Jimmy Fallon, Addison Rae face backlash for performance of Black creators’ dances
The 'Tonight Show' host and TikTok star almost immediately got heat on social media for Friday night's bit.
A clip from last week’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon has gone viral, and not in the good way. Fallon and Addison Rae are facing backlash for their performance of TikTok dances, many of which were made by Black creators.
Rae found fast internet fame last year, becoming one of the first true TikTok stars Now with her own music and a leading role in a major motion picture, Rae has been able to take her success on the internet and turn it into major moves in the industry. That, of course, lead to her first appearance on one of the biggest shows in late night, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. While the appearance seemed to be an exciting step for the social-media personality, one of her big segments on the episode seemed to fall flat with viewers.
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In Addison Rae Teaches Jimmy 8 TikTok Dances, Rae proceeds to dance moves of popular TikTok dance routines, “teaching” Fallon, who eventually dances as well. While Rae is indeed a popular TikTok personality, Tonight Show viewers were quick to point out on social media that almost all of the hot moves on the app are made by Black creators. Almost immediately, Fallon and Rae were trending on Twitter, with many Black users rolling their eyes at what they felt was a tone-deaf bit.
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The View co-host Sunny Hostin immediately tweeted her thoughts, writing: “This is a miss @jimmyfallon. Let’s give credit to the black creators……” Others also responded directly to Fallon’s tweet, calling him out for not crediting any of the dances’ innovators.
“This would have been the perfect opportunity for you to lead by example and in giving Black creators their due credit,” one user wrote. “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 sh–. This sucks, do better.”
Folks on Twitter started posting the show footage and directly comparing it with Black TikTok users doing the same dances. One video shows Rae’s footage in a side-by-side video next to TikTok user @theemyanicole as they both do the “Up” challenge. Fans were quick to call “mediocre” Rae’s iterations.
Rae recently responded to all of the backlash in a video obtained by TMZ, saying Black creators “definitely deserve all the credit.”
In the clip, she maintains, “they all know that I love them so much, and, I mean, I support all of them so much. And hopefully, one day, we can all meet up and dance together.”
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