Tik Tok is a platform where people from all around the world give out entertainment to people behind the screen, for people to relate by uplifting others no matter what size, race, skin tone, religion, or sexuality. It is a way to bring people together and have laughter towards one other, but lately it has become a toxic place where it is bringing down people of color, making fun of people who are autistic, as well as transgender people. People are normalizing way too much stuff on tik tok and it needs to be addressed.
Tik Tok the company has been called out for being racist towards people who see the unfairness and being shadowbanned for spreading information that may help viewers understand what is going on Tik Tok.
Racism on Tik Tok has been going on for quite some time and it has become out of hand, people have been noticing that non-Black creators choose to say words that are offensive towards people of color or their skin tone. Not only do they start to hate but sometimes they do not support the movement on what the message is being shown for what is really going on in the world. People choose to say offensive comments towards people of color thinking the ‘N’ word is not just a word: it has a bad history behind it that we have to live with for the rest of our lives, know the meaning of it before you say it or assume it’s just a word.
It has not only been racism but it also been colorism and degrading of Black women, and fetishizing over Black men and women, like Miree, a youtuber content creator stated “they fetishize over us and they don’t treat us like we’re normal human beings, they see Black women as objects, and over sexualize us and we’re not taking them seriously.” Not only do non-Black men look at Black women as objects but some Black men will sit and make a joke on Black women spitting hatred on their own people. Which hurts many little Black girls who have low self esteem and feel they’re not good enough because their skin color is too dark in a world full of hate and that you must match the beauty standards in America.
It is sad that many people see Black women as objects rather than human beings and many people “like” Black girls to only get a fan base and get attention when they know they don’t. They also feel the need to degrade on Black and Latina women putting them in groups and stereotyping them by calling them derogatory names. People will literally make fun of Black women for being ‘ghetto’ and wearing weaves but uplift another race.
Racism has become so real on Tik Tok that people are starting to make it a trend. It is humiliating that parts of this generation have not been taught that racism is wrong and it should never be used in a laughing manner. Miree states that “Times have changed but it has not truly changed. There is still hate towards certain groups of people.” People find slavery, police brutality, etc… a joke but it’s not this is real stuff happening in this world and racism in 2020 should not be normalized anywhere. Instead of canceling each other out, we learn how to educate one another from right to wrong, yes we’re all teenagers but it is never too late to learn something new.”
