TikTok's Black Creators FIGHT BACK

Many of the hottest viral stars are white people who got famous doing dances by created Black performers. Now the originators want credit and payment for their work

- Danya Hajjaji

LATE LAST MONTH 10 young dancers and choreographers of color were being honored at a dinner in Los Angeles hosted by the JaQuel Knight Foundation and Logitech. Knight is the choreographer behind Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” and Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” videos, among others. Logitech is a maker of cameras and other computer peripherals.

The honorees—among them TikTok dance creators Keara Wilson (the “Savage” dance), Young Deji (“The Woah” dance), Mya Johnson and Chris Cotter (the “Up” dance) and Shayné and Zhané Stanley (the “Savage Remix” dance)—were surprised by the announcement at the dinner that the star choreographer and the tech company were offering to help each of them secure copyrights for their dances.

The move was the latest in a long struggle by Black artists for recognition and payment, often after their work is adopted by white performers. A current battleground for this fight is TikTok.

TikTok has grown to at least 700 million monthly active users and hosts a huge amount of video content. Since the app’s inception, though, dance has been its reigning art form. Some of the biggest TikTok influencers are white performers who got famous doing dances created by Black dancers.