Obama Pound: In Historic Moment, White People Exposed To “Fist Bump” For First Time
June 5th, 2008 | 2:54 pm EST | filed under Lead, Learn, Respect, Share, Sports, TV, Unite, Video
By Katie Halper
The Obama pound, exchanged between Michelle and Barack on Tuesday night marked a historic moment. Yeah, there’s that whole first black nominee for president thing. But perhaps as exciting, is the fact that the pound is finally being introduced to mainstream culture. I hope people not familiar with the pound will now realize that when the New York Times’ Ashley Parker wrote about Reggie Love “offering closed-fist high-fives to members of the news media….” she was not describing a painful caveman greeting, but the pound. But I think the Times owes Reggie a correction.
I can’t find an official history or definition of the pound, but here is what I found on Ubrandictionary.com
- pound: a greeting between two mutual friends. In reality, a fist from one person is “pounded” against the fist of the other person, accompanied by both persons saying “pound.”
- Pound: The knocking of fists as a form of greeting, departure, or respect
see daps - Dap: The knocking of fists together as a greeting, or form of respect. He gave me a dap when we greeted.
- dap: a fist-on-fist greeting, front-to-front as if each person is punching each other on the hand. He gave me a dap when we greeted
- dap: The Dap includes simple to very intricate series of rhythmic hand slaps, clasps, hand and arm gestures exchanged between two persons as a sign of personal greeting, respect and group solidarity. Read the rest of this entry »
June 5th, 2008 at 4:39 pm edit
Lovely pictures.
Thank you.
June 5th, 2008 at 6:57 pm edit
Well, white people saw Tom Cruise fist-bump Jay Mohr in the 1996 film “Jerry Maguire.” (It’s at the beginning of the restaurant scene when Mohr’s character fires Cruise’s Maguire.)
June 5th, 2008 at 7:34 pm edit
Anyone who hasn’t seen the fist pound — thousands and thousands of times — is not going to be voting for Obama anyway. With all respect, Katie, unless you’re a white person over 60 (go, go, McCain!), I must say this is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read. When Jay-Z did those Budweiser commercials, did you write a post on bringing “something called ‘wrap’ music to mainstream culture”?
June 6th, 2008 at 12:57 am edit
Thank you Katie for wasting 38 seconds of my life
June 6th, 2008 at 1:45 pm edit
[…] Obama Pound: In Historic Moment, White People Exposed To “Fist Bump” For First Time […]
June 6th, 2008 at 1:57 pm edit
Hey guys, lay off. When I saw this headline, I thought it was referring the same “fist bump pound” that my boyfriend Phil makes me do. I was absolutely shocked that Obama would risk his candidacy by doing such a thing in public. After reading this article, I realize that they are two very, very different things. Thanks for the info, Katie.