Megan Thee Stallion has built a solid fanbase of Black TikTok creators since her career skyrocketed.
After several Thee Stallion releases, the TikTok-er’s embrace her songs, copying her dances and adding a little sauce of their own to ensure that her singer goes viral and climbs up the charts.
After Meg’s BET Awards performance (which came with full choreography), many assumed the Tik Tok dancers would be moved to hopping on the platform to post their dance clips.
But they’re sitting “Thot Sh*t” out.
And here’s why.
Things first got sticky when Jimmy Fallon invited TikTok star Addison Rae (who is white) on the “Tonight Show” to teach him popular dances from the app — all dances created by Black Tik Tok creators. None of them were credited during that episode.
The episode received a ton of backlash.
“In my opinion, this strike is long overdue,” said Kahlil Greene, a TikTok creator and history major who was elected Yale’s first Black student body president in 2019, said in a video posted to his social media.
#BlackTikTokStrike is now trending. Black creators want their props.
“I see it as Black people throwing up their hands and saying, ‘Well, if you think our creativity doesn’t matter, then you do it. A lot of times, people call for (Black people) to (boycott) the app itself or to strike by not posting at all. In a way, (the ‘Thot S—‘ strike) shows Black people really do move the culture forward,” she said per Yahoo News.
Black creators are tired of their creations being appropriated or just flat-out used by the machine.
“Similar to the ways off the app Black folks have always had to galvanize and riot and protest to get their voices heard, that same dynamic is displayed on TikTok,” dancer Erick Louis told The New York Times. “We’re being forced to collectively protest.”
Speaking to the HuffPost, a spokesperson for Tik Tok issued the following statement:
“TikTok is a special place because of the diverse and inspiring voices of our community, and our Black creators are a critical and vibrant part of this,” the statement begins. “We care deeply about the experience of Black creators on our platform and we continue to work every day to create a supportive environment for our community while also instilling a culture where honoring and crediting creators for their creative contributions is the norm.”
