In Historic Moment, White People Exposed To 'Fist Bump" for First Time

What a spectacular looking couple! That picture will go down in history. TOOOO CUTE!


BARACK THE VOTE BABY!

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I'm white as freakin' white bread and I've been pounding my homies for years.

...

Maybe I should make that sound less gay.

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I didn't see it, was it similar to the "Dude, you're getting a Dell" fist-tap from several years ago? Even I remember that.

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I'm as white as Elmers glue and I've known about the fist bump for years. Geez...we're not all clueless. And I think your missing the point, it's not the fist bump but the look in Michelle's eyes that tell the story here; these two are crazy about each other. It's always a rush to see a couple in love. God bless them both.

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I've been fist bumping for decades and I have yet to know ANYONE who doesn't know or hasn't used that little gesture?

Just because reporters are not quite sure how to describe it hardly qualifies the headlines which are just so racist as to be unbelievable.

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Another White girl who sucks at sports and can't keep a Beat and I Know that Gesture!
So No introduction necessary. So wheres that Rock you crawled out from (WV ,KY)- could you go back and encourage the others to Come Out Too?They're like the Rock the Mafia ties around someones neck to Sink them or at the very least like the perverbial 'Ball & Chain' around OUR Country's leg

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Little more needs to be said.

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No doubt we're going to see a rash of knuckle injuries all across the land as all the idiot sticks among us attempt this "new" form of greeting.

I agree that Barack and Michelle look very much in love and are a strikingly beautiful couple with equally beautiful values.

No doubt all the Aryan supremicists are squirming in indescribable discomfort as people like Barack and Tiger Woods put the lie to America's only recently eliminated anti-miscegenation laws. Who they are and what they're accomplishing is testament to what good can come from "racial intermingling".

I can't help but hope that we are emerging from a 40 year national nightmare and are on the verge of getting America back on track toward its promise of greatness.

(For those who may not have lived through or remember it, the "60's" had established a national trend until many of the best and brightest were taken from us and we ended up with Richard Nixon in the White House. If you do even a cursory search, you'll see that many of the players that corrupted our government back then, have continued to recycle through the system since. A strong endorsement for a thorough cleaning after this Bush mess. If they're not going to be impeached, then I hope they're at least charged and prosecuted for their crimes after.)

But to end on a positive note, yes, Barack the vote!

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I was not surprised or shocked by the "bump" as they called it. We have the same kind of thing when we are saying ""right on" or "good job", only we call it "nuckles". So what's the big deal? All peoples from different walks of life use this as a form of good will. Let's get past the color thing and join together as one people, there is power in unity Thanks!

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...and respond in kind with a paint-by-number illustration on the use of cruise control?

Just thought I'd throw my two pence out there into sillyland, too. It's an interesting, unusual destination where reality takes a backseat to snideness.

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Ha! Another fist bump here:
http://a2.vox.com/6a00b8ea067a51dece00e398afe2aa0004-320pi

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This article was meant tongue in cheek, right?

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"Fist bump". Ok, I admit that's a new vocabulary word for me. Fine. My question is, what's the proper term for that move that George Bush made with Laura when he patted her on the ass on camera? Surely there's a word for that?

dboy

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Are you kidding me. I have been a skateboarder for 20+ years and skateboarders have always used that "fist bump" gesture as a "job well done" for landing that trick.

Ultimate Anonymity

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I'm guessing that this author has never seen the incredibly popular show "Deal or No Deal"

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Sporting figures are more popular than politicians and they've been "fist-bumping" for years. Everyday, white, black and Latin baseball players "fist-bump" about 37 times per game. I didn't count the number of "fist-bumps" in the NBA finals last night but there were lots, including white players (gasp). And I thought Bush was out of touch. "What $4 gas?"

Speaking of which, did anyone see Bush give that chest-bump? I wonder if there'll be a post about a secret white chest-bumping scheme that has yet to be introduced to the mainstream?

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Down at the Fitness Center at the Y, guys greet each other with the fist bump all the time. Either that, or the curved finger handshake, sometimes accompanied by a quick backslap hug. All these gestures seem to me to be a way for guys to express greeting, approval, affection, even physical intimacy in a totally non-threatening, non-suggestive way.

I thought it was cute as hell when the Obamas did it. Kind of like a goof on sports behavior but full of affection and approval of each other. It was so simple and affectionate and loving. What a superb couple they are!

