I’ve been very concerned that Wikipedia has so little square dance history, and what there is has been superficial and sometimes misleading/inaccurate.
From my viewpoint there are two snags to improving things:
1. I know (or am pretty sure of) a lot of things that I can’t cite sources for. One of Wiki’s taboos is original research; sources cited must be secondary, not primary. I’m steeped enough in SD history that a lot of what I could say would
probably count as original research.
2. There are three Wikipedia articles on SD: “Modern western square dance”; “Traditional square dance”; and “Square dance”, which was originally intended to be very generic and to point readers to the other two articles for in-depth treatment.
I’ve never decided in my own mind, let alone fostered any consensus, in which article any statements on history belong. I commented, some years ago, on the “Talk” pages of the SD articles, trying to get other folks’ opinions on how to organize the historical
section(s); I never heard back from anyone. (What I wanted to avoid was a duplication of effort, particularly if the same historical events were treated differently on, say, the MWSD and Trad pages. Another Wiki rule is “neutral point of view.” I have deleted
links to outside sources that explain traditional SD from a blatantly MWSD viewpoint.)
I’d love to see the Wiki articles improved, and more historical material added. But I’m not sure I’m the one to do it.
Tony Parkes
Billerica, Mass.
New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century
(available now)
From: Julian Blechner via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2023 9:12 AM
To: John Sweeney <john@modernjive.com>
Cc: Caller's discussion list <callers@sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Re: Wikipedia Dance Vandalism
John,
I looked at the version before your edits; that was pretty egregious, and I'm glad that's fixed.
I'll put a disclaimer for the remainder of this reply:
I'd be interested to hear takes on this from American square and contra historians on this subject, whether it's from this list or any discussion that might spin off elsewhere.
...
So, while I do think that the edit that you removed, John, was appropriate, and I think labeling the whole dance form as "racist" is inaccurate an enormous disservice, I do think that the wikipedia page could use more examination.
The entry doesn't mention contributions of black Americans at all.
This line here:
" This practice became common by the early 1900s and gave rise to the modern caller.[9]"
has the citation for Phil Jamison's book on the subject, and Jamison is pretty clear that the contribution by black Americans was both widespread and critical to how calling evolved.
So if I were going to suggest an edit to the page, I think that this line be revised to mention the 1800s instead of the 1900s (or both) and mention the role of black American servants and slaves in the rise
of calling, since that's a major topic in Jamison's book.
I didn't have time to look through all past revisions; I'm unsure if that had been included and then edited. But that may be worth looking into as well. It's possible that this sort of content was in past revisions,
and whitewashed by other editors.
Interestingly, while Henry Ford's wikipedia page has a section on his racism/antisemitism, it doesn't mention any of his musical interests, not even his fiddle playing.
Given he poured large sums of money into promoting contras and squares, that seems like an oversight. But that page is a whole nother discussion, I suppose.
Back to the Square Dancing page - it does have a few sentences about how it grew in the 30s, 40, and the 50s revival - but doesn't mention Ford in the 20s at all.
A quick summation:
https://www.americanheritage.com/square-dancing-master
It's also perhaps worth considering that there were concerted efforts by lawmakers over decades to make square dancing the "official" dancing.
And it was very successful, given how many American elementary school programs taught / teach square dancing and no other dance forms. (John, I'm unsure how aware or not aware you are of this, as a UK person.)
A solid read on this subject:
https://qz.com/1153516/americas-wholesome-square-dancing-tradition-is-a-tool-of-white-supremacy
In dance,
Julian Blechner
he/him
Western Mass
On Fri, Mar 24, 2023 at 6:10 AM John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: