Black Tik Tok Dance Creators' Strike (August 2021 Update) YouTube Vlog Title: A Brief History Of Stolen Black Tik Tok Dances

Taylor Cassidy, July 12, 2021

 Now... y'all know this ain't new right? People stealing art from POC and placing a more "commercial" face on it has been done from thee beginning. And I'm here to tell you about it. Moreover, Ima help yall understand how that history fits into the Black TikTok Strike happening on TikTok. So sit down, reminisce your favorite popular dance from the app and let me tell you some history (and my opinion ofc).

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series that provides an update and comments about  the Black dance creators' Tik Tok strike that began in June 2021.

This post showcases one YouTube vlog on this subject as well as selected comments from the discussion threads for that video.

Part II showcases a second YouTube vlog on the Black Tik Tok Dance Creator's strike and provides comments about that strike.  

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all the Black Tik Tok dance creators who are named and unnamed in these comments. Thanks to the vlogger whose video is showcased in this post and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/07/black-tik-tok-dance-creators-on-strike.html for the July 2021 pancocojams article entitled "Black Tik Tok Dance Creators On Strike Since June 19, 2021 Demanding Credit For Their Work (article excerpts)".

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE

I haven't found much information about the Black Tik Tok dance creators strike. However, the comments about this strike on discussion threads for the two showcased YouTube vlogs about this subject suggest that the strike is still going on as of early August 2021.

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ARTICLE EXCERPT
From https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57841055 "Why black TikTok creators have gone on strike" By Cache McClay, June 15, 2021
"Black creators on TikTok are refusing to choreograph new dances and calling out what they see as a new form of cultural appropriation on the app.

Rapper Megan Thee Stallion's latest song 'Thot Sh-t' was supposed to be a TikTok hit. Her previous single 'Savage' had more than 22 million hits on the app. 'WAP' generated 4m and there were 1.5m for 'Body'.

But this time a social media strike staged by black creators on the viral-video-making platform has prevented her new single from taking off. Black creators have refused to make a dance for the song and instead mounted a digital walk-out.

Since June, the hashtag BlackTikTokStrike has been viewed more than 6.5m times on the app and has since been trending on social media platforms like Twitter. Black users are using the hashtag to voice their objections to what they say is preferential treatment.

Black creators say non-black influencers use their work, reaping the financial and personal gains earned from views, but fail to acknowledge or give credit to originators.

"Even in the spaces we've managed to create for ourselves, [non-black] people violently infiltrate and occupy these spaces with no respect to the architects who built it," Erick Louis, a black TikTok creator who helped organise the strike, told the Washington Post.

"This app would be nothing without [black] people," Mr Louis, 21, wrote in a widely shared TikTok video."...
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in that article.

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SELECTED COMMENTS (From the discussion thread for this video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIYxZTHwDVY&ab_channel=TaylorCassidy

(Numbers added for referencing purposes only.)

1. Blue Rose., August 1, 2021

"I'm just discovering about the strike now, but a lot of content on this was from 2 weeks ago. Please tell me that the black creators are still on strike, I'm routing for you guys."

**

2. The Wisemen In Real Life, August 1, 2021
"I totally agree. I like your analysis of the Black 🖤  TikTok creators strike. You definitely have done your homework.👍👍"

**

3. Lish, August 1, 2021
"Time to create their own platform. These big platforms would fold if they took they talents elsewhere. Stop making these people rich."

**
4. Lee Perryman, August 1, 2021

"Young lady, you are WOKE!!! at 68 years of age I remember RICKIE NELSON, and many other white ROCK-N-ROLLERS getting rich off you know who"

**
5. TonyBerr23, August 1, 2021
"This is also a similar problem in the gaming community. We used to get talked about bad for using slang now all the top content creators say sh-t* like “bet” “it’s lit” “vibing ” “bussin”

It’s super cringe and needs to stop"
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

**
6. jamesway, August 1, 2021
"Why dont you guys just create your dance and COPYRIGHT it first then release it, dont treat this like a hobby this is business. When they come to steal your content then they have hell to pay."

**
7. Oshun Cornelius-Ojoh, August 1, 2021
"I really enjoyed this video. It’s important for us older folks who don’t do TikTok to fully understand what’s happening. We know that in our generation, whites stole music routinely and then when history was written, they called themselves the innovators and creators of said music. Country, Blues, Rock and Roll, etc. In fact, historically, remember that Black people were banned from owning patents, so white men patented MILLIONS of Black inventions in their own names. And when we won the right to patent, we became millionaires so often that states then reinstated laws banning us from patenting because we outperformed whites to such a degree.

I digress. Sort of.

My point is that this has been happening literally since we encounter white people. I think the lesson to be learned here is that we have to own our own media. Period. We should not be carrying platforms like TikTok.

And in conclusion, I’m the words of Mos Def, “Elvis Presley/Kenny G ain’t got no soul…Little Richard/John Coltrane is Rock and Roll!”

**
8. bartman2000, August 1, 2021
"Evey time Little Richard looked around, Pat Boone was singing his music.  Stole millions of dollars from Little Richard until young white's wanted to hear from the original artist. They look to us for trends and culture."

**
9. Nita McKeethen, August 1, 2021
"Great reporting, baby girl. So proud of you. Cultural appropriation is nothing new, of course, but it continually needs to be called out. Thank you for doing this."

**
10. Galaxylover, August 1, 2021
"That's y'all fault keep giving away the drip... Fortnite is the worst... They actually selling the dance moves 🤦🏾‍♂"

*️*
11. justjakefornow, August 1, 2021
"Worst part is, after the original creator was discovered and advertised, they still didn't get the amount of money and popularity of these other tik tokers. And what I learned is that a lot of those millions of followers are kids who don't know better, and BIPOC kids who are experiencing forms of body dysmorhpia from their own skin color. It's a terrible cycle."

**

12. Van Morrison. August 1, 2021
"Sister that why they call culture bandits."

**
13. Belinda Wisebey, August 1, 2021
"I told my kids a while back to stop using TikTok they have ulterior motives.....we have to learn to stop supporting organizations and platforms that are disrespectful and disregard our creators. Want to stop it....stop using TikTok."

**
14. Create Not Destroy, August 2, 2021
"But thus has been happing for hundreds of years. Tick Tock is just a tiny drop in the ocean of white theft"

**
15. Notes Smith,August 2, 2021
"This is ÀMERICA, pay attention. Your just getting a dose at

a young age. This is what they do in EVERYTHING!

When someone shows

you who they are

Believe them! "Maya Angelou"

PS I'M like your

grand father....67

PEACE, LOVE and POWER!"

**
16. D Glorious, August 2, 2021

"It goes all the way to that lil Blk boy who started that

'Flossing' dance. They gave all the credit to the 'bookbag' boy and his mother

who went on many TV shows and made lots of money off of something they took and

did not create."

**
17. tenleesmaindancer, August 3, 2021
"And the sad part is Jalaiah got hate for wanting “clout”. All she wanted was her dance to be credited. It’s shouldn’t have been these white creators, not even creators cause they create sh-t*, it should’ve been her"
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

**
17. Sans Equanimity, August 3, 2021
"Thank you for this video. I'm not a tiktok user but I'd seen the strike mentioned on Twitter. This was an excellent explanation & analyses of the situation. Looking forward to checking out more of your content ♡"

**
18. Starla Moon, Augus 3, 2021
"I'm new to TikTok and have yet to make my own. I wondered where those dances came from. It bugs me people aren't getting credit when their work is copied. It's a huge problem on every platform,  unfortunately.  And yes, it's  messed up how many things we've taken from other cultures and passed it off as ours. I just learned about The Lion Sleeps Tonight song's origins. Damn. I never knew that."
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/09/south-african-isicathamiya-music.htmlfor a 1939 sound file of the song "Mbube" by South African singers Soloman Linda And The Evening Birds. That song became "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". 

**
19. MrGrizzWY, August 3, 2021
"Watered down black art ie Elvis"

**
20. Kryptonic 010, August 3, 2021
"Well, on one account you are correct, intellectual rights have been stolen and monetized by races other than ourselves for more than one hundred years, however logically you cannot blame TicTok for the short coming's which you have noted.

Why?  Because like most people who sign up for Internet services upon sign up 99.9% of people just click click click without reading the terms of service which includes the End User License Agreement (EULA).  The key word is READ!

Once you click "I Accept" you are accepting all terms and policies set forth in the contract for using their services so by doing all of this emotional ranting instead of using logic personally I would be embarrassed and quite ashamed of posting this type of video.  It makes you look unintelligent.

For reference I went over to the TikTok sight to verify my conclusion before posting this and I Quote as stated:

" 7. Content.

