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Origins of the ‘Here’s What You Would Look Like If You Were Black Or Chinese’ meme

August 16, 2024

The Black or Chinese meme (aka ‘Here’s What You Would Look Like if You Were Black or Chinese‘) is a series of posts referring to an online Faceswapping trend in which selfies are filtered through FaceApp or similar programs to render the user Black or Asian.

The trend was started on X (formerly Twitter) by user @VLONEPREDATOR and in December 2023, the format spread on the platform. @VLONEPREDATOR’s smiling buck tooth profile picture became closely associated with the meme.

Where did the Black or Chinese meme come from?

In @VLONEPREDATOR’s original ‘Black or Chinese’ post from December 6th, 2023. , OP quoted someone’s selfie and shared edited versions of the photo in which they appear “black” or “Chinese.” The post received over 5k likes in a month.

First black or chinese post by @Vlonepredator — Origins of the ‘Here’s What You Would Look Like If You Were Black Or Chinese’ meme

Spread of the meme

@VLONEPREDATOR tweet created several more posts with a similar structure in the days following the original post, altering selfies shared by women on their social media accounts. On December 9th, for instance, @VLONEPREDATOR posted a version of the meme that received over 390 reposts and 8.4k likes in four days.

black or chinese post by @Vlonepredator — Origins of the ‘Here’s What You Would Look Like If You Were Black Or Chinese’ meme

The next day, @VLONEPREDATOR posted another variation which saw 2.9k reposts and 44k likes in its first three days.

By the middle of that month, others began joining @VLONEPREDATOR in this trend, with many posting memes referencing it. On December 11th, X user @RAPGD_ posted an image that received 120 reposts and 2.1k likes over two days.

black or chinese post by @RAPGD_ of @RobTopGames — Origins of the ‘Here’s What You Would Look Like If You Were Black Or Chinese’ meme

The next day, @dyingscribe posted an American Psycho Business Card Scene meme that referenced the Black or Chinese trend. The post received over 810 reposts and 18k likes in a single day.

black or chinese meme based on American Psycho business card meme — Origins of the ‘Here’s What You Would Look Like If You Were Black Or Chinese’ meme

Today, @VLONEPREDATOR is still going strong with the Black or Chinese memes, most recently posting one for Vice Presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance. Black or Chinese memes were also made about the summer Olympics.

black or chinese post by @Vlonepredator of Simone Biles — Origins of the ‘Here’s What You Would Look Like If You Were Black Or Chinese’ meme

Attempted doxxing of @VLONEPREDATOR

The Black or Chinese meme’s creator, @VLONEPREDATOR faced a doxxing attempt on January 6th, 2024, when an anonymous user on X (now suspended) posted an image of a person they claimed to be @VLONEPREDATOR.

Rather than confirm or deny, or even make a big stink out of it, @VLONEPREDATOR posted photoshopped versions of the person later that day, as, you guessed it, Black and Chinese. “Here’s what i would look like if i was black or chinese” read the caption.

Relation to the Smiling Buck Tooth Emoji

While @VLONEPREDATOR’s identity may or may not have been confirmed by the anonymous X user, his profile image became known far and wide on the internet. The Smiling Buck Tooth emoji was used widely on X, Instagram, and elsewhere as a reaction image in late 2023.