Photo: @semi_the_graduate, @briezy47/TikTok
He made implausible racist claims, so Black TikTokers united to expose him in a hilarious way.
By John Sundholm — Written on Feb 13, 2023
Interracial dating can sometimes present unique challenges — especially since people so frequently feel entitled to comment on mixed-race couples.
One man on TikTok recently claimed that his experiences went to a whole other level.
Life coach and podcaster Will Cameron claimed he got so much blowback that he has sworn off dating Black women entirely.
But unlike what most of us would expect, he claimed it wasn't other white people who had a problem with his interracial dating, but rather Black men who gave him backlash.
If that seems suspicious to you — not to mention suspiciously racist — you're not alone.
After Cameron's TikTok went viral, several Black TikTokers have claimed to be the women he dated, and they say his story is a lie.
Even with the most charitable reading, Cameron's tale seems rather strange.
For starters, it wasn't in response to anyone else's interracial dating experience or a question about his own — it was posted unsolicited, apropos of nothing.
More important, it falls in lockstep with long-held racist stereotypes about the supposedly dangerous and belligerent nature of Black men.
The life coach said he 'feels resistant' toward dating Black women because of threats he received from Black men.
Cameron's video has since been deleted, as has his entire TikTok profile, but it lives on in the form of stitches and duets.
Cameron, a self-proclaimed sex and porn addiction coach for men, claimed he has dated three different Black women.
He said that on two of the dates, he received aggressive stares from Black men angry he was with a Black woman, and on the third date, things escalated, with the woman being harassed instead of him.
He claimed the pattern of aggression on the part of Black men was so clear that he was posting the story to see if others had had similar experiences.
Black women on TikTok have called out Cameron's claims with what seems to be an elaborate joke mocking his racial biases.
TikToker @Briezy47 claimed to be the woman Cameron said was harassed by Black men while on a date with him.
She claimed the only attention she and Cameron received from Black men was positive, including one who invited him to play basketball with him and his friends.
She then received a response from a fellow TikToker going along with the joke, corroborating her story and claiming to be one of the Black men she and Cameron interacted with.
The whole thing seems to definitely be a joke — Cameron says the incident happened in Montreal where he lives, while the other TikTokers all seem to be Americans.
And many commenters on the videos seem to be well aware that the whole thing is an elaborate prank.
It since quickly expanded into a hilarious web of accusations mirroring the absurdity of Cameron's own.
Another TikToker claimed Cameron ditched her at a restaurant because he felt threatened by a Black busboy.
In a multi-part story, she said Cameron wooed her in a grocery store and then invited her out for brunch.
But when she had a conversation with a Black busy she went to school with, she said he quickly turned on her and stiffed her with the restaurant bill.
Several other Black women kept the joke going too, claiming to have either dated Cameron or to have witnessed his interactions with Black men.
The joke continued to escalate until one woman claimed to have just given birth to Cameron's baby and threatened him with legal action.
Upping the stakes on the joke, TikToker "@semi_the_graduate" filmed her response from what appeared to be the hospital bed in which she was recovering after giving birth to Cameron's child.
She continued upping the stakes with more videos claiming all of her children are Cameron's, that he sent her a cease and desist, and that she would be suing him for child support.
She also claimed that the date one of the other women claimed to have gone on with Cameron occurred while she was giving birth to his child.
Even as hilariously absurd as it all became, each woman's performance has been so convincing that some commenters said they could not tell if any of this was real or fake.
But one woman actually revealed that her accusation was fake, and perfectly laid out the point of the joke in the process.
TikTokers @gardens_n_ghettos' story about Cameron was at first just like all the others.
She said she went on a date with him and that not only did Black men not have a problem with it, but they also complimented him for showing a Black woman love.
But at the end of the story, she flipped the script, deadpanning, "And all this s--t I just told y'all I made up, just like all that s--t Cam told y'all he made up."
She then put an even finer point on things. "He a liar, he don't deserve Black women, and we don't want his a--."
It's of course possible Cameron was telling the truth about his dating experiences — we do live in incredibly fraught times when it comes to race, after all.
But whereas that climate can create uncomfortable inconveniences for someone like Cameron, it can and all too often is deadly for Black people.
Given that, trafficking in age-old stereotypes about Black people in the pursuit of a viral TikTok moment is a choice that's difficult to understand, let alone defend.
Whether he was telling the truth or not, @gardens_n_ghettos' take on the whole thing is pretty hard to argue with.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.