New TikTok Trend Showing White Women ‘Fake Crying’ Raises Concerns Among People of Color

A new fake crying TikTok trend is receiving waves of backlash for being potentially detrimental to Black people.

The trend, which is reported to have originated in June, includes users pretending to cry in front of the camera before the “Turn it off” sound effect plays, which is then followed by the individual abruptly stopping the crying and flashing a sinister grin.

The trend, known as the “Turn It Off Challenge” or “Turn It Off Acting Challenge,” initially started to show off users’ acting skills. But, unfortunately, it has now triggered a conversation regarding white women’s long history of weaponizing their tears to fuel fake accusations, which has caused harm and death to Black people for decades.

Many social media users noted the case of Emmett Till, who was savagely killed in 1955 by a group of white men for supposedly flirting with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant. She would later confess that Till, who was only 14 at the time of his murder, never did anything to her. More recently, the case of Amy Cooper, known as “Central Park Karen,” could have resulted in the death of a Black man when she falsely reported to authorities that bird watcher Christian Cooper was threatening her.

Black disability advocate, Imani Barbarin, took to TikTok to explain why this new trend is not amusing to Black people, who have been hurt due to the weaponization of tears. She explained that the white women featured in the challenge are “regular,” just as the white women who make false accusations against Blacks.

HE IS NOT WRONG! 😳 pic.twitter.com/ehTC9NqJIr

— Caramel skin ass dude! (@deep_dab) June 16, 2021

“That’s exactly what scares us because we could come across any one of these women any single day,” Barbarin explained.

Despite the outrage, the trend is still going strong on the platform.