(The Root) — I know, I know. I’m just as tired of talking and hearing about twerking as you are, but some people out there just can’t leave it alone.
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The latest person to attempt to step into the unneeded scientific dissection of black folks via twerking is the New York Times’ Teddy Wayne. Wayne’s article on how to explain twerking to your parents stepped on more than a few toes for several reasons, the main one being this cute little excerpt:
Explain that twerking is a dance move typically associated with lower-income African-American women that involves the rapid gyration of the hips in a fashion that prominently exhibits the elasticity of the gluteal musculature.
Here is the problem with people speaking as authorities on a culture of which they’re not a part, even with satirical intent: You get uninformed, often offensive drivel that will not go over so well with members of that particular culture.
And saying that it didn’t go over well with black folks on Twitter is an understatement. Weary of educational, academic debates on the dance, black Twitter turned to a trending topic to chastise Wayne for such a classist, elitist article. Using the hashtag #AskTeddyWayne, Twitter users asked the great Negro-ologist all of their burning questions about blackness, since he clearly had all the answers.
I cannot twerk, and I am not low-income….Am I still a black woman? #askteddywayne
— Kelley (@ThatGirlKelley) September 2, 2013
Tracy Clayton is a writer, humorist and blogger from Louisville, Ky.
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