TikTok Content

As between you and TikTok, ALL content, software, images, text, graphics, illustrations, logos, patents, trademarks, service marks, copyrights, photographs, audio, VIDEOS, music on and “look and feel” of the Services, and all intellectual property rights related thereto (the “TikTok Content”), ARE EITHER OWNED OR LICENSED BY TikTok, it being understood that you or your licensors will own any User Content (as defined below) you upload or transmit through the Services.

Moreover ...

You acknowledge and agree that we may generate revenues, increase goodwill or otherwise increase our value from your use of the Services, including, by way of example and not limitation, through the sale of advertising, sponsorships, promotions, usage data and Gifts (defined below), and except as specifically permitted by us in these Terms or in another agreement you enter into with us, you will have no right to share in any such revenue, goodwill or value whatsoever. You further acknowledge that, except as specifically permitted by us in these Terms or in another agreement you enter into with us, YOU (i) HAVE NO RIGHT to receive any INCOME or other CONSIDERATION from any User Content (defined below) or your use of any musical works, sound recordings or audiovisual clips made available to you on or through the Services, including in ANY USER CONTENT CREATED BY YOU, and (ii) are prohibited from exercising any rights to monetize or obtain consideration from any User Content within the Services or on any third party service ( e.g. , you cannot claim User Content that has been uploaded to a social media platform such as YouTube for monetization)."

https://www.tiktok.com/legal/terms-of-service?lang=en#terms-us

 So before going on an emotional landslide next time please do your research and think critically before signing up for any service.  If you do not like the terms of service for a particular site, don't sign up.

For all y'all creators out there you may want to investigate copyright and trademarks for your intellectual property rights before posting your works for the world to see.

Lastly, know your history so that you do not fall into the same traps our ancestors did.

THINK, THINK, IT AIN'T ILLEGAL YET!

"Lunchmeatophobia (Think!...It Ain't Illegal Yet!)"  1978

Funkadelic

Peace Out ..."

**
21 Romance Jones, August 3, 2021
"Preach little sister, preach on."

**
22. The Mighty Quin. August 4, 2021
"White people are always “creating”,“discovering”, “founding” and “inventing” places and things that have already been created, discovered, found and invented, then act confused like they don’t know what happened 🤦🏽‍♀"

*️*
23. TakenBack, August 5, 2021
"Funny story, I moved middle of my junior year of high school and went to the school that the movie was about. Yes... I was a Toro for a year and a half. That was a very long time ago though.

But I agree, creators/artist need to be given credit.

If you're gonna make a video and do the cabbage patch or running man, No biggie. But if you're taking a new, up & coming or current creator's/artists unique orginal dance and creating a video. Whether that video was just for fun or if your videos are monetized. The creature should be credited and sited via link. If you change that original dance (because you can't do it as well or for any reason).  You should still credit and site. Your description should explain that your video/dance was inspired by "name of dance" & "name of choreographer."

As far as who makes money on what. That will probably be tricky situation. Unless they allow some type of copy right on dance, like there is on music.

Loved your video! Keep doing what you do. Great stuff!"
-snip-
The "Toro" comment refers to the name of one of the majority White cheerleading squad in the 2000 cheerleader movie Bring It On .  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bring_It_On_(film). The new captain of that squad learns that the former captain stole their routine from the majority Black "Clovers" cheerleading squad.

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Black Tik Tok Dance Creators On Strike Since June 19, 2021 Demanding Credit For Their Work (article excerpts)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents three article excerpts about Black Tik Tok dance creators on strike and demanding credit for their work.

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all the Black Tik Tok dance creators who are named and unnamed in these articles. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in these articles.
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Click https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/6/27/2036225/-On-original-Black-music-successful-white-cover-songs-and-a-culture-of-covetousness-and-cruelty for a related  June 27, 2021 online article by Denise Oliver Velezentitled "On original Black music, successful white cover songs, and a culture of covetousness and cruelty"

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EXCERPT #1
From https://news.yahoo.com/black-people-credit-black-tiktok-130054794.html "Give Black People Credit': Black TikTok Stars Strike, Demand Credit For Their Work" by Ruth Etiesit Samuel Fri, July 2, 2021
"Whenever Megan Thee Stallion releases a new song, the floodgates of TikTok open. From “Cry Baby” to “Savage,” the social media app runs rife with multistep dances, complex challenges and various remixes. That is, until Black creators decide to stop making them.

