Wow @barbara-stanwyck deleted my and @iamanimaginarybeing reblogs but kept up her replies on her black bottom post. It was a gif set of Ann Pennington (a white woman) performing the Black Bottom dance in the mid 1920s. It stated on the bottom that a black choreographer, Charles Pierre(?), created the dance and taught her in Harlem. When she performed it, it became a national sensation. @iamanimaginarybeing replied to the op, stating that the Black Bottom dance was originally created in the black community in New Orleans and that the information stated was inaccurate. I first reblogged the post and stated in the tags that it’s possible that black choreographer taught Anne Pennington a dance black people were already doing. @barbara-stanwyck replied to my tag we were both wrong. OP restated the black choreographer created that dance and taught it to Ann. I got the impression op believed Charles Pierce made the dance for Ann to perform not that he made it and taught her the dance later. Op reiterated It was not in the black community before then.
Since OP posted their reply to my TAG on their post, I thought they wouldn’t mind me replying on the post as well. I posted 3 sources that showed black people were doing the Black Bottom dance before Anne Pennington made it “all the rave” in the late 1920s. In 2 of those articles, they credited another person for creating the dance, Perry Bradford. One article made the point that it probably evolved from Black dances in the south before black people started moving to the north (the great migration). Instead of OP replying “Oh, I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing” or even presenting information to back up their original claims. She blocked me, deleted all the information I posted, and lied that I only quoted Wikipedia. Why is it so important to them that this white woman has to be the first to do it? Why are they dismissing valid historical information? Why did they have to misrepresent the conversation on the post? It’s definitely not a good look doing this the second day of Black History Month.
This really reminds me of how history gets whitewashed and black culture is erased. No matter how much credible information you have to prove something was created in the black community, you will be dismissed as a liar bc it’s not a narrative many people are comfortable believing.
