Last night at the end of a Voting Rights Act celebration on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, youth broke into the "Jai Ho" dance. The bridge was closed for the celebration at this point and dancers not blocking traffic as some commenting in thread suggest.
The dance, according to the composer of the song featured at the end of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, means "may victory be yours".
Selma Mayor George Evans was none to pleased about the youth dancing on the bridge and "victory being theirs"
"They said they would not dance, and they broke their promise to me," said Evans, who attended the event. "They just can't be trusted."
more on the 45th Anniversary Celebration from yesterday
As requested in the thread- here is the story as to how Project Dance came together
Yesterday, I met with march organizers and reviewed the letters passed back and forth. They never made a written agreement not to dance on the bridge. They were forced to jump through a number of ridiculous hoops and actually believe that the Mayor violated his initial agreement with them.
We are unclear what really is bothering the Mayor about the youth dancing.
Or was Evans being influenced by City Council President Cecil Williamson and his neo-confederate views about multiculturalism? The Mayor seems to have changed his tune about the dance three days after Williamson was made City Council President and many believe he greatly influences the Mayor. Evans, , was originally very supportive of the Dance on the Bridge
The mayor himself in another interview also called this dance divisive (WTF)
I hope they will move on," said Evans. "This is what they asked for, this is what they got, in spite of the fact that they talked about it. I hope they find something else to deal with in terms of saving our city, because this didn’t help to bring the city closer together. All they did was cause the city to be more divided."
The fact that an organization called the Freedom Foundation was involved seems to be a point of contention. Williamson himself in a letter to the editor of the Selma Times Journal earlier this week said this,
I beg her and her few followers from the Colorado cult (Freedom Foundation) to give their energies to solving problems which actually exist here: unemployment, crime, violence, poverty, miseducation and illegitimacy. If I were to leave Selma today, these problems would be just as prevalent tomorrow. Berating, castigating and hating me for attending southern heritage events only diverts attention from the actual problems here.
So apparently attending an event honoring the KKK founder ,with prevalent images like this below, is okay
But when you have images ,like the one below, then we have a major problem
Whether Mayor Evans singled out a group that he and others simply do not like or whether he caved in to the pressures of others, he and others fail to recognize the beauty of what happened. Mayor Evans let his ego get in the way of allowing something significant to happen on a historic day. The "Jai Ho" dance is a very peaceful, fun dance. Watching youth of all races and cultures perform this dance should have been enjoyed. Instead we are once again left debating why discriminatory and racist behavior based on old 1960's tactics still exist.
As Martin Luther King Jr so rightfully said
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere
I hope the youth of Selma dance again on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I hope more from all over the world come and join you as you continue to show your strength and character. Hate diminishes all of us.