“Normally, once a Megan song comes out, there's a dance that night, a dance within the hour," TikToker Challan Trishann, who prefers to go by Challan T., 22, recently told The Times. "But I [was] noticing that there's no dance" for Stallion's latest song

[…]

Be it Keara Wilson’s “Savage” challenge, Layla Muhammad’s “Twerkulator” dance or the "Renegade" by Jalaiah Harmon, Black creators have birthed some of the biggest phenomena on the internet.

However, as the moves become increasingly widespread — and usurped by white faces — their origins fade into oblivion. While white influencers such as Addison Rae make late-night television show appearances, break records and profit from reality series deals, Black creators are left behind to beg for credit.

Tired of constant cultural and intellectual theft, Black creators on TikTok have been on strike since Juneteenth, refraining from making a dance to Megan Thee Stallion's latest single, “Thot S—.”

A recent Los Angeles transplant, living with other Black TikTokers in a house dubbed “The Crib Around the Corner,” Challan T. is a cosplayer and content creator on the app. Upon realizing the strike was in effect, the Barbados native tweeted June 20, “The way nobody knows what to do…. because we won’t make dances LMFOAJFKFOFKFJFOFK”

[…]

Cincinnati native Keon Martin, 17, stumbled upon a video of white creators waving their arms from side to side when Stallion’s lyrics clearly stated, "hands on my knees, shaking a—, on my thot s—." He then made his own video poking fun at them, which racked up more than 368,000 likes.

“I just think that this is very long overdue. When I first learned that there was a strike, I was in such amazement," Martin told The Times. "Black creators are just really tired of our dances and our trends being stolen. We're not given credit, but a white person can do our trend and walk out with 100,000 followers."

The strike didn’t emerge from thin air. According to Erick Louis, a 21-year-old TikTok star, there has been ongoing discourse prompted by a lyric from “Black Barbies” by Nicki Minaj: "I'm a f— Black Barbie, pretty face, perfect body."

“When you click on a sound, you can see all the videos under it, and it was literally a bunch of white women singing that specific part,” Louis said. “Throughout the week, a lot of people, specifically Black women, were just explaining their uncomfortability with the situation. It didn't seem like white folk were willing to listen. It was a lot of gaslighting going on.”

Two hours before midnight on Juneteenth, Louis posted a video that arguably spurred the no-dance strike.

With "Thot S—" playing in the background and the words “MADE A DANCE TO THIS SONG” lingering above his head, Louis got ready — then waved both middle fingers in the air. The words above him changed to “SIKE. THIS APP WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT BLACK PEOPLE."

“We make the trends ... and when we remove ourselves from the equation ... it's nothing left but mediocrity," Louis told The Times. "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."

[…]

Last summer's heightened activism led TikTok users to add “#blm” to their bios and change their profile pics to fists. However, Louis said many of his videos surrounding Black issues have been taken down overnight and that Black creators who have millions of followers are still not verified on the app.

[…]

There have been complaints that TikTok suppressed Black Lives Matter content after George Floyd's murder, which TikTok said in a statement was due to a glitch.

"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," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement when reached by The Times this week.

[…]

Challan T., who has more than 4 million TikTok followers, said the platform needs to be more active in advancing and championing Black creators. In her experience, there have been multiple instances in which she hasn’t been credited for her work.

She said she often feels uncomfortable asking for credit from those who repost her content without attribution because someone will inevitably push back — and that aversion to crediting Black creators stems from one thing.

“Racism,” Challan T. said with a laugh. “People just don't want to give Black people credit for the things that we make. Because there's a lot of times where a white creator will make a dance, and I'll see that credit in the caption every time. If it's a Black person, it's invalid automatically to some people, and they just don't even want to attempt.”

This lack of credit breeds a familiar disappointment for Black creators, one that transcends the history of TikTok and is emblematic of American pop culture. In September 2019, Georgia native Harmon created the original "Renegade" dance, but a month later, the so-called queen of TikTok, Charli D'Amelio, went viral for the dance.

Only in February 2020 did Harmon finally receive credit after public outrage. On Tuesday, actor Leslie Jordan featured Harmon on his Instagram page, giving her credit for "Renegade."

From AAVE (African American Vernacular English) being reduced to "Gen Z language" on "Saturday Night Live" to Fortnite being accused of stealing popular dances from Black TikTok creators, cultural appropriation is rampant and has tangible, financial ramifications.

“I was hoping that people would see from this that this app actually has no creativity without Black people. So maybe we should actually credit them when they create these things, instead of making it difficult. Credit can take you very far, like crediting @yodelinghaley got her in Doja Cat's music video" for 'Say So,' " said Challan T.

