Black Martial Arts And Sports In The Urban North And West Summary

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The author of Black Dragon defines kinesthesia as a way to acknowledge the community and cultural practices in the form of movement. Racial kinesthesia is determined around the social aspect of the way an individual is dressed or specific items used, which allows for us to acknowledge the movement that will occur just by the appearance. This allows for the spectator to be ready to move and prepare themselves for various forms. It allows for the norm in society of how others recognize certain individuals as they can be more than what meets the eye. Racial kinesthesia is explored as something acknowledged when learning new cultural practices by taking in terms like language, asking permission to another individual, and the use of bowing before and after practicing. It is …show more content…

Racial kinesthesia can also be seen through the lens of race, gender, and class as it creates a unity for all because of the significance of using one's entire self in such a performative aesthetic and how one can learn different traditions from one's own. It shows how someone can bring their culture and bring power to martial arts as more than choreographed fighting, like how far back martial arts traces back to. Within the essay “They Punched Black: Martial Arts, Black Arts, and Sports In the Urban North and West” the author describes the use of racial kinesthesia to move towards ones healing journey from various traumas to explore how movement can bring an expansion of ones own culture with use of community and recognization of ones own path. Both sources describe kinesthesia as a way of bringing individuals together in a way to focus on physicality and how to perform these cultural practices in a social setting. The idea of racial kinesthesia manifested within my movement training by working towards an artistic approach to be seen as creating depth of ones character by understanding how a characters physicality differs within each