Pioneers of a funky Bay Area dance style are fighting to preserve their history, after an extremist alt-right movement appropriates their name.

In early June, the killing of a Santa Cruz police officer made national headlines. The murder was later linked to the drive-by fatal shooting of a security guard at Oakland’s federal courthouse building, during what began as a peaceful protest for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Black Lives Matter. Both incidents were linked to the upstart “boogaloo bois,” a loose national community often described as an extremist alt-right movement.

Initially organized online, these so-called boogaloo bois have been showing up, heavily armed, at recent protests, and have been linked to other incidents of domestic terrorism and charges of inciting riots. Their goal, it’s been reported, is to start a second Civil War by directly engaging government agents to provoke further violence. Steven Carillo, the alleged shooter in the Santa Cruz and Oakland incidents, was not a participant in the BLM protests, but “came to Oakland to kill cops,” according to the FBI.

Immediately following Carrillo’s arrest, the term “boogaloo bois” began trending online. Dozens of articles describing the movement appeared all over mainstream media outlets, from CNN to NPR to the BBC. But none of those reports mentioned that for more than 50 years, the term “boogaloo” has been associated with an African-American-derived dance culture that began in the Bay Area.

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