An African-American author and historian has accused Australian breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn of failing to understand the culture behind the sport she failed at at the Paris Olympics.
Gunn became an international laughing stock on Saturday (AEST) when he failed to score a single point in three battles in the newest sport on the Olympic trail.
Her routine, which included kangaroo jumps and lots of flips on the floor, was criticized online, along with her choice of outfit for the event.
New York hip hop artist and songwriting teacher Mandella Eskia criticized Gunn on social media in a viral review of his performance.
“Imagine you’re from Australia and you lied on your Olympic application and said you could breakdance,” she said in a post that read, “How did they let this happen?”
‘You watched some old highlights from the ’80s and said, ‘I could do that.’
“Now you’re on the world stage in a golf suit and promoting yourself in your head.”
Raygun did not lie in her application for the Olympics: she got the best score in the Oceania competition, although she did not earn any points at the Olympics.
Breakdancing purists were equally scathing.
“Did they have to qualify or just show up?” one asked.
“Sometimes you wanna be Chuck D and you turn out to be Flavor Flav,” another replied.
“What the hell is this?” another asked.
Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn was accused of ‘lying on her Olympic application’ to get to Paris
The Australian’s routine in her Olympic breaking debut was widely ridiculed and she failed to score a single point in her competition.
New York hip hop artist and songwriting teacher Mandella Eskia was one of many African Americans who criticized Raygun.
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines breakdancing as ‘(an) energetic form of dance, created and popularized by African Americans and Latinos, that includes stylized footwork and athletic movements such as backflips or head spins… (that) originated in New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s.’
But its genesis dates back to the early days of American colonization and the horrors of the slave trade that gripped the United States in the 17th century.
Now, a historian who focuses on African-American culture has defended Gunn, in a way, by saying she never appropriated the black culture behind breaking.
Because he says she never understood that history or culture in the first place.
Michael Harriot is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of ‘Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America’, who initially mocked Raygun on social media platform X, sarcastically posting ‘NGL (not gonna lie) I feel like taking Raygun’s class.’
However, on Sunday (AEST), she wrote a lengthy thread about the Australian and how she didn’t understand breaking, her history in the African-American community and the dancers who invented and popularised dance battles in the US.
He wrote extensively about Bill Bailey, the African-American performer who introduced the backslide onscreen in 1943. It would later be used by Michael Jackson and renamed the Moonwalk.
Writer Michael Harriot said Raygun did not understand the history of black dance culture in the United States.
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, pictured with Shirley Temple, was one of the first African-American artists to break into the mainstream.
Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson used dance battles as part of his act in the early 1900s, long before breakdancing became popular from the 1960s onwards.
Harriot wrote that black dancers would never use the backslide in “battles” because it was considered disrespectful, but Bailey often used it for white audiences, usually accompanied by a joke.
He wrote about how dance battles had always been an integral part of black American dance culture, referencing American tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, who reached the height of his career in the early 20th century.
“At the end of his show, Bojangles would challenge people to a battle. The white audience didn’t know the culture, so they would give it a go,” Harriot wrote.
“But black audiences knew better than to make fools of themselves.”
He talked about black gospel music that had nothing to do with religion, but were protest songs that white audiences never knew were directed at them.
She wrote about the ancient practice of “cakewalking,” in which slaves would dress in hand-me-down clothing and exaggerate traditional dances like the waltz. Again, her white audience had no idea they were being mocked.
Michael Jackson is widely credited with inventing the Moonwalk, but it was Bill Bailey who invented the backslide dance move in 1943.
Instead, Harriot writes, white audiences paid homage to black culture and churches embraced gospel singing, white artists like Lady Gaga released jazz tracks, and now Gunn has adopted a dance rooted in black American history on the global stage.
But he claimed Gunn had not appropriated black culture. Instead, he claimed she was another example of a white person not understanding what traditional black dance was all about.
“Raygun and the Olympic Breakers are not appropriating black culture,” he wrote.
‘When white evangelicals started shouting during the Protestant Reformation, they weren’t doing an African dance.
‘When white Christians sing Negro spirituals, they are not singing about their enemies.
‘The best Olympic breakers are like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing a Negro spiritual or Eric Clapton being called ‘the greatest blues guitarist’ or Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett making a jazz album.
‘It’s a tribute to something black people used to do.
‘Raygun was the most authentic part of Olympic breaking.
“She’s the one who baked the cake for the cakewalkers. She made Buckra dance and clapped at the cutting contests. Raygun would have jumped at the chance to battle Bojangles or Bill Bailey.”
Neha Madhok, founder of racial justice foundation Democracy in Color, questioned why AOC didn’t cast a wider net to find a better fit than Raygun.
Madhok said there were many black people who were better than Raygun, but they never got their chance.
Former CEO and co-founder of racial justice foundation Democracy in Colour Neha Madhok has criticised the Australian Olympic Committee for bringing Raygun to Paris, saying not enough was done to find genuine talent.
“My timeline is full of posts about the academic breakdancing Olympian. I love the variety of interests I have,” she posted.
“That’s not to say I’m not enjoying the memes and the completely absurd atmosphere surrounding all of this. But it’s a shame that, once again, Australia is sending a mediocre white person to represent us on the world stage because we struggle to find real talent among First Nations people and people of colour.
“This is a reflection of the whiteness of Australian sport and Australian attitudes. We could have sent some amazing people, the talent is there, no doubt, but you have to go where the people are.”
Gunn is a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney and her thesis is titled ‘Deterritorialising Gender in the Sydney Breakdance Scene: A B-girl’s Experience of B-boying’, which focuses on the intersection of gender and Sydney breakdance culture.
Before the Olympics, he predicted Australia’s failure and blamed a lack of education and understanding for its eventual downfall.
“When the Olympic announcement was made, the reaction from the Australian public in general was very negative – in fact, there was widespread ridicule because people don’t see it as a legitimate sport in Australia,” Gunn told Macquarie University’s website.
Australian chef de mission Anna Meares thought Raygun was being harassed and cried at the treatment she received after her routine at the Paris Olympics.
While Gunn continues to receive criticism from a global audience, mission chief Anna Meares said she should be applauded for her bravery.
“In 2008, she was locked in a room crying, participating in a male-dominated sport as the only woman,” Meares said.
‘And it took a lot of courage for her to keep going and fight for her chance to participate in a sport she loved.
Australian Olympic legend Sally Pearson also defended Gunn, saying winning the gold medal was not the only ambition of every athlete.
“Pierre de Coubertin, known as the father of the modern Olympic Games, famously said ‘the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to participate,'” Pearson wrote in a News Corp column.
‘That’s exactly what Gunn did and it’s a point that everyone has overlooked in the wake of his performance.