The Brief: The "Animal Crackers In My Soup" TikTok trend calls out issues surrounding creators lip-syncing racial slurs.
DEEP DIVE
TikTokers are pointing out how easy it is for their fellow peers to omit racial slurs when singing a-long to popular songs by lip-syncing and dancing to Shirley Temple’s “Animal Crackers In My Soup.”
The trend, started by @Nigeriasblessing, sees her performing choreo and signing “shhh” when the word “crackers” comes up. The word refers to children’s snacks in the song, but it is also a slang term that refers to white people as slave owners who cracked whips.
“Crackers” is considered a derogatory term, but is not a racial slur and doesn’t carry the same violent weight as the N-word.
@Nigeriasblessing captioned her video, “I promise I didn’t say it y’all.”
@b1essing._ i promise i didn’t say it y’all! 😫 #sharecopylink #fyp #FreezeFramePhoto #foryoupage #dance
Her Aug. 28 TikTok garnered 363,000 likes, 1.4 million views, and a slew of satirical comments poking fun at the messages typically found under controversial videos involving racial slurs.
The TikTok hinges on the fact that Black creators are able to easily skip over “crackers.” It points out the hypocrisy of non-Black creators saying or lip-syncing the N-word rather than skipping it.
The video highlights a prominent issue on TikTok and overall music culture around the N-word. While many believe the word shouldn’t be uttered by those who aren’t a part of the Black community, some critics have questioned if the rule applies when the word is part of a song or if the word isn’t deemed as offensive if no harm was intended.
The “Animal Crackers In My Soup” trend is popular among creators of color. There are over 45,000 videos linked to the sound.
@Nm1lllz1’s TikTok featured the on-screen text “See its not [sic] that hard to not say the c-word.” The video was also captioned, “Some actually just gave me the C-word pass.”
@nm1lllz1 Some actually just gave me the C-word pass🙈 <3 #TimeforTENET #VinylCheck #cword #fyp #xyzcba
@Rynnstar’s TikTok was captioned, “Guys its fine I dated a white guy once he gave me a C-word pass.”
@rynnstar Don’t be a ❄️
Other videos:
@ragingzoomer smh 🤦🏼 it’s 2020 stop oppressing white ppl 🙄✋🏻 #TimeforTENET #VinylCheck
@wh0.nia dc: @nigeriasblessing 🤍i added my own little part at the end