Xzibit Says Planking Is Connected To Slave Trade

Xzibit Angered By Planking Craze

If there's a reason to be upset by the planking fad that has taken the world by storm, then rapper/actor Xzibit has stumbled upon it.

Planking apparently has some visual connection to the slave trade and X to the Z took to Twitter to express his disdain for the phenomenon.
“Planking is the dumbest s**t ever. Planking was a way to transport slaves on ships during the slave trade, it's not funny. Educate yourselves.
“Don't get it twisted. I care less where your dumb a**es lay face down and take pictures of the s**t, I'm just telling you where it came from.”
Camilo Smith at TheGrio.com argues that while the connection is not entirely clear, there is evidence of a relationship between planking and the transportation of slaves.
Smith mentions the book, Upon these Shores: Themes in the African-American Experience, 1600 to the Present, which lays out this graphic description:
Some ships had tiny bunks, really nothing more than shelves, on which slaves could recline; in others, the slaves lay side by side on the planking, rolling with the ship, bodies virtually touching, for weeks on end.