The comment sections of the articles are filled with amazement and admiration from people who describe it as stunning and creative, and claim to have “never seen anything like this.” Although I did find the performance to be entertaining and well executed, my initial reaction was much different from that of the observers who offered the aforementioned comments.
As I watched the video, I immediately thought to myself, “Historically Black colleges and universities have been doing that for years.” As a matter of fact, I can recall my friend from Florida A&M University’s Marching 100 showing me a YouTube video years ago of them forming the shape of a giant needle, emptying the contents out of the syringe, and spelling the word “Toxic” while performing Britney Spears’ song by that name (and that is only one example). Therefore, I’m quite certain that my reaction to The Ohio State marching band video was not uncommon, particularly for those of us within the HBCU community.
