On September 27, the Cardinal Divas—University of Southern California’s first majorette team—appeared on “The Jennifer Hudson Show.” They performed a dance routine in the seats of the audience. The group debuted at a Fresno State game earlier this month, dancing in the stands of the Coliseum.
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Team Captain Princess Lang made an announcement about the group on Twitter September 18 and took pride in its formation at a predominantly white institution. The tweet immediately went viral and received over 100 thousand likes and 1,500 comments. It also led to an invitation to perform on “The Jennifer Hudson Show.”
Lang’s announcement, however, also divided the internet, with reactions ranging from unwavering support to the notion that majorette teams belong exclusively to HBCUs. She told Annenberg Media about how the dance group has a right to be at any school they want.
She wanted to: “open a Black space at a PWI… [and] show the university that there is a community for Black dancers at SC to support one another and to believe in one another.”
Lang also has no plans of slowing down. “Majorette has always been in our dance history and who we have become as dancers. …I am doing this for the community, and I’m doing this to be able to bring our Black magic on an even greater scale.”
She continued:
“I appreciate all of my fellow Black brothers and sisters that are at HBCUs and doing their thing, and I absolutely love it for them… for the students that go here, it wasn’t in God’s plan for us to go that route [to an HBCU], and that’s totally fine. But dance is our culture, and we have the right to be able to share our culture and be able to be proud of our culture in all aspects and in all areas.”
The Cardinal Divas are set to dance in the stands of the Coliseum again during a game against Arizona State next month.
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