Literature Review: Black Girl Game

Double Dutch: Black Girl Game

The National Double Dutch league reported double dutch jump rope was brought to the United States by Dutch settlers in New York (The History of Double Dutch, 2003). http://www.nationaldoubledutchleague.com/History.htm. In the 19th century, Double Dutch was considered a boys’ game, but later adopted by girls. After World War II, double dutch became a favorite of children in inner-cities. Double Dutch nearly disappeared in the 1950s and 60s with the advent of radios and television.  Later, double dutch became popular again, incorporating dancing, acrobatics and music. Double dutch jump rope became a competitive sport in the 1990s (Double Dutch is Black History, 2005) 

Margo Crawford playing double dutch in the 1960s. I grew up with her daughters and played double dutch jump rope with them all day long.

Today, non-competitive double dutch jump rope is widely regarded as a girls game. Goodwin (1985) study of pre-adolescent black girls in Philadelphia described the game of jump rope: Two parties (turners) hold opposite ends of the ropes while turning for a third player, the jumper who “jumps when the rope hits the ground” (p. 318). A jumper continues until they are unsuccessful at jumping over the ropes. The position of the jumper and turners rotate. (Goodwin, 1985, p. 318). Often in street double dutch plastic clotheslines or electrical extension cords are utilized as jump ropes. These “ropes” are inexpensive, accessible and heavy enough to produce a distinct rhythmic sound when hitting the ground.

Photograph from Black Girls Jump kick-off event Sherwood Park Chicago, 2016.

Unlike traditional sports, street double dutch is not an inherently competitive, but instead collaborative. The game requires at least three players to collectively decide on specific jump rope games and accompanying jump rope songs. For success, double dutch often requires jumpers and turners to communicate to reach the appropriate entry time, speed and rhythm. Although double dutch requires athletic ability and coordination–females of differing body types can excel at the game (Gaunt, 2004, p. 255)

Click to view a street jump rope competition. Black Girls Jump Union Park Chicago, 2014. 

In Simmons’ (2007) dissertation, Self, Other, and Jump Rope Community: Triumphs of African American Women, the author wrote about double dutch jump rope’s “deceptively powerful” ability to “create trans-generational connections”, and engender childhood memories of “social connection” and “sisterhood” (p.22). As double dutch is a game taught by older females (mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, cousins), the game allows for multigenerational female engagement. In many communities, learning to jump double dutch is considered a rights of passage into black femaleness. Gaunt (2006) noted double dutch jump rope helps teach black girls to be socially black (p.19).

My mother and aunt teaching my six year old niece Alana to play jump rope, 2015. (Alana’s wearing a head bonnet to keep her hair braids in tact, lol). 

Jumping rope is a musical and performative activity like dance. In double dutch,  individual jumping styles are choreographed or “freestyled” and spontaneous expression is accepted (Gaunt, 2004, p. 256). Accompanying jump rope songs are developed by girls to instruct or enhance games.   Kyra Gaunt’s (2006) book The Games Black Girls Play: From Double Dutch to Hip Hop focuses on jump rope “songs”and positions double dutch within the context of ethnomusicology. Simmons (2007) contends black girls who play double dutch do so within the black aesthetic contexts of dance and musical expression (p.24).

 

Click to see a video of Chicago police officer jumping double dutch in Chicago, 2015.