"Planking" Fad May Have Controversial Roots

It's a phenomenon that originated in the United Kingdom and quickly spread all over the world. Called "planking" or “the lying down game," it's a fad growing in popularity throughout the U.S. But some say the controversial game has dubious roots in black enslavement.

The Black Urban Times published an article last week with the claim that planking mirrors a practice common along the Middle Passage, in which thousands of Africans were taken as slaves in the belly of ships across the Atlantic to the New World.

The game consists of lying in a face down position, usually in a public place, with the photo posted to social media websites like Facebook or Twitter. The photos are then shared and discussed by a growing number of planking enthusiasts. 

“Planking is what happened to the slaves that were packed on the ships. The planking of a slave meant that the slave was laid down on a plank, without the ability to move facing up or down stacked on top of one another," said Abba Onyeani, CEO of The Black Urban Times, in an interview last week.  

However, "plankers"—many of whom live in Brooklyn and the rest of the five boroughs and are African-American—disagreed with Onyeani's view that the activity had a detrimental effect on blacks.

"There’s nothing I can do about the past but live for today," said Chris "Smooth C" Murphy, the creator of the U.S.A. P.L.A.N.K.I.N.G. Facebook page. "People will always find something no matter what it is so I try just to ignore the negative and live with the positive."

City planker Jessenia Toro said she never heard of planking’s relation to black enslavement.

“If there is some correlation between the two, I wasn’t aware of it and I think everyone just does it for fun. No one should be offended by it,” she said.

With over 420,000 fans on Facebook, the trend seems to be spreading fast, with Fox News, the Washington Post, and many more media outlets recently reporting on the fad.

Murphy believes the number of plankers in the U.S. will continue to grow.

“We took it to Facebook four months ago when the U.S.A. didn‘t know about it... and now look. We have celebrities planking,” he said, pointing to NBA Star Dwight Howard planking in a fast food restaurant, actress Rosario Dawson recent plank on talk show host Jimmy Kimmel‘s desk and rapper Flavor Flav planking on a truck bed in Manhattan.

That growth had Onyeani worried about the ramifications of planking on African-Americans' understanding of their own history.

“’Planking’ in my opinion will not have a negative affect on the African-American community physically,” she said. "But mentally what it does is keep the younger generation of African-Americans blind to an act of violence that has been repackaged as some sort of cool fad."