Grace wants to believe that embedding attribution into these platforms shouldn't be such a big ask, but evidently that isn't true. She would like to see TikTok promote Black creators' content on the #ForYou page, which recommends videos curated to users' interests, the same way it does for white creators.

While no one knows how long the strike will last — or whether TikTok will placate concerns with an ephemeral #amplifyblackvoices hashtag and supplemental programs — Black content creators agree that it’s time for TikTok to prove it values Black creators' input and content.

"I would honestly hope [a strike] happens every once in a while just to shake the table a little bit, because it seems like it actually made a difference this time," said Challan T. "People were actually like, 'Whoa, I didn't realize how much you guys do on the app.'"

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-07-02/give-black-people-credit-black-tiktok-creator-are-on-strike-and-demand-change

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EXCERPT #2
From https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/tiktok-strike-highlighted-issues-compensation-race-creator-economy-n1272903

July 4, 2021 By Kalhan Rosenblatt
"On TikTok, when Megan Thee Stallion drops a new song, a dedicated dance trend is not far behind.

But that’s not what happened after the June release of her song “Thot S---.” Instead, Black creators on the app announced a kind of strike, saying they would abstain from creating a dance trend for others to co-opt.

The strike is at least the second time the Black users have held an on-app protest regarding their treatment on the platform, igniting an even larger discussion about ownership, compensation and equity within the digital economy. Black creators and creators of color say they are frustrated and fed up with being major contributors to not only the content and culture of a platform like TikTok but also a driving force behind the popularity of an app run by the $250 billion company ByteDance.

“African American youth have always been early adopters of different social platforms, if it's Twitter, if it was Instagram. Certainly Snapchat, TikTok, Vine," said S. Craig Watkins, director of the Institute for Media Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin. "A whole sort of long laundry list of platforms that Black users were some of the earliest adopters, some of the most inventive content creators, and yet have never been really adequately recognized or compensated for what they bring to those platforms,”

In response to these growing concerns, some major platforms have made attempts to support their Black communities.

After a May 2020 Blackout on TikTok, an on-app protest to fight censorship and other concerns, TikTok announced it would create an incubator for Black creatives as well as a fund to support Black creativity. Other platforms, like YouTube, which announced a fund for Black creatives called the #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund, made similar moves.

But funds and countless statements about the importance of diversity within their communities are hollow when creators of color say they see few systemic, long-reaching benefits.

“Let's stop celebrating creator funds, incremental creator features, and shallow rhetoric about creator empowerment. All of these will fail to solve creators' economic precarity, so long as we fail to fix the fundamental issue, which is OWNERSHIP,” tweeted Li Jin, managing partner at Atelier, an early stage Venture Capital firm.

Jin went on to write that without ownership of their content, creators are merely enriching others.

“Without ownership, creators are ultimately enriching and empowering *someone else* — platform owners — with their work. The value they create is fed back into a system that commoditizes and treats creators as disposable labor,” she wrote.

[…]

But the influencer world is a comparatively new part of the economy, and there is less regulation, less emphasis on compensation for somewhat ephemeral trends, and greater confusion about who is considered the owner of intangible pieces of internet culture.

[…]

These issues also tap into larger societal issues of cultural appropriation and oppression, according to experts like Raven Maragh-Lloyd, an assistant professor of African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

Maragh-Lloyd said unfair labor and compensation practices are not new with the advent of the creator economy and influencer culture, but date back decades and touch every facet of our culture from film to music to fashion. She added that while appropriation and the co-opting of Black creativity in some industries and platforms is more obvious, apps like TikTok are somewhat more complicated.

[…]

Similar to the incidents of appropriation and repackaging of Black culture offline, there are numerous examples of incidents of misappropriated fame and compensation happening online.

One of the most famous examples from recent years is that of Jalaiah Harmon, who choreographed one of TikTok’s biggest dance phenomena, the "Renegade."

Jalaiah created the moves when she was 14, and the dance exploded in popularity on TikTok. However, those who were most associated with the moves, and thus profited off them, were white TikTok stars like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae. In 2020, Forbes listed Rae as the highest-paid TikTok star at $5 million and D’Amelio as the second highest-paid at $4 million. Both made their multimillion-dollar careers, in significant part, by posting dance trend videos to the platform. While Jalaiah has earned brand deals with major companies like Samsung, Netflix and Prada, according to Forbes, it’s unclear how much money she makes.

