Yeah, guess what, this show is racist!

I don't know that it's racism necessarily as prejudiced against hip hop and other forms of unchoreographed dance, i.e. dance without rules. They like their rules and things to judge "objectively" on.

Of course, it so happens that the vast majority of hip hoppers are of color.

But the BROOM.

Was that a reference to this number ? I didn't really take in the details of the group number, having Tice in there was really distracting - I didn't recognize him so I spent a lot of that dance wondering if there was a whole contestant that I had completely forgotten.

Oh my! Jacob! Kathryn! Alex! The only thing that could have made that better was if Eleanor was on the show!

ITA!

On the opening number, what was that shit with giving Cyrus a broom? I mean, I know he can't dance Gene Kelly, but STILL. The black man gets to be the janitor??

Inorite?

Annnnnd.... I forgot all about voting! I didn't remember it until I was at work this morning.

Was that a reference to this number ?

Probably, except Cyrus was just pushing the broom around. Due to, you know, not being able to dance like Gene Kelly.

So Gene Kelly did dance with a mop and a broom in Thousands Cheer. You can see it here. And Tasty was trying to do a Gene Kelly tribute, so there's that. As for why it had to be Cyrus instead of say Big Pasty 2, well, everyone is a little bit racist, no? And I do think this show often displays a little bit of racism or at the very least white privilege in the way they talk about hip hop as a genre and "untrained, street dancers" most of whom just happen to be black. Tasty could've had someone else do the broom part or just not referenced it at all as Gene Kelly has had a ton of far more iconic dances. I still don't think he was trying to be racist. He was more likely thinking about what the hell he was going to do with a dancer who technically could not hang with the other kids in the number so better to give him a prop and have him walk around a lot rather than Cedric him and sit him down somewhere upstage. Of course, he could've had Cyrus walk around with an umbrella instead a la Singin' in the Rain Gene. And now we're right back to a little bit racist.

The bigger shame to me is that the choreographers continue to not push Cyrus in any way. Even Cedric didn't start getting Cedric'ed until he had shown for a couple of weeks that he just could not pick up choreography. Cyrus has been thrown softballs from the jump and this week was just the latest attempt by the group dance choreographers to figure out how to make him not dance in the group dance. The only one who really didn't do it was Christopher Scott and he is primarily a hip hop choreographer and therefore accustomed to working with "non-trained" dancers and helping them to pick up intricate choreography and learn to dance in an ensemble (which is probably not at all familiar for most hip hop kids). Sigh. It's depressing.

I still don't think he was trying to be racist. He was more likely thinking about what the hell he was going to do with a dancer who technically could not hang with the other kids in the number so better to give him a prop and have him walk around a lot rather than Cedric him and sit him down somewhere upstage.

Absolutely. But just take a minute and think about your decisions and what they may look like, you know?

And also the rest of what you said.

Yes, but it's Tasty. My expectations are not that high.

I'm just over it. And I was riding so high on the calling out of Nice White Lady racism on Political Animals last week!