The #WhiteGirlsDoItBetter hashtag has sparked a considerable amount of Twitter backlash over the past week. No suprise there.
At first, the hashtag accompanied selfies of white women as a way to promote racist ideas and commentary about the ways white women are "better" than black women. The hashtag also has roots in social media for porn sites that promote videos of white women with black men.
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So, an inauspicious and ill-advised beginning for a social media campaign.
#WhiteGirlWendsday #WhiteGirls #WhiteGirlsDoItBetter pic.twitter.com/1GmUxpGrsO— Short Cake ♡ (@_BunnyBaby__) November 19, 2014
The Internet responded appropriately, setting out to eliminate the hateful nature of the hasthag. Twitter users started to reappropriate the hashtag, using it to accompany snarky remarks.
#WhiteGirlsDoItBetter at making a tag that degrades other races and getting mad when the tag gets turned around on them— juh gurl sums (@summera__) July 12, 2015
The offensive tweets associated with the hashtag were quickly buried.
#WhiteGirlsDoItBetter Coming in 2nd place pic.twitter.com/FHlVR6FHiQ— Isaiah Williams (@IsaiahWJ_) July 12, 2015
#WhiteGirlsDoItBetter ... anyways pic.twitter.com/NmlHl0d2vJ— chanai (@godmanikordslay) July 11, 2015
#WhiteGirlsDoItBetter do what better? burn in the sun? steal cultures? exclude woc in their feminist movements? age every 5 seconds?— #1 kimberlysus hater (@apunkfemme) July 11, 2015
I mean if black, Hispanic, and middle-eastern women didn't exist...sure... #WhiteGirlsDoItBetter— Aaron Abiff Hylton (@bighylton) July 11, 2015
I don't get how anyone can argue that #WhiteGirlsDoItBetter when the queen of the world is black pic.twitter.com/TMngsu1D5n— Kima (@KimaAnderson21) July 10, 2015
The #WhiteGirlsDoItBetter hashtag explained in 30 seconds pic.twitter.com/vw3qykm0Po— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) July 11, 2015
Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg even used the hashtag for one of Kylie Jenner's Instagram posts, which showed the model sporting a set of corn rows with the caption "I woke up like disss."
I woke up like disss A photo posted by King Kylie (@kyliejenner) on Jul 11, 2015 at 11:12am PDT
"When u appropriate black features and culture but fail to use ur position of power to help black Americans by directing attention towards ur wigs instead of police brutality or racism #whitegirlsdoitbetter," Stenberg wrote.
Oop!!! The shade is real !!! #KylieJenner vs #AmandlaStenberg !! #ClapBackSeason A photo posted by The Shade Room (@theshaderoominc) on Jul 11, 2015 at 9:08pm PDT
Kylie responded by throwing some shade, but it merely fizzled amid the burn.
Other Twitter users, however, are urging people to take a step back and stop enhancing racial divisions.
So we have two hashtags #WhiteGirlsDoItBetter and #BlackGirlsDoItBetter both promote racial competition and demean one another please stop— King A.Gatsby (@KingGatsby_) July 11, 2015
This whole #WhiteGirlsDoItBetter is dumb. Every girl, every race is just as beautiful! #multiculturalsquad pic.twitter.com/z83jVOZFqI— Brielle Angelique (@BrielleAngeliqu) July 11, 2015
So rest in peace, #WhiteGirlsDoItBetter, and let this be a lesson.
Instead of #WhiteGirlsDoItBetter, how about #AllGirlsDoItBetter? The competition is ridiculous and all races are beautiful in their own way.— Maddie (@ScandalAddicted) July 11, 2015