Hustle and Fro: Quiet ain’t no back Tok

Black TikTok creators are going on strike. 

As they should. For as long as I’ve been on TikTok — which has been a couple of years — I’ve seen white content creators steal the dance moves and punchlines of Black creators and give them no credit. It’s just like the film, “Bring It On,” but digital. Before I dig into this strike, though, let me explain the many times Black creators haven’t been given their flowers.

One of the most well-known examples of this is the famous TikTok dance trend, the Renegade. Back in late September 2019, Jalaiah Harmon posted her choreography to the song “Lottery” by K CAMP to her followers on Instagram. By October, the dance made its way to TikTok, became a viral hit and was being performed by white TikTok stars like Charlie D’Amelio and Addison Rae without credit to Harmon. 

It wasn’t until around the 2020 NBA All-Star Game when Harmon got her much-needed credit. Why? Because D’Amelio, Rae and other white TikTok influencers were invited to the game to perform “The Renegade,” without Harmon. This made the internet, as well as the dance’s originator, upset — and for good reason. 

White creators gained fame off a dance they never created, while the true originator was left in the shadows.

“I was upset. It wasn’t fair,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. “I was happy when I saw my dance all over, but I wanted credit for it.”

After the internet exploded and came to Harmon’s defense, she received an invite to the All-Star Game. Soon after, D’Amelio and Rae posted a TikTok doing the dance with Harmon, which only looked like an attempt to make amends after the virtual backlash. 

But, in reality, white creators “unknowingly” taking content from smaller Black creators without credit isn’t that wild, especially when there have been instances handled a lot worse.

Popular creator Kane Trujillo, known currently as @kane on TikTok but formerly as @neumane, was making comedy videos on the app that averaged at least a million views on each video. His most popular videos used the song, “Triple S” by YN Jay and Louie Ray, which now most people associate with his face.

While the trend was admittedly funny, it wasn’t until Black TikTok creator Joey Bailey posted a side-by-side video of Trujillo’s skits with a compilation of the original skits from various smaller creators … all stolen by Trujillo of course. 

After Bailey posted the TikTok about how his content, as well as many others, was being recreated without credit, Trujillo asked for the video to be taken down. When it wasn’t, he said he would be proceeding with a False Accusation lawsuit. 

These seemed like pretty extreme measures when all he had to do was own up and give credit. But it doesn’t quite end there. When confronted about the content he stole in a livestream, Trujillo attributed his success to being a good actor.

“Who gives a f*ck about some little copied content? Like I’m an actor, I’m not a writer. ” Trujillo said. “I’m not a f*cking storyteller. You give me a script, I will f*cking nail that sh*t. And I’m not gonna think of it, no, but I’m gonna make yours better.”

That was a bit harsh and sort of shows him owning up to his content stealing. Sort of.

Back to the strike.

The song “Thot Sh*t” by Megan Thee Stallion has made its way over to TikTok, much like many of her songs that create viral dance trends. But, this time, there’s no dance because Black creators are refusing to create choreography. This is in an effort to prevent their dances from being stolen and popularized by white creators. 

As of now, the most this song has been used for on the app is showing white creators rocking back and forth and flipping off the camera. The response to this has been hilarious to say the least. Black creators have satirized the videos’ lack of dance, and there’s even a video where creator Erick Louis acts like he’s creating a dance but then flips off the camera and text reading, “Sike. This app would be nothing without [Black] people” appears on screen. 

I think this strike is genius. TikTok has apologized to its Black creators and viewers “who have felt unsafe, unsupported, or suppressed” in the past, but even then, there are situations like the Renegade fiasco and Kane Trujillo that make it seem like the complete opposite. 

With the lack of choreography to Meg’s song, this strike proves that Black creators significantly influence what becomes popular on the app. In the end, just give credit where credit is due, and in the style of Nicki Minaj, “it’s quiet ain’t no back [tok].” 

Side note: I think it’s particularly funny that the song literally says “Hands on my knees, shakin’ a** on my thot sh*t,” and none of the white creators are doing that. The song has directions. 

Marlize Duncan is a rising junior writing about Black social issues and their intersection in the entertainment industry.