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- Some Black TikTok creators are refusing to make dances to Megan Thee Stallion's new song.
- The creators are refusing to do so to prove a point showing how their work gets appropriated.
- TikTok has seen issues of appropriation of Black culture and racism on the app.
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Following the release of Megan Thee Stallion's new song "Thot S—," many Black creators on TikTok are refusing to create dances to the song in an effort to expose how often their dances are recreated by white creators.
On Saturday, a creator named Erick Louis (@theericklouis) posted a video saying that he made a dance to "Thot S—" and can be seen bopping along to the beat of the song. But then, the text said, "Sike. This app would be nothing without [Black] people."
Two more creators – @wazzamray and @erykahh – posted videos to TikTok satirizing dances created by white users in lieu of new original choreography.
@dominiquelaraine, a TikToker who posts dance videos, posted a choreography tutorial to the song but was inundated with comments about the "strike" against creating dances to the song. "Bestie, we were going on a strike" and "So you ain't got the memo, we not helping them this time," two comments said.
Megan's biggest songs like "Savage" and "Captain Hook" were previously used in TikTok dance trends, many of which have gone viral through performances by white TikTok influencers. Since TikTok became popular in 2019, the platform's For You Page algorithm has faced accusations of racism and its biggest stars have beenaccused of appropriating Black culture through dance trends.
In March, TikTok star Addison Rae appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and performed multiple TikTok dances, most of which were created by Black dancers, without crediting them.
-jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) March 27, 2021
Rae and Fallon were immediately met with criticism, and Fallon later tried to rectify the situation by inviting those dance creators to speak on the show via Zoom.
As Elle's Nerisha Penrose wrote, "Social media has become a neverending cycle of appropriation, uproar, and apologies that could easily be avoided if large platforms like Fallon learned from past instances instead of perpetuating this problematic pattern."
Still, white creators on TikTok made videos with the choreography Louis posted in his original boycott video, apparently believing it was a new dance trend.
-Naima Cochrane’s Burner Acct (@stillnaima) June 21, 2021
-Naima Cochrane’s Burner Acct (@stillnaima) June 21, 2021
Another creator named @xosugarbunny made a video saying, "I don't ever want to hear ever want to hear another fu----- white woman ever say that TikTok dances and TikTok trends aren't entirely stolen from Black women."
She also pointed out that Megan provides instructions for the dance in the song. The lyrics include the lines "hands on my knees, shaking a--."
The user then showed herself imitating the people who have posted videos dancing to the song, waving her hands in the air and moving her hips with text reading, "You could not have possibly gone so far in the opposite direction." She ended the video by saying, "The instructions are right there."