Here’s what happens when the media watches Barack Obama and Michelle Obama give dap on the historic night and writes about it. The Washington Post proclaimed: It was the fist bump heard ’round the world.
“That is the picture!” exulted one poster on the Jack and Jill Politics blog (which offers “a Black bourgeois perspective”). “When I saw them give each other dap, I was like ‘Hell yeah!’ ”
Dap, fist pound, whatever you want to call it– it’s definitely something we’re not used to seeing on the national political stage.
“It thrilled a lot of black folks,” said author and commentator Ta-Nehisi Coates, who blogs at ta-nehisi.com. Why? Because it’s the kind of gesture that, while commonplace in the African American community, was generally stifled by earlier generations of blacks working their way up into the corporate or political worlds for fears “about looking too black,” he said. But Obama “is past that. . . . He wears his cultural blackness all over the place.” (Remember his aping of Jay- Z’s “dirt off your shoulder” move in a recent speech?) “It’s liberating to be able to run for president as a black man. . . . Barack is like Black Folks 2.0.”
Meanwhile, Karen Bradley, a visiting professor of dance at the University of Maryland, was struck by the “intimacy” of the moment. Bradley, who studies the body language of politicians, said the fist bump seemed more spontaneous and authentic than the hug, which “looked like they talked about it first.” While Obama generally has contained gestures and his wife has broad ones, this was a moment “where they both shifted” and mirrored each other, fists close to their bodies. “He’s looking right at her, she’s looking right at him — it’s a partnership, it’s ‘We did it.’ ” (More so than the infamous Al- Tipper smooch at the 2000 Democratic convention: “She seemed more invested in it than he did.”)
Source: The Fist Couple: Giving a Big Bump to Authenticity
Obama told NBC’s Brian Williams Wednesday night he is proud of that magical moment.
“It captures what I love about my wife, which is that there is a reverence about her and a sense that for all the hoopla that I’m her husband and sometimes we’ll do silly things.
“She’s proud of me and she gives me some credit once in a while, but I actually pull some things off.”
The affectionate 11-second exchange before Obama claimed victory as the Democratic presidential nominee Tuesday emphasized Obama’s youth and ability to transcend the stereotyped political gestures of campaigns past, experts said.
“I would imagine to a young voter, this was another sign that these people are one of us,” said psychologist Drew Westen, author of “The Political Brain: The Role Of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.”
“People saw their willingness to display their affection in the way they really do – at home, or in private moments.”
It was a great alternative to Al and Tipper Gore’s way-too-long nationally televised liplock or Bill and Hillary Clinton, in swimsuits, cavorting on a Virgin Islands beach.
[...]
“If it’s calculated, it’s a very good calculation,” said Dr. Judy Kuriansky, the well-known psychologist. “America wants to see what’s going on in the relationship.”
The fist bump, she said, “was very hip, very cool, an ‘I’m-with-it’ move. It’s almost cocky.”
Source: Barack and Michelle Obama’s ‘fist bump of hope’ shows them silly in love
Slate’s Christopher Beam has a roundup of media coverage and addresses the challenge the media had in writing about “the Obama fist bump”
What’s hilarious is watching the formal, AP Stylebook-loving media trying to figure out what to call it. In an article about Obama’s body man Reggie Love, the New York Times called Love’s preferred greeting a “closed-fisted high-five.” Last night produced other assorted references:
“Taking a fist-pound from wife Michelle, Obama stepped to the podium Tuesday”—MTV.com
“Michelle Obama (L) gives her husband, Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Barack Obama, a knuckle-bump as a sign of support before he speaks to supporters.”—Monsters and Critics
“At 09:09:27 Central Time, Michelle Obama gave Barack Obama a pound in St. Paul, Minnesota.”—Lola New York
“I never realized how romantic and respectful and mutually appreciative and loving a frat-tastic fist bump could be. Could it be the new peck-on-the-cheek?”—The Frisky
“… Obama, who was joined on stage by his wife Michelle, with whom he shared a celebratory fist-bump.”—Reuters
“Obama, began with a loving fist to fist thumbs up with Michelle.”—Capitol Hill Blue
“Michelle is not as ‘refined’ as Obama at hiding her TRUE feelings about America—etc. Her ‘Hezbollah’ style fist-jabbing …”—Human Events
“I loved that moment, when they touched their hands together like that.” –Commenter, bjkeefe
Source: Pounds
CNN’s Jeanne Moos did a report “Political fist bump” – well worth watching especially for the slow motion and multiple angle replays of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama giving dap.
Here’s the famous 11 seconds that’s got everyone talking.
See related post:
The Media Discovers the “Obama Fist Bump” (Video & Photos)
