Roy Wood Jr. is in on the joke when it comes to 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The comedian started a viral trending topic on X (Twitter), #WhenITurnedBlack, following Trump’s false comments that Vice President Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black” a few years ago. Wood took to social media on Wednesday to jokingly ask his followers when they turned Black.
“We now know Kamala’s brave story,” the comedian wrote alongside a video of Trump speaking about Harris at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago. “When did the rest of you “turn” black? How old were you? Where were you when the blackness finally took over your body? Share your stories. This is a safe space. #WhenITurnedBlack.”
Wood’s followers were quick to respond to his call with one X user commenting, “I turned Black the first time I played the big joker in spades. It was quite a momentous occasion #WhenITurnedBlack.”
ESPN’s Elle Duncan wrote, “Once I was at a party. And before I knew it I was taken over by the spirit of dance. Struck.. not by Cupid’s arrow but rather.. his shuffle. Then I knew…..I’m a black.”
Another X user, LaBrina, commented, “#WhenITurnedBlack I remember it in the 80s when mother returned from her black job took us to the store and uttered: ‘When we get in here, you don’t want nothing, you don’t need nothing, don’t ask for nothing’!!!”
Wood explained his decision to start the hashtag in a statement to The Daily Beast, saying “All in all, I still believe that this is an election that is about Kamala’s ability to win voters (undecided and apatheic) than it is about Trump losing voters.”
“Biden handed her a baton, and Kamala must now run like the wind because it doesn’t seem like anything will trip up Trump—not even honest questions from great NABJ journalists who gave push back when they could,” Wood added.
Wood went on to say that Harris’ team “had a reply ready faster than a Kendrick diss,” referencing a statement the Harris campaign released in which they addressed Trump’s lies about her race.
“Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency — while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in,” the statement read. “Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us.”
While speaking at a convention forum on Wednesday, Trump questioned Harris’ race, implying that she is not really Black. The vice president, the child of an Indian-American mother and Jamaican-American father, identifies as both Black and South Asian.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black,” Trump told NABJ members. “And now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”