About

Black Men As A Whole Are Failing refers to a viral video where TikToker @cocotheelawyer claims Black men are not held accountable for their crimes and shortcomings, offering a number of statistics to back up her claims. The video was posted and remixed with rapper Kankan's song "Wokeup" in November 2021 and became the subject of a trend where Black men post videos and images of themselves succeeding over it, often using the quote as a catchphrase. The trend inspired parodies in 2022 where white men post similar videos under the trend, ironically claiming to be Black.

Origin

On October 24th, 2022, TikToker^[1][2] @cocotheelawyer posted a video saying she's "divesting" from Black men, meaning she isn't defending them anymore because they're not held accountable for their wrongdoings (shown below, left). In the video she makes several blanket statements, such as saying the majority of Black men are misogynistic, mentioning the absentee father rate and ultimately suggesting they aren't helping the Black community move forward and evolve. On October 28th, she posted a follow-up video (shown below, right) speaking further on the topic, saying those who disagree are acting too emotionally and not considering the stats. At one point she says, "Black men as a whole are failing." The video gained over 122,000 views in five months. The comments and Duets were turned off.

Spread

On November 8th, 2021, TikToker^[3] @luhvroxy posted a video remixing @cocotheelawyer's video with "Wokeup" by Kankan, following it with several images of himself under the captions "WE UP👺," suggesting he's succeeding in life, gaining over 500,000 views in four months (shown below).

The original sound inspired over 5,500 videos in four months and started a trend where Black men post similar videos showing their successes over the song. For example, on November 11th, TikToker^[4] @cjgrabracksoutthebag posted a video following the trend, gaining over 689,000 views in four months (shown below, left). The next day, TikToker^[5] @vibewityou posted a video following the trend showing various successful Black men, gaining over 440,000 views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On March 1st, 2022, TikToker^[6] @ethanjacksonx, a white man, posted a video following the trend showing clips of him graduating and playing basketball under the caption "CAP we up," gaining over 1.4 million views in three weeks (shown below, left). Later that month, TikToker^[7] @manlikeisaac posted a video responding to a Black man who called Ethan out for using the word "we" in his video, writing, "He meant exactly what he said," then transitioning to a slideshow of photoshops with him and Ethan, gaining over 5.6 million views in four days (shown below, right).

The virality of Ethan's video inspired more white men to post-ironic videos to the sound, suggesting they're a Black man thriving. On March 4th, TikToker^[8] @thisisnotcookie, known for the Bro Tried To Sneak In Nebraska trend, posted a video to the sound, gaining over 215,000 views in three weeks (shown below).

On March 19th, TikTokers^[9][10] @johnmannion22 and @robbydevries posted videos following the trend in the same way, gaining over 600,000 views each in five days (shown below, left and right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References