By Ro Wright III
When Rhode Island State Senator, Tiara Mack, posted a video on of herself twerking on Tik Tok last week, she didn’t expect the viral response she received. The video was viewed more than 200,000 times in the first few hours. The video showed Mack, 28, upside down on a handstand Twerking in a seemingly G-string/bikini outfit. When she learned of the attention she received from the video she decided to let it remain and open the floor for a new conversation in America. Mack, who is also vocally Queer, told the media she began a hashtag called #TwerkFor and encouraged her followers to publicize what they twerk for and use it as a way to empower a new generation of voters.
She said she #TwerkedForJustice and she also #TwerkedForJoy.
Thousands of people commented in support of her boldness but many voiced their opinions of
disgust.
Mack’s audacity to post a twerk video as a State Senator sends a bold message to the conservative traditional American voters… Times have changed. Things which were once frowned upon are quickly becoming a normality and the way the world works is transforming right before our eyes.
Today, twerking has become so common that there are videos of middle aged White-Women twerking for fun on Tik Tok. There are Twerk Fitness classes all over the country in which the booty-popping dance has now been deemed a way to exercise hips and thighs for major weight loss. Twerking has become so normalized in the Black Community that most of the High School and College Dancelines have some variation of booty-popping in their routines and it is so acceptable that the young ladies’ parents, friends, church members, and teachers sit in the
stands and cheer them on when they do it.
So, when Senator Mack twerked on Tik Tok, while a large part of America responded with disgust, and even larger part of America failed to see a real issue with it at all. It says, people have either become mature enough to separate entertainment from professionalism or people have become so numb to it that it doesn’t bother them at all. Either way, the next generation of American voters will have to be approached much different than the previous generations.
Senator Mack may be on to something. I mean, it’s hardly hypocritical for the GOP to demonize Senator Mack for twerking when this is the same party who rallied around Donald Trump for President and ignored all Sexual Assault accusations by 18 different women.
While her actions rightfully disturb parents who don’t subscribe to sexual promiscuity being promoted on platforms which attract their kids, the problem is, in the world of their kids, twerking is normalized. Senator Mack has seemingly attracted college kids to follow issues that they never would have payed attention to before they saw her Twerk Video.
Gary Chambers is running for office in Louisiana by using the legalization of Marijuana as the centerpiece of his campaign. He has accumulated hundreds of thousands of supporters with videos of himself smoking and supporting the right to smoke. Many of those followers are first time voters who follow him because he identifies with their concerns. Mack is attempting to do the same thing.
One thing is for sure, this generation of young voters turn out when they can relate to a candidate and that candidate finds a way to pull them into the issues. While twerking and smoking weed may seem a stretch too far by many, there are thousands who are now paying attention to the political process for the first time. It proves one thing, elected officials may not have to smoke weed or twerk to be elected but the younger vote will not be retrieved using the same methods which have been used in the past. The world is different and I get the feeling we haven’t seen anything yet.
