Ten Left Feet

At first look, the video shows Sparks city officials awkwardly dancing — if clapping and jerky movements performed out of synch can pass for dancing — to celebrate the Fourth of July. Clearly, these bureaucrats can’t follow a beat. In fact, the beat eludes them entirely. It has fled in terror.

Cringeworthy? Yes. But plenty of people in the public eye (and out of it) can’t dance, and what’s in the video is, at worst, an embarrassing lapse in judgment about when to get into the groove in public.

Or does the video show something more? Look again. Every one of these officials of the City of Sparks is white. And middle-aged, except for Donald Abbott. Taking note of this whiteout isn’t going woke. In fact, it’s calling out the city’s hypocrisy.

For several years, the City of Sparks has publicly touted — at GREAT length — its diversity initiatives. It has claimed the moral high ground because of these initiatives, and so have its officials. The city has used these initiatives to grab a fat wad of state and federal dollars.

How that money has been (mis)spent is a subject for another day. Suffice it to say the video gives lie to the city’s claims of diversity outreach. Whether you agree with that outreach or not is beside the point — the hypocrisy still stands.

A hashtag neatly sums up the real message of the video: #SparksSoWhite.