u/BolesCW

Last night I facilitated one of those periodically necessary conversations about American racism and cultural appropriation in the capoeira world in general and in our group in particular. One of the baby beginner students wrote an open resignation letter that was ignorant and insulting. Despite not bringing up concerns or questions with anyone in the group (students or instructors), the author decided that as an non-Black (Asian) person, he had no right to learn capoeira because capoeira is (should be?) an exclusively Black art. While the origins of capoeira are indisputably African, and a vital expression of self-liberation from slavery and oppression, it's equally true that without Indigenous (and a few European, from boxing and savate) contributions and influences, capoeira as we know it from Mestre Bimba would not exist. This beginner thought that he was taking up space that should be reserved for a Black person, going so far as to offer his used uniform to another student - but only if that student were Black. When Mestre Bimba opened the first capoeira academy, he accepted any person who wanted to learn; class and ethnicity were irrelevant - but it would take another generation to accept women. The student thought he was being a proper ally, promoting some abstract Black person, while completely ignoring the Black people in our group - ironically, in an unfortunate extension of anti-Black racism, refusing them the subjectivity, interests, and desires that give them agency! The added insult to our group and its lineage is that Mestre Preguiça, the founder of our school (the co-founder of Senzala school, which continues to influence all Regional styles) who trained with Mestre Bimba, is Indigenous. For the student, our entire lineage is therefore illegitimate and appropriative. This is an example of a (possibly) good intention gone very bad.

The upshot is that most of this new generation of capoeira students have a pretty sophisticated understanding of decolonization, cultural appropriation, and what it means to be a capoeirista ❤️

Yesterday I was permanently banned from the Absurd Movies sub for pointing out the difference between its and it's. A permanent ban. For an apostrophe. What a hoot 🤓