Black men and women share the racist messages that they have received on dating apps

Sending the first message to someone after matching with a potential hook-up is understandably nerve-wracking, but even basic decorum and racial sensitivity can’t be taken for granted, as many people have discovered this week.

A viral Twitter thread has helped expose some of the crass and racist messages that many Black men receive while on dating apps.

The thread was started by @Ayyys_99 who shared a screenshot of a message he had received from a woman which simply said ‘BLM’ as well as a Black fist, despite the woman being white in her profile picture.

It’s hard to imagine that a three-letter-and-one-emoji message could be this problematic, but it somehow manages to show a shockingly offensive appropriation of the anti-racism movement for no real reason.

As @Ayyys_99 said “What am I supposed to reply to this????”

The tweet, which was posted on 24 January, has since been shared more than 20,000 times and received hundreds of replies from people who have experienced similar examples of inconsiderate, ill-conceived and flat-out racists messages.

Black women have also been subjected to similar abuse, including ‘White Lives Matters.’

Going back to @Ayyys_99 ‘s original message – the woman followed up and bragged about being ’Twitter famous’ after noticing that her message had gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

Racism on dating apps is nothing new – people of colour have been highlighting the issue for years. 

However, the Black Lives Matter movement which swept the globe last summer helped highlight these issues further and led to Grindr to removing the race filter from its app. 

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