Step sparks race controversy

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The national step competition in Atlanta, Georgia, two weeks ago was packed with mostly African American competitors. The form, rooted in African American history, has largely been associated with black colleges and fraternities.

But on February 20, a white team from the University of Arkansas won the competition, taking home a $100,000 prize. In a controversial move, the judges later reversed their original decision and decided that the team from Indiana, a black team, had tied with the white team.

The incident ignited a dialogue about race relations and whether a particular race should be entitled to a certain part of American culture.

Lester Spence, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, and a former step competitor, says step came out of the WWII era. “Black fraternity members who had served in the military started to bring that type of military precision and performance into their fraternities, and then sororities later picked up on it. It’s a way for us to emphasize pride in our organizations, and it’s also a way for us to express the values of group cooperation, group initiative and group loyalty.”

Spence asserts that, since the judges in the competition didn’t have backgrounds in fraternities or sororities, they weren’t knowledgeable of specific techniques. “While they’re able to say ‘this is really good, versus this is not,’ they’re not really able to judge between two really close groups,” he said.

While the predominantly black audience had initially cheered on the University of Arkansas team during their performance, it changed its sentiments drastically when the team was ultimately chosen as the winner.

“The novelty of seeing a white team, which got a higher crowd participation, accounted for some of the cheering initially,” said Latoya Peterson, editor of the website Racialicious.com. “But I don’t think that the audience … expected them to go ahead and take the entire competition.

Peterson says the routines of the top two teams were close, and in the end it came down whether the judges preferred a more regimented or freer style. And, she says the issue isn’t about which team should or shouldn’t have won — it goes much deeper than that.

“There’s this history of erasure from art forms that we began or that we started,” said Peterson. “Combine that with the fact that white artists in a ‘black space’ get proportionally more media attention. Would we have heard about this step competition if the winners weren’t white?” 

Visit “The Takeaway” website to view video of performances of the two top teams.

“The Takeaway” is a national morning news program, delivering the news and analysis you need to catch up, start your day, and prepare for what’s ahead. The show is a co-production of WNYC and PRI, in editorial collaboration with the BBC, The New York Times Radio, and WGBH.

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