Walking Black (excerpt from Black Stuff)

I was 14 when I started walking Black. Nobody taught me, I figured it out. I know that’s a little late, but I was kind of a nerdy kid. I was real short, had big feet, gangly arms, a gawky walk and was always daydreaming. I got tied of other black kids telling me I walked like a white boy. They’d stop me just to tell that. “ Hey, you walk like a White boy.” I couldn’t do it right away I had to practice before I took it outside. The only thing worst than a Black guy walking like a White guy is a Black guy walking like a White guy trying to walk like Black guy.

So I figured it out scientifically. It’s in the bop. It’s in the little bop. You bend the knee a little bit and get a bounce and a bop. Then take a step and a bend and a bounce and a bop, step, bend, bounce and a bop. Practice around my bedroom first; step, bend, bounce and a bop, step, bend, bounce and a bop, step, bend, bounce and a bop. Then feverishly, step bend bounce and a bop, step, bend, bounce and a bop. Around the house, whatever I did. (mimes doing house chores: sweeping or mopping) step bend bounce and a bop, step, bend, bounce and a bop. Finally, I took it outside. Downtown in my “hood” I felt good, I felt connected. I felt Black!.

Then I’d go uptown and run into some of my White friends “Hi guys!” They would ask; “Why do Black guys walk like that?” They would give me that look; that,You’re Black, aren’t you’re an authority on everything Black, look. I would say “ The walk. Oh, that. Well, you see, it comes from, ah… Africa! It stems from the cultural tradition of the tribal transition from the boyhood to the manhood of the brotherhood into the jungle-hood…that’s why we call it the hood! They would wipe a couple of strands of hair out of their face, like this, and just look at me. In some unconscious effort to fit in. I too would then wipe hair, which wasn’t there, out of my face. And every move that they made, flipping their hair back, running their fingers through it, I found myself emulating precisely their movements even though I did not have that kind of hair and it wasn’t about to fall in my face. Then I would go back downtown with the brothers and I would go, “Yo…(catches himself wiping hair and stops abruptly) what’s happening brothers?”

(Exits)