Broke Ass / Strong and Independent

About

Broke Ass / Strong and Independent is an image macro showing a side-by-side comparison of a Black male McDonald's worker described as "broke ass" and a Black female McDonald's worker described as "strong and independent." The image has been used as a reaction image and exploitable' to comment on the way people will angrily discuss a certain situation but discuss a similar situation with praise and adoration.

Origin

The earliest known post of the image came on March 20th, 2020, when Redditor khan_shakirr posted the image in the /r/memes^[1] subreddit, where it gained over 90 points in two and a half years (shown below).

Spread

The image began growing as a reaction image meme in the summer of 2022. It started seeing use particularly when Drake released Honestly, Whatever on June 17th, 2022. For example, on June 20th, Twitter user @blxcksaint^[2] used it to compare Drake and Beyoncé's album, gaining over 1,500 retweets and 9,400 likes in roughly three months (shown below, left). On June 22nd, Twitter user @LAxFLAME^[3] posted the image comparing Drake and Kendrick Lamar, gaining over 4,100 retweets and 55,000 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

The meme also saw use in sports-related tweets. For example, on June 30th, 2022, Twitter user @Le0verrated^[4] used it to discuss how basketball players with similar achievements are discussed, gaining over 120 likes in roughly three months (shown below, left). On August 27th, Twitter user @qpe^[5] then used it to discuss KSI and Jake Paul's boxing careers, gaining over 850 likes in three weeks (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References