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What's with the 'HEZBOLA" comment? Let's guess where it came from. "FAUX NOISE", RUSHBO, HANNITY, ANY OF THE WINGNUTS who pollute the airwaves daily. I'm waiting to see their faces when they stammer and stutter on election night. WE need a REVOLT this year to save our country from the pollution spewing over the airwaves day and night. Unfortunately an inordinate amount of citizens believe every word they hear/read. GA

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1974, near the end of the movie, "Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry" just before the car hits the train in a fireball, Larry (Peter Fonda) and his mechanic Deke Sommers (Adam Roarke) bump fists. They did it slow enough to make sure that thumbs touched as a way of sealing the deal. Often credit is given when any behavior becomes popular. Rap has been credited to the black culture, IMHO singer Lou Reed was the first rapper, he did however do it slow enough to be understood the first listening. Is the speed that makes a difference?

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this will be seen as some racial issue. It will only be seen by anyone who hasn't been in a coma for the past 20 years, as overt race-baiting.

Those who think fist-bumping is a black thing are utterly, completely, hopelessly, clueless. It's also speaks to why so many progressives have a hard time speaking to "ordinary people." -- they think they're above popular culture.

The reason this is a non-issue is because just about EVERYONE, including Fox News watchers (Fox has more sports programming than anything else, know that fist-bumping is more common than player patting each other's asses. I don't know the precise origin of the fist-bump but I think it's safe to assume that fist-bumping was invented by atheletes who were trying to come up with something new to replace the hi-five.

In fact, saying fist-bumping is a black thing is like saying hi-fiving is a black thing. It's like saying holding up the peace sign is a black thing. It's like saying spitting in baseball is a black thing.

People ignorant of fist-bumping is the equivalent of someone saying: who's elvis presley? what's rap music? who's brittney spears?

Maybe if progressives stopped acting some damn elitist and holier-than-thou and start speaking to people where they are instead of preaching to them from on high, we might get somewhere.

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In a historic moment, comatose white "progressives" are exposed to what everyone in America has known and seen for 20 years.

Newsflash: fist-pounding is not the same thing as "gimme some skin, brother" greeting. It began as the athletes way of saying: "nice job." And there's not a fist-bumping white person in America who thinks they are "imitating" black culture because fist-bumping was NOT INVENTED BY BLACK PEOPLE; nor is it universal among black folks.

In fact, I'll go so far as to say that more white people, by far, fist bump than do black folks.

So lemme see if I got this straight: white people can do something all the time for years (fist-bumping) but when a popular black person does it, all of a sudden is a "new" black thing? Gee, I wonder why that is?

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I was thinking the same thing, alternetreader3. Howie Mandel has been using the "fist bump" for YEARS. With his germaphobia he prefers to use it rather than hugging. I didn't realize it was such a big deal.

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Really, this is news to white people?!! Apparently, no one watches "Deal or No Deal", or the scores of other examples where the fist bump has been prominent. Wow! If this is news, people need to get out more!

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Kinda bizarre that the simple dap got so much press. Well, maybe not that bizarre considering the state of the MSM and the owning class these days... buncha stoopid f*ckers making up the extinction event as they go.

OTOH, nice to know I'm not as uncool as my daughter thinks I am. Skate and surf rats have been doing the dap for decades... at least I learned it from other skaters when I was a kid and surfers were using daps in the 1990s when I started that gig. I still get called "shah, that old dude" though.

Back to our regularly scheduled brainwashings...

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and the fact that this is a news story (even at Alternet) illustrates just how deprived the US media is...

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This article is merely a response to the idiocy propounded by Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh who went ballistic at the Obama's "dap". The article is poking fun at those folks who believe that this is a "black thing" and therefore somehow insulting. For the rest of us, we've all seen the "dap" and its variants many times before.

What we should all be talking about is how BEAUTIFUL this couple is. Barack is class personnified and I am proud to call him my party's nominee and soon-to-be President of the United States. He has ALWAYS given Hilary Clinton her due and has had nothing but praise for her, no matter how horrendous she behaved towards him. Michelle Obama is the kind of feminist I admire 100%. She's no stepford wife like Laura Bush and Cindy McCain. She's gorgeous, intelligent, funny and strong--in short all the qualities that would not only make a wonderful first lady, but one hell of a president. And don't you rabid feminists who are still pissed off about Hilary come after me because I mentioned looks, because Michelle Obama's dark skin doesn't fit into this society's habit of placing white women on the beauty pedestal.

The Obama "dap". Rock on!

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I had no idea Howie Mandel was black.

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I am annoyed at how the author of this article apparently sees/judges everything through the "race" perspective.

Obama has his support because so many people believe in his message and want change.

I live in Nebraska, and attended the Democratic caucus. Remember both Nebraska and Iowa are overwhelmingly white and rural but they gave Obama huge support and the early victories that were so important to his campaign.

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Everybody I know or have known and hopefully am likely to meet knows what "Pound It" is!!!
Maybe because I'm from Philly, I seriously doubt that tidbit, though....

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White people apparently don't get "sarcasm" either, which is what this article is...

