About

The CIA Won is a catchphrase used in discourse and memes about the CIA's alleged involvement in suppressing the Black community in the United States, with several Black content creators posting memes and jokes about cultural habits they believe are a CIA psyop designed to oppress Black people. Memes that claim that the "CIA Won" or that the "CIA is on holiday" often aim to highlight a video showing young Black people engaging in drug use or gun violence, or highlight creators like Sexyy Red and the "20 vs. 1" YouTube video format. Memes about the CIA winning began gaining traction on TikTok in early 2025. In May and June 2025, memes combining videos of TikToker Jersey Joe dancing to the song "STILL WEEZY" by Playboi Carti began making the rounds online, oftentimes accompanied by a joke about CIA agents going on vacation after a successful psyop.

Origin

The CIA has long been accused of playing a role in undermining Black communities, particularly through the spread of crack cocaine in the 1980s.^[8]

According to the New York Times,^[1] journalist Gary Webb’s 1996 Dark Alliance series alleged that the CIA turned a blind eye as Nicaraguan Contras trafficked cocaine into the U.S., fueling the crack epidemic in Black neighborhoods to fund anti-communist efforts abroad. This coincided with Reagan-era policies like the War on Drugs, which disproportionately targeted Black Americans.^[9]

Though official investigations denied CIA complicity, the idea that the CIA introduced cocaine into the Black community has prevailed, especially in meme culture, and has expanded to encompass supposed "psyops" supposedly created to suppress the African American population.

Memes about how the CIA "won" the war against the Black community can be traced as far back as 2023, with X^[7] user @MrM8rix tweeting "The CIA won" in response to a video of a young Black drill rapper on June 1st, 2023. The meme received over 5.4 million views, 57,000 likes and 390 replies in two years.

The CIA won https://t.co/v0Uhhi8Lwx

— Trupac (@MrM8rix) June 1, 2023

On January 31st, 2025, TikToker^[2] @avrgconsumer1 posted a video criticizing a corporate collaboration between Don Julio and Popeyes, jokingly calling it a CIA psyop and urging people in his community to avoid buying into it. The video gathered over 2 million plays and 420,000 likes in five months.

Spread

On March 30th, 2025, TikToker^[3] @kosizam posted a video writing, "A '20v1' show was just greenlit by Netflix… the CIA continues to win," referencing a popular speed-dating style YouTube show where someone encounters 20 people of the opposite sex and must choose who they want to date. The video gathered over 240,000 plays and 40,000 likes in three months.

On April 14th, TikToker^[4] @ybg.jay1 posted a video listing off a number of cultural events and people they believe to be CIA psyops, including the War on Drugs, the Missouri rapper Sexyy Red and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat. The post gathered over 300,000 plays and 40,000 likes in two months.

Jersey Joe CIA Celebrating Dance Edits

In May 2025, TikTokers began using clips of TikTok dancer Jersey Joe and the song "LIKE WEEZY" by rapper Playboi Carti to joke about the CIA celebrating their successful plots against the Black community.

On May 11th, TikToker^[5] @stillestranged wrote, "The cia after successfully convincing us we're onto them when we haven't even scratched the surface," gathering over 160,000 plays and 40,000 likes in a month.

On May 12th, 2025, TikToker^[6] @kraftablegenuis posted a similar video, showing Jersey Joe dancing to the same track alongside a caption that read, "The CIA after seeing the younger generation CHOOSING to be gangsters rather then a law abiding citizens," gathering over 700,000 plays and 140,000 likes in a month.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References