Last week, Jimmy Fallon had TikToker Addison Rae on The Tonight Show to promote her new music. One of the segments they did together was Addison teaching him some viral TikTok dances and, almost immediately, the internet was NOT HAVING IT.
The number one critique was that Jimmy highlighted Addison Rae in this moment without highlighting the original creators:
@jimmyfallon @whoisaddison This would have been the perfect opportunity for you to lead by example and in giving Black creators their due credit. This opportunity could have been huge for them. But no, you chose to display a white girl who's already got a damn career doing this shit. This sucks, do better
Like, I get it! Addison Rae is a big name and she was on a publicity tour for her single — but if this is what you wanted to do, there was a way you could have also included the originators so it didn't look like these moves came from the mind of Addison Rae.
@jimmyfallon
^^ What we were ALL thinking.
I'll be the first to say, I don't like giving men credit, but I also give credit where credit is due. Instead of just apologizing and ~promising to do better~, Jimmy Fallon brought on the creators of these viral dances and shined the spotlight on them:
View this video on YouTube
The segment included Mya Nicole Johnson and Chris Cotter, who created the "Up" dance:
Dorien Scott, who created the "Corvette Corvette" dance:
Fur-Quan Powell, who created the "Laffy Taffy" remix, and Camyra Franklin, who created the accompanying dance:
Adam Snyder, Nate Nale, and Greg Dahl, who created the "Blinding Lights" dance:
And last, but not least, Keara Wilson, who created the "Savage" dance:
I truly loved this video because A) I got to know more about the creators, and B) they were given a massive platform to shine/strut their stuff!
Everyone else should take notes on how to properly respond to a situation like this.
Be sure to watch the full video to learn more about these TikTokers and follow them on the app for more amazing content!
