Statement by Felipe of EstiloSwing on "racismo invertido" Video
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Last week, a video surfaced from the YouTube account EstiloSwing that featured a discussion of “racismo invertido” during the swing era suffered by white members of the dance troupe Whiteys Lindy Hoppers. Many in the lindy hop community decried what they saw as a defense of “reverse racism” against white people. Felipe of EstiloSwing has since reached out to us to explain his intent behind the video.
Here is the complete statement from Felipe about the issue:
Hello, I'm Felipe, from EstiloSwing. First of all, English is not my native language, so take it in account.
I'm making videos about black lindy hoppers since 4 years ago, trying to spread the legacy about the wonderful jazz dance and dancers we all love. I made 2 videos about Frankie Manning, and one about Norma Miller, Al Minns, Shorty George, Savoy Ballroom.. People who followed me from the start knows clearly my position: respect and love to the pioneers. I tried to honour them spreading their stories in my native language, spanish.
Most of them are explicit against racism, and some of them explains segregation and appropiation specifically in one of my last (please, activate english subtitles). [EDITOR’S NOTE: SEE VIDEO BELOW]
What happened then? I choose as a topic for a video i published in January of 2021, the curious case of the white Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (Harry Rosenberg and Ruthie Rheingold) as is told by Frankie Manning and the Frankie Manning Foundation.
Frankie told us they were left out of pictures and movies because racist people of the time didn’t allow mixed groups.
For me, as I’m interested in racism and the biases and limitations that it imposes on people, i thought it was very significant that white people were harmed by other white people's racism. So i decided to tell this story with this special point of view: racism harms the racists themselves (that's what in Spanish i called "racismo invertido") All the video was anti-racist and the final message celebrated people who dared to mix and be together in that tough time.
Then an english speaker found the video and read the youtube English subtitles (which i did not check). My sentence "racismo invertido" was translated as "reverse racism", which is a concept very different of what i intended to express when thinking in spanish.
For my video, i imagined "racismo invertido" (not "reversed racism") this way: white people is racist, and this racism creates limitations and harm other white people who chooses to be with the black people. Is said that Harry had a black girlfriend; white people couldn't just be with black people, or marry them, or dancing with them without noticing the injustice with the people they loved. Stupidity is bouncing back to white people. That was my concept of "racismo invertido", whites harming themselves by being racist. Of course, black people suffering was incomparable; but my point was that white people who loved black people suffered that stupidity too.
My idea was to express that white people were harming themselves by being racist. If i had noticed the youtube translation of my expression, and its horrible meaning, i would change the subtitle to something like "self-inflicted racism" or something similar.
Then some people started to share a screen capture of just me with that unchecked english subtitle, and of course, the reaction was crushing and hard. Just with that capture, out of context, and ignoring my previous works, it was easy to think very bad things about me.
Anyway, even if unintentional i apologized for any people who felt hurted, even if it was due to a missleading youtube translation. So i decided to contact and have a meeting with different CVFC groups [EDITORS NOTE: Collective Voices for Change] in order to avoid in the future this kind of missunderstandings, as i know the topic is very sensitive, and a word out of place can be very harmful.
I invite you also to take a look to my previous works, which reflects less partially what i think about the wonderful black story of Lindy Hop.
Regards, and thanks for reading.