The author rightly mocks the media for being clueless AS USUAL when attempting to describe "the black experience". What I'm sure most readers have understood from this piece is that the "American experience" is inclusive.

Communities transcend...the hapless "journalists" are the only ones still insisting that we have more differences than commonalities. Don't listen to them!

And for the love of all sanity, please find anyone who reads Human Events and talk some sense into them!

PEACE

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They're called respect knuckles, and as the name implies, its a show of respect. If anybody sees this gesture between Obama and his wife as being too urban, black, or whatever, then ther're probably a racist or prejudice in some other way, and are unlikely to vote Obama anyways. So who cares what they think.

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of this line: "...is finally being introduced to mainstream culture." I took that to mean that the author is saying the "fist-pound," as confused as some journalists may be, are introducing it to the mainstream, when actually the exact opposite is true. The "fist-pound" is already mainstream. Has been for a long time, which means that those not familiar with the history of dap are the ones meeting mainstream culture for the first time; not the other way around. It's like: mainstream journalist, let me introduce you to the actual mainstream.

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great...are we to see Obama wearing his pants halfway down to his knees, sporting Tommy Hilfiger jacket with a boom box on his shoulder.. maybe a pimped out SUV or Airforce1 to shuttle him and his posse around.

Thats what we need - mainstreaming ghetto culture! Something to aspire to!

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do people want to be "down" so bad as to elect a black president.

tell you what, lets do a eddie murphy trading places and all you wanna be down white liberal folk can take over my life while i live yours. hell i might as well fall in kumbaya line too. send your some of your hottest young white girls and some of those hot milfs to service me if you really want to get your "i am black now"/"i am part of the black experience" stamp.

can't we all just get along.

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I'm sorry, but in many more ways than one, this is one of the oddest and most hilarious strings I've ever had the good- or misfortune to read.

Between the white folks coming up with new white things to be like, and everybody, including me, missing and getting and then losing the point, it's been....colorful.

Rght owwwwwwn!

*punches own knuckles*

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The business commercials are all about the fist pound.

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Congrats to all folks of European descent who have previously failed to convince some of the rest of us that you aren't racist or entangled in racial confusion. You now have a topic of conversation that allows you to:

1, sound like you believe Black is as beautiful as White, even though you don't really believe it when looking at NON-college-educated, suit-wearing, presidential-candidate blacks.

2, pull out some closet ebonics you've been wanting to test out online. It probably seemed inappropriate for the threads on the Iraq war and possible impeachment hearings. Those topics don't seem like "black issues" to you, so the slang is probably quite dusty (unless you unleashed it over drunken Memorial Day barbeques, when of course it is perfectly common for the whitest American male to suddenly sound Black. Ish...)

3, skirted the whole issue of what racial relations and conflict really mean. Finally that bad taste is gone -- the one from having realized you attacked Alice Walker for pointing out that you have invisable priviledges, whether you choose to use them or not.

How refreshing it must be to finally have a Black family that you can admire without question: always ready to console you when the rest of us uppity types yell for justice or a deeper analysis of racism. There, there. Obama will protect your lives from any REAL change in racial relations.

It's clear what so many liberal white people love about Barack Obama. He's one of the few Blacks in America who says with a straight face that white people are suffering from racism too; that if you didn't start the problem then it's not yours to solve; that it's ok that you didn't march in Jena or call out Imus to your friends or challenge a co-worker's stereotyped remarks -- because you'll undo it all with one swipe of a pen in November.

"Voting for Obama means never having to say you're not racist."

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Personally I'm looking forward to the first Hawaiian "Hapa" born president..he's not that black (Afro-American) after all. Hope he gets to visit Hawaii and Alaska before the elections. Those state deserve more respect.

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They will do anything to keep raping the citizens of America. We are living in a crisis situation. Yet know one is declaring a emergency, this administration is allowing oil companies to hold us hostage which is effecting all americans. Why dont we nationalize the oil fields re-regulate the production of gas in america, and i bet we would be talking about cheap gas instead of a freaking fist pump, The haters at Fox will stand by and continue to watch the super rich put their money in Euros, while divesting in America. They dont understand that every one who is white is not racist, Instead of hating on Obama why dont they discuss the economic enslavement of the Americans. Fox news is a example why the youth of America are voting for Change, Fox news The Hate network Phony and bias.

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Who are all of these people living under rocks that the author thinks may've missed pop cultural demonstrations like this before? Maybe they think tattoos are esoteric, too. Are we to believe that these subterranean rock dwellers have never watched sports on TV, sitcoms or movies with young people, etc, etc? Perhaps there are elements of black pop culture that are indeed esoteric to many in the non-black population, but media has commodified pop culture to such an extent that most citizens of the world are certainly at least aware of it. Even if they don't understand it.

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