By Michael Tyler, EJS Poet-in-Residence
The Black Power Movement was in full swing during the Vietnam War. When many Black soldiers arrived to the battlefields, they took with them, as a gesture of cultural solidarity, the raising of the Black Power fist.
White soldiers and officers took offense to the gesture, even equating it with the Nazi Sieg Heil salute. The gesture was then forbidden for being subversive. So instead, Black soldiers took their fists out of the air, lowered them horizontally and lightly pounded them together, to replace the more conventional, White accepted handshake.
Even then, White officers deemed the gesture to be against military code and began imprisoning Black soldiers for doing it, at the Long Binh Jail in South Vietnam Nam — yes, during the war. In fact, 90% of the soldiers at that military stockade, referred to as the “LBJ Ranch”, were Black because they refused to stop doing the gesture.
It was there that it really caught on with permanence in our culture, not only as a sign of solidarity but also for resistance to oppression. Something often said, when the gesture was made, led to what it became known as. When Black soldiers bumped fists, they would say, “Dignity and Pride”. The “dap” was born, created by Black soldiers fighting for a nation abroad that wouldn’t fight for them at home.
Everyone in America who daps at the office, during sports, at home or anywhere as a greeting or celebratory gesture — regardless of your age, race, state, gender, sexuality, religion, occupation or political party does so because Black soldiers started the tradition. So today, dap in salute to our veterans. It’s as good a reason as any.