3 posts tagged “martial arts”

Posting on Vox can be a pain in the ass b/c you have to sign up.  So here is a response from a capoeira friend of mine. 

A capoeira mata, haha!" as Mestre Bimba used to sing. (Capoeira kills, haha!) Maybe not so much anymore and that seems to be part of the reason why we think capoeira is off rhythm or too safe or has fundamentally changed its flavor, especially in the United States. No longer an instrument of "resistance", it has become martial art, sport, gymnastic competition, meeting place for "inter-racial" dating, etc. Capoeira is just practiced now under a whole different context and so now you are officially learned it and attend classes and do homework and pay fees and buy uniforms and come to class on time. Its definitely not "street" capoeira.

Wrap that up in a culture like the Borg of Star Trek, the good ole USA, which tries to assimilate everyone else's culture into their own and claim it as their own and "viola!" Gringo (as in "white boy") capoeira. Which is not unlike gringo "jazz", gringo "rock n roll", gringo hip hop, gringo house, etc to name other art forms. Not that its bad or wrong or anything, it just is what it is. One note: there is a segment of the capoeira community in the U.S. that falls heavy on the Afro-centric, diaspora part of the spectrum, from Angoleiros who staunchly claim that capoeira was fully developed in Africa, before its arrrival to Brasil, to groups who will not allow non-"Black" people to join their group. My question is, do they have flavor in their games? My totally biased, un-analytically researched, gut reaction answer is "Of course they do, they Black!" In my opinion, there is just something about the African Diaspora that no matter where we ended up in the "New World", we all have that cultural thang, that would make an alien from another planet think that we were all related. 2, 4 beat, not 1, 3 beat. Again its just a different sense of time, because of the cultures we are descended from… Just different.

I think those two factors might be the biggest reasons for your dis-ease with the situation. But its  just my opinion and my 2 cents worth.