Black creatives making content on TikTok are preparing to strike because their white counterparts are biting their moves.
After Megan Thee Stallion dropped her new song, “Thot Sh#t” on June 11, a practice would typically be rounded off with fans creating a dance sensation on TikTok. But choreographers like 21-year-old Erick Louis stepped up and was like “Nah.”
Louis posted a video on June 19 to announce the boycott. With the song playing as bed in the background, he flipped up his middle finger as he gave a little bounce and said, “MADE A DANCE TO THIS SONG’.”
He ended the video with “SIKE. THIS APP WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT BLACK PEOPLE.”
@theericklouis If y’all do the dance pls tag me 🙄 it’s my first dance on Tik tok and I don’t need nobody stealing/not crediting
♬ Thot S### – Megan Thee Stallion
He captioned the video, “If y’all do the dance pls tag me. It’s my first dance on Tik Tok and I don’t need nobody stealing/ not crediting.”
It’s true.
The hottest challenges have come from the creative minds of these incredible Black and Brown artists — however, it is the white kids getting invited to dance on late-night talk shows performing routines that they did not create.
Louis calls this “digital colonizing” and “exploitation of labor.”
Two come to mind immediately: Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae.
D’Amelio has about 119.4 million and Rae has 81.8 million and many of their followers have no clue as to who are the progenitors of the dance routines they clock and post.
In an interview with the LA Times, he shared the following. “We make the trends… and when we remove ourselves from the equation… it’s nothing left but mediocrity.”
“I can’t tell you how long it’s going to last, but I do want to say that I think this is an indicator of how frustrated the black community is. I feel like this isn’t the last time something like this will happen,” he continued.
“I know for me personally; this is a much wider issue outside of this digital colonizing. TikTok has a really big issue with just black leaders and anti-blackness,” he continued. “What’s kind of flown over people’s heads is this issue concerning the exploitation of labor on the app.”
Nobody is playing with TikTok. Especially when you can get it popping in other places. #ElvisIsAHeroToMost