Let’s Really Clock It… You’re Using the Wrong Finger: On Gentrifying Ballroom-Speak

Written by Sharon Hamza

Image courtesy of ItsNiceThat

By this point in the great 2025, most of us should be aware of the overwhelming and indefinite influence of AAVE (African American Vernacular English), or what many consider“ modern social media slang.” Tons of different phrases originating from AAVE are embedded into the lexicon of netizens, such as“ ho is u coo?”, “ I’m talkin’ bout innit”,“ I don’t play about…”, etc.,

All of these examples come from Black American people, more specifically Black women, but once uttered into the echo chambers of social media, they tend to end up coming out of the mouths of people who have never said these words before, often misusing them and butchering their meanings. A personal“ flop” favourite of mine is the“ I finna be in the pit” TikTok, which featured a White woman completely disregarding the grammatical rules of AAVE. 

Another, more recent, form of AAVE“ slang” has been dominating social media comment sections and posts: it’s called,“ clocking it” or“ clock it”. This vaguely translates to the phrase“ hitting the nail on the head”, or catching on to something. From Love Island star, Ace Greene, featuring the term in a TikTok rap, to Justin Bieber arguing with paparazzi that they’re“ not clocking” that he’s“ standing on business”, to clock or not to clock has become the biggest question in 2025. But this phrase does not stand idly on its own; it comes paired with its very own gesture, what Greene called in his viral rap,“ the finger-thumb tap”, tapping your index finger to your thumb.

This gesture has become synonymous with the term, so much so that sometimes you don’t even need to say the words. Personally, I use a different finger tap combination, that is, the middle finger and thumb. Some might be asking,“ Well Sharon, what’s the big deal? You’re the friend that’s too woke, it’s just a different way to do it.” Well, that’s where you’d be wrong. This slight revision is what makes the difference between a TikTok trend and queer history.

It seems that a lot of people, even within the Black community, don’t recognise the role that ballroom speak has in shaping the current trends in social media’s lexicon. My very first encounter with the gentrification of AAVE, in a sense, was back in 2019 with the“ And I oop-!” meme. Everyone and their mothers used to spam this in comment sections, use it in their videos as funny background sounds; it was arguably one of the biggest niche trends during the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic era. The“ And I oop-!” meme was coined by Jasmine Masters, who at the time I thought was just a random Black woman who made a YouTube video that went viral. Little did I know it was THE Jasmine Masters from season seven of RuPaul’s Drag Race. 

But do you want to know how I came to know the term? Because it was associated with the“ VSCO girls”: a stereotype of White girls who owned Hydro Flasks, wore shell bracelets and said“ and I oop-!, and I oop-!, sk sk, sk sk” very fast. 

I give this as an example of how the words and phrases of queer people, specifically the Black and Latino people within queer spaces like Ballroom, have been almost gentrified, given new meanings that minimise their impact on modern online culture. Words like,“ Gag”,“ Mother”,“ Slay”,“ Tea”,“ Chopped”, etc., all come from the Ballroom scene. A few years ago I used to be, and still am, obsessed with watching Ballroom videos. Said videos featured many people gathered to dance, usually using vogue and waacking techniques and expressing their true selves. Ballroom is where I came to learn these terms, and they slowly became integrated into my vocabulary. But one random day during the pandemic, I started to loathe the words“ slay” and“ mother” because, as a K-pop fan, people use those words VERY loosely (like that girl is sixteen, that is NOT mother). 

Disregarding the deep cultural significance within the Black and Latino Ballroom space, and  continuously turning them into more online“ slang”, is reductive of its overall history. Ignoring the intersection of race and gender and the negative and upsetting experiences of Black queer people as members of the Black community is damaging. 

“Disregarding the deep cultural significance within the Black and Latino Ballroom space, and  continuously turning them into more online“ slang”, is reductive of its overall history.”

So what does the“ finger-thumb tap” really mean? Well, within the Ballroom scene, it’s a way to encourage or validate a dancer; a sort of finger clap if you will. It’s a way to non-verbally say,“ Bitch, you ate that.” 

Next time you do it, switch that index to that middle, remember her origins and give her the respect she deserves. Now clock that!