“On TikTok, these black creators, we run these subcategories. We're at the forefront of dance trends, music, fashion, etc. We drive all this traffic to TikTok, and it feels like that’s all we're there for. We’re black bodies who feed into this system and who give this single, insurmountable amount of popularity to the app, and we don’t get any credit, we don’t get the same clout,” said Erick Louis, 21, a content creator from Orlando, Florida.

One way to ensure that creators are compensated and given ownership of their work would be something akin to a digital labor rights movement, which may already be in its infancy, Watkins said.

It appears that digital labor is already on the minds of some unions. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, a labor union representing performers, announced this year that the union would cover internet influencers and content creators.

“I can imagine, in the not too distant future, these content creators, people who are working in the digital economy, organizing and mobilizing for greater rights, greater power and greater influence in terms of how these platforms operate,” he said.

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EXCERPT #3
From https://www.popdust.com/bring-it-on-tiktok-strike-2653635059.html "Before Its Time: "Bring It On" and the Black TikTok Strike"

If you've watched "Bring It On," the ongoing TikTok drama should feel familiar
by Langa, July 3, 2021
…"Over the years, the first in the Bring It On series has proven its longevity. Why wouldn't it? It has everything: the magnetism of a good high school drama, the tension of a gripping sports film, and an incredible cast including Gabrielle Union and Kirsten Dunst (meanwhile, the only redeeming factor of the sequel, Bring It On: All or Nothing, is that it has a cameo from literally Rihanna).

 [...]

While cultural appropriation has existed in media and entertainment for decades, it finally started making its way into the mainstream lexicon in the mid 2010s, as hip-hop culture and other elements of Black culture started to become more popular.

From Miley Cyrus's twerking phase to the entire Kardashian-Jenner empire, as culture vultures began to profit more and more from cultural appropriation, Bring It On entered the chat. Social media memes circulated as a way to explain what the issue was with cultural appropriation.

 Now, it's back on the brain as people respond Black TikTok creators going on strike. Don't understand why? Rewatch Bring It On.

[…]

In the seminal 2000 film, Dunst plays a cheerleader who is surprised to find that the dances she learned from her former captain were not the originals she thought and had been directly stolen from Union's Black cheer squad in Crenshaw.

The movie is a perfect allegory for what's going on with TikTok — dancing and all.

When the new Meg Thee Stallion song — which was primed and ready for a TikTok dance — was released, Black TikTok creators refused to choreograph dances to the song. Instead, they have been sitting back, watching all attempts at virality to the tune of "Thot Shit" fail.

While some critics of the Black TikTok strike say that most white dancers don't purposely steal from Black creators, Bring It On illustrates the difference between intent and impact.

Though Dunst's character inherits the stolen dances without knowledge of their origin, once she finds out, it's up to her to right the wrong and, beyond just apologizing, go out of her way to make it right with Union's team and never repeat the mistake again.

The film also shows the effect of demonstration and collective action. In order to get recognition for their cheers, the Black cheer squad, the Crenshaw Clovers, could not just say the cheers were their own — they had no clout or power, despite having all the creativity. Instead, they showed up and demonstrated knowing the dances as Dunst and her team performed them.

What the TikTok creators are doing is similar. After so long trying to advocate for themselves with only paltry offerings from giant media companies to show for it — while their pretty, straight, white counterparts cash in giant paychecks — Black TikTok creators took a stand and demonstrated what happened without them: nothing.

[tweet] DEFUND & ABOLISH POLICE, REFUND OUR COMMUNITIES
@BreeNewsome

The TikTok strike truly is amazing b/c it shows not only how US pop culture is built on stealing from Black people, but how the music industry depends on this cycle of theft & white washing in order to monetize the music.
7:47 PM June 24, 2021

[end of tweet]

Part of why Bring It On is such a feel good movie is that the underdogs win. Despite not being the center of the film, Union and the Crenshaw Clovers win the nationals tournament that they could never afford to go to in years prior — with the dances that the Toros had tried to steal.

As TikTok as a platform and the entertainment industry in general watches the strike unfold, we can only hope for an ending to all this as happy and resolute as the one in Bring It On. If this were a movie, the lessons would be learned, Black creators would get the recognition and partnerships they deserved, and TikTok would be less of a cesspool of cultural appropriation and misattribution.

However, history shows us that, most likely, placating gestures will be offered to Black creators, but the pattern will continue. And in a few years, when some other hell-platform emerges and some other element of Black culture is being diluted by the mainstream, we'll dredge up Bring It On references and hope this time something finally sticks."

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