About

Who Started Racism, also known as Who Created Racism or Who Invented Racism, is a Google Search meme series in which someone is shown searching for the person who "started racism" only to be shocked at the result supposedly given by the search results. The exploitable meme proliferated on TikTok in late 2022 and early 2023 with the song "Sweet Dreams" typically being used as the background audio. The meme series shares similarities to other Google Search-based formats such as How Long Do Emos Live and How Old Is…?

Origin

Prior to the TikTok trend, memes about Google searches and "who invented racism" have existed as parts of other Google Search trends, with a meme uploaded to /r/memes on November 9th, 2019, by Redditor wellwellwells4^[1] being one of the earliest examples of a Google search about racism being used as a meme. The post earned over 860 upvotes in three years (shown below).

On October 29th, 2022, the "Who Created Racism" format then emerged on TikTok, with one of the first examples being uploaded by TikToker da_hood_freddy_official6^[2] in which the answer is slowly revealed to be Dhar Mann from the well-known YouTube series Dhar Mann Studios, earning over 1,200 likes in eight months (shown below).

Spread

On November 27th, 2022, TikToker poop.on.hat^[3] uploaded another example showing that the answer to the question on Google was supposedly the Red M&M, earning over 420,000 likes in seven months (shown below).

The meme hit its peak in May 2023 with several different ones being uploaded to TikTok in a short period of time. The most viral example, which was uploaded on April 11th, 2023, received over 450,000 likes in one month, while a reaction to it that was uploaded on May 10th by TikToker lilturtleofficial^[4] received over 1.6 million likes in two weeks (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References