After Drew Barrymore shared a video of herself frolicking in the rain, one angry TikToker claimed the actress is racist for copying a trend started by black men.
In the video, Barrymore is seen happily walking around in the rain. “Whenever you can, go out into the rain! Do not miss the opportunity,” she said.
Shortly after she posted the clip, a fellow TikTok user with the handle @amushroomblackly uploaded her response criticizing Barrymore’s video.
“You and I both know you are capable of enjoying the rain, frolicking freely, without filming it and posting it to TikTok,” the woman said.
She then said Barrymore “cosigned people who just go out of their way to disrespect and dismiss the boundaries that black creators have set.”
“And now you’re one of those people,” she said while pointing to the camera.
The angry response video was shared on the Libs of TikTok’s Twitter account. “Frolicking the rain is now racist,” the account said.
The frolicking trend reportedly originated in May and featured black men happily running around in fields or other natural settings.
“I guess my question would be why is it so important to all of you to treat us like we don’t matter?” @amushroomblackly said.
After one video on TikTok went viral, the hashtag #blackmenfrolicking was used more than 600k times on the platform.
Many people were confused with the TikToker’s response to Barrymore’s video.
Chicago mayoral candidate Bradley Laborman tweeted, “Children are literally getting bombed in #Tigray and you are focusing on one woman (desperate for views) calling Drew Barrymore a racist for dancing in the rain? Lets get the important stuff trending…”.
“I’m so utterly confused. Somebody, please explain to the connection between frolicking in the rain and black people?” said politician Shukri Abdullahi Abdirahman.
Actress Yvette Nicole Brown tweeted “1) It is NOT racist for Drew to enjoy the rain. 2) She was not mocking the beautiful video of our brothers frolicking. Calling everything racist provides cover for actual racists.”
The TikToker posted several follow-up videos defending her original one.
“Aw poor Drew had a hard childhood, said the white woman to the black woman,” she said in one of them.
The woman did not believe the responses she got, claiming people want to “dismiss my opinion on my own TikTok, but defend Drew.”
She also said Barrymore “opened the floodgates for people who disrespect black creators.” “This is ridiculous, ya’ll are so reactionary… I said what I said,” she concluded.
