Here’s why Addison Rae’s TikTok dances on 'The Tonight Show' are getting some well-deserved backlash

If you've ever stepped foot near TikTok, then you're probably familiar with Addison Rae, the highest-earning user on the platform who rose to fame with her dancing videos, and made $5 million just last year off of it, according to Forbes.

In an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday night, Rae performed eight popular TikTok dances with an unmoving and somewhat chilling smile, as Fallon silently stood by moving through cue cards prompting each dance. It was... a moment.

As the clip went viral over the weekend, many on social media rightfully called out Fallon and Rae for neglecting to name the creators of the dances, and for having a white woman perform choreography that was actually made up by mostly Black entertainers. And, in fact, this is the second time Fallon has done a TikTok dance segment, the first one featuring the also white Charli D'Amelio performing them.

The dances included Noah Schnapp's "Do It Again," Jason Derulo's "Savage Love," @yvnggprince's "Corvette Corvette," @2flyymy's "Laffy Taffy," Keara Wilson's "Savage," @macdaddyz's "Blinding Lights," @theemyanicole's "Up" and @thegilberttwins's "Fergalicious."

Twitter user @fancycatxo called out the clip, writing, "Stealing from black entertainers and having white 'creators' regurgitate it to the masses is american history 101." @ginfueledbrat added, "This would have been the perfect opportunity for you to lead by example and in giving Black creators their due credit. This opportunity could have been huge for them. But no, you chose to display a white girl who's already got a damn career doing this shit. This sucks, do better." Others asked why the Black creators weren't invited on the show to perform their choreography.

This, however, is not a new phenomenon or exclusive to Fallon. Since the beginning of TikTok, it's the white users who have most profited, often by co-opting dance routines by dancers of colour. D'Amelio, for example, shot to fame (and banked $4 million last year) when she performed Jalaiah Harmon's "Renegade," and was often mistakenly credited for creating it. Harmon later told The New York Times, "I was happy when I saw my dance all over, but I wanted credit for it."

Not to mention, neither Rae nor D'Amelio manage to perform these dances with the oomph their creators do. 

As @musicconvos tweeted, "Addison Rae on Fallon is a prime example of how mediocre and basic white girls talent have to be to get far meanwhile she build her whole brand off of stealing tick tok’s from black girls...let me know when y’all ready to talk about how the media pushes WHITE."

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