Here's a link to one of several popular "brush the dirt off your shoulders" YouTube videos that have been produced as a result of Barack Obama using that gesture during a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina the day after the infamous ABC televison tabloid debate {April 16, 2008}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZJex9Ge2-Q
Obama Brushes the Dirt Off
ninja5py; added to YouTube on 4/17/2008


These "Obama Brushes The Dirt Off"videos combine a portion of rapper Jay-Z's hit recording "Dirt Off Your Shoulders" with the portion of Obama's Raleigh, North Carolina speech where he demonstrates that gesture.

During that speech, Senator Obama responds to a audience member who wonders how he feels about the gotcha questions that were the focus of at least 45 minutes of that televised debate. Obama says that Hillary Clinton and others are using old school politics, and that was not going to bother him from his efforts to focus attention on the issues that are important to Americans. Obama then illustrates what you have to do when people come after you. At this point Obama brushes off left shoulder and then brushes off his right shoulder.

"Brushing dirt off your shoulder" is an African American non-verbal street gesture that demonstrates the gesturers disregard for the words or actions of his or her opponents. This gesture was popularized by the 2003 hit song "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" by rapper Jay-Z. "Brushing dirt off your shoulder" signals that you believe that what your enemies says or does, and your enemies themselves are of little importance to you. Indeed, your enemies are of so little concern to you that they can be brushed off your shoulders with the same minimum amount of effort that you would use to brush off a piece of lint or dirt.

During that same speech in Raleigh, North Carolina after that infamous ABC television debate, Obama took the "brush dirt off your shoulders" gesture up another notch by also pretending to look at his shoes, and shaking them to imply that he has stepped in poop. He also brushed off his body, further emphasizing the point that he can brush off his opponents words & actions, and they will not cause him to blow his cool and lose sight of his ultimate goals.

"Brushing dirt off your shoulders" means that what your adversary is comin' at you with is unimportant because you "got yourself together" and they will not make you lose your cool or throw you off-stride. As such "brushing dirt off your shoulders" is both an expression of the gesturers' supreme confidence, as well as a major putdown of that person's adversaries.

"Blogger Spencer Ackerman, who regularly mixes political analysis with hip hop references, immediately heralded the move as "perhaps the coolest subliminal cultural reference in the history of American politics." *

*This quote is lifted from "Obama 'Brushing 'Em Off' Creates Online Wave [video]", http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/18/143821/284/886/498463 ; The source for Spencer Ackerman's quote is http://thinkprogress.org/attackerman/2008/04/17/you-gotta-get-get-that-that-dirt-off-your-shoulder/