’t. It's violating to think that every dance is a roll of that dice, and seeing it this way has clarified so many nebulous feelings of anxiety I’ve had around dancing, even before the pandemic.
My own thoughts are very much still unfolding and based on my own lived experiences. For all the labels around the food we eat and the products we buy--organic, cruelty-free, non-gmo, B-corp--I wish there was a label for products from companies that were “white supremacy free.” I know that’s not really feasible in the current conditions of rampant capitalism, but my mind wanders daily to where my money and my time go--both for necessities and luxuries. On harder days, it feels so defeating knowing that no matter how many hours of research I do, buying things for my basic survival needs inevitably puts money in the hands of someone who still thinks I’m “less than” for being Black, a woman, queer, etc. Some may argue that, because of the sheer inevitability of this reality, this isn’t a thought worth pondering. And I’m like, “if we don’t think about this now, then when? Or how?”
I know the idea of a “white supremacy free” product label is cheeky, but I feel this way about my time, my energy. about proximity to my body.
How many hands have embraced me that also embraced a Trump presidency, and everything his administration did to empower groups of people who would love nothing more than to hurl racial slurs at me (and worse)?
How many people have I co-created enjoyment with despite the fact that they don’t think racism--something that affects my livelihood everyday--exists?
How many times has my body come in physical contact with the body of someone who voted to stifle my reproductive rights? Or disowned queer family members? Or was more upset about protests than the centuries of continued harm and disenfranchisement imposed upon those protesting?
I think about this all the time, in all the spaces I’m in. And these aren’t things I want to enable. I’m not trying to “make it political.” Regardless of what I think, it already is.
And for event organizers, who ultimately benefits (financially, socially, emotionally) from the extra emotional labor that women/nonbinary/POC/queer members have to do in order to take care of themselves in these spaces? And do you steward those benefits to be equally distributed and enjoyed? How do you know?
“Anti-racism doesn’t belong in tango. Would you like to dance?” Nobody goes around saying this, but this is how it feels. How can I trust someone to care about my body in a dance if that’s what they think? At what point are we as a community saying that it’s ok for these exchanges to be THAT transactional? So, it’s cool for me to be around as a dance partner if I’m a body to help you “relax” or “unwind” or “have fun” while dancing tango, but outside of that microcosm, you support systems that hyperpolice and disenfranchise that same body? How does this reinforce a hierarchy of whose pleasure and safety is worth more than someone else’s?
To me, this feels like a lack of reciprocation. And I would argue, a lack of genuine connection. If there’s a disconnect so profound in your own body that you can diminish the overwhelming evidence of harm and oppression enacted on others’ bodies, how could you ever be connected enough to your own body to facilitate reciprocal enjoyment in a dance? How could I feel connected in that? If safety is fundamental to pleasure and connection, and connection is foundational to pleasurable tango experiences, are you even actually dancing if your partner doesn’t feel safe? Or if you don’t value the well-being of your partner beyond what they can provide for you on the dance floor?
Is it still a “good time?” Is it still tango? I don’t think it is. Not for everyone.
One of many places to start:
My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW - This book is “paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system.” and “offers a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods, in addition to incisive social commentary.”
This is one of my personal favorites and I find it especially pertinent to addressing and deconstructing white supremacy in personal, practical, actionable ways--especially in embodied spacesMe and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad - “Updated and expanded from the original workbook (downloaded by nearly 100,000 people), this critical text helps you take the work deeper by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and including expanded definitions, examples, and further resources, giving you the language to understand racism, and to dismantle your own biases, whether you are using the book on your own, with a book club, or looking to start family activism in your own home.”
Both of these books have been read by someone in the Oxygen tango community! Reach out to discuss, or if you’d like to hear more about our experiences/learnings.
Things you can do today:
Donate to Students Deserve, a youth-led coalition dedicated to fully defunding the LA Public School Police Department and reinvesting those funds in Black students
Subscribe to Anti-Racism Daily for daily, bite-sized bits of education and related actions you can take. Commit to taking a few of the suggested actions per week - start out with even just one if you want to ease into it
How you can practice anti-racism with Oxygen:
Watch this roundtable discussion "Racism, Inclusivity and Tango: Women talk of belonging in tango". Share your takeaways in the Oxygen Tango Facebook Page or Group
Watch Tango Negro:The African Roots of Tango. When you are nerding out on tango with other tango nerds, share what you learned with them.
Take an honest inventory of the image that comes to mind when you think "tango dancer". Follow @tangoafro on Instagram, an account created by local LA dancer Lauren Woods which features Black tango dancers from around the world.
Subscribe to @swinginginthehood, a Youtube channel created by Ron Parker, an LA dancer dedicated to educating people on the history and joy of Black dance in America, including tango.
Learn about white supremacy culture and consider how it manifests in tango spaces. Read Oxygen's new Values doc, which will continually evolve as we learn more about how to disrupt supremacy culture in our community. What would you add to it?
Do NOT:
Betray your humanity by choosing to still remain a bystander on divesting from white supremacy
Consider yourself “woke” or “an expert” after reading this--or any--singular article
Take my opinion as a monolithic representation of how people with my shared identities feel about this
Start apologizing to your POC/queer friends for how terrible white supremacy is in general (if you have something specific and personal that you did and want to apologize for, get their consent first, and remember that you aren’t entitled to any specific outcome)
