A recent TikTok video by creator Kylie Brewer claims that many recognizable aspects of American culture were invented and popularized by Black innovators and communities. The video became very engaging for TikTokers.
According to the video, vanilla became popular because of Edmund Albius, who, as Kylie describes him, “is an enslaved Black teenager who was 14 years old”. She also states that “this guy made vanilla into a mass-produced product because he figured out how to quickly pollinate these plants.”
The creator also discusses the origin of the techno music genre, which “was actually invented by Black people in Detroit in the eighties” and now “is associated with a lot of white people in the U.S.” or “white Europeans, when actually, this was purely the creation of a Black person and Black people.”
Discussing food, Kylie says that “white people have co-opted barbecue,” especially in California, where there is a trend of “barbecue restaurants using white people’s recipes that they stole from Black people.” This trend, according to Brewer, “is just a ripoff of the common Southern home cooking,” which “came out of the American South both during slavery and during the Reconstruction era.”
In conclusion, Kylie states her idea straightforwardly: “White people don’t have any culture. We steal it.” Also, she emphasizes that “That has historically been the case, and that is why white people are so angry.”
The video ends with an appeal to TikTok users to provide additional information: “If you know any other inventions created by black people but stolen by white people, drop them in the comments. Okay, bye.”
Watch Kylie Brewer’s TikTok video below!
@kylie.brewer Most things wh!te people LOVE were invented by Black people… Rac!sts love the culture but hate the people💔 #humanrights #education #ushistory #antiracism #sociology
♬ original sound – Kylie Brewer💝
