Retiring Guy's Digest: Vocabulary lesson: dap

Sunday, August 2, 2026

Vocabulary lesson: dap

Screengrab: YouTube

Dictionary definition: Merriam-Webster

Related reading:

National Museum of African American History Culture

About 275,000 African Americans served in Vietnam between 1964 and 1972; more than 7,200 died there. After 1967 more and more black service members endorsed Black Power as a critique of the war itself. As veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, they wondered why they should fight for a country that denied them rights and brutalized many of their kin. They questioned the disproportionate number of black casualties and dangerous wartime assignments for black soldiers. And they were discouraged by the lack of battlefield promotions and decorations.

Black service members in Vietnam developed the dap, a combination of hand and body gestures as a nonverbal form of communication. The dap could be as simple as tapping fists and shaking hands or as complex as dozens of gestures with the hands punctuated by slapping chests. Whatever the elements, the dap—an acronym for “dignity and pride”—was a symbol of solidarity and survival, an expression of black consciousness and a commitment to look after each other on the battlefield and in camp. [emphasis added]