You know when Black is cool! World leaders fist bump

I saw this picture in the Guardian newspaper today, and thought you just have to look at this picture and marvel at the moment of cool, being expressed by a culture that is most definitely Black. Two European leaders, the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, meeting on international platform with other leaders around greet each other as two Black men would do on the streets of Harlem, Brixton, Handsworth or Toxteth.

In the picture the British Prime Minister Theresa May looks on, almost in admiration. In the foreground, French Prime Minister Emmanuelle Macron greats the German Chancellor Angela Merkal with the more traditional greeting of the French kiss.

Of course one could argue that once again the dominant hegemony is appropiating Black culture as if it were theirs which has occurred most infamously with Black music. But for the moment I’ll leave that one for the academics to argue over.

Right now I’m just enjoying the moment about Black being creative and cool, whilst pondering what might be if other avenues were more open for creativity to flourish, for example, in business, the arts, and most definitely politics.

Simon Woolley