The Super Bowl last week was filled with cultural moments that blew people away. Usher provided one of the more entertaining halftime shows in recent memory. Beyoncé announced on a Verizon commercial she’s releasing new music . . . and of course, the NFL couldn’t get enough shots of Taylor Swift at the big game.

However, there’s one act of the culture that took place that is hardly ever noticed these days, but is nevertheless a cultural touchpoint in the mainstream: the dap.

Dap is a customary salutation or greeting amongst Black people. It’s a clasping of hands that can morph into additional hand exchanges and/or a bro hug. It’s a Black community tradition first examined in Linguist John Baugh’s 1978 work, “The Politics of the Black Power Handshakes,” where he noted that “insiders” used the “Black power handshake” amongst their trusted friends, while outsiders were greeted with the “standard handshake,” usually determined by which “norm satisfied the immediate social requirements.”

The best example of this is the famous "Key & Peele" skit of President Obama reserving dap for skin folk and kinfolk alike while extending the standard handshake for white folks.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nopWOC4SRm4

Hand gestures, and even verbal expressions – to note the arrival or departure of Black people or simply an acknowledgment of being seen in a society where we’re often invisible – were originally deemed low-brow or unprofessional by white folks. But the Super Bowl for example, like the NFL and NBA drafts where Black draftees and white commissioners share emphatic dap is proof that the dap has hit the mainstream. This was especially apparent at the Super Bowl trophy podium.

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Everyone is giving dap nowadays.

It’s a sacred art with a history deserving of acknowledgment.

I’ve personally even seen white people giving dap to each other. And when white people give dap to Black folk, we generally welcome it—to the extent that some of us even bestow a level of kinship upon white folks who dap. That may be going a bit too far, but I digress.

Most people assume dap is a common, everyday kind of greeting. To some degree, it is. But truthfully, it’s a sacred art with a history deserving of acknowledgment. The dap is Black history.

It could be assumed to be rooted in hip-hop culture; as hip-hop as the gold “dookie rope” chain adorned by iconic artists including Run DMC, Roxanne Shante, LL Cool J, Biz........

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