Tik Tok Doctor Dances

DOCTOR DANCES FOR BLACK JOY

WORDS BY | DONOVAN M. SMITH

Joy can be hard to come by during a pandemic, especially inside of a hospital. But one doctor is cutting through the tension from the frontlines, one dance at a time. His name is Jason Campbell, but nowadays he’s better known as “The TikTok Doc”.

The Oregon Health and Science University resident physician, anesthesiologist and occasional writer has been uploading smiles to the world via the popular app TikTok to the elation of millions.

There you can catch him shimmying, sliding and stepping in his scrubs to everything from house music to Drake. Often the 31-year-old doctor is joined by his colleagues, leading them in amateur choreography that’s helped him rack up more than 4 million views in the few months since he joined the app.

“The main reason I started this was because I wanted to reach the youth, and to connect with the African American youth,” Campbell said in an interview with Good Morning America. “I thought that if I could meet them where they’re at with dance, then they could meet me where I’m at one day with medicine, [becoming] a lawyer or a businessman or businesswoman one day.”It’s a smart tactic. TikTok has become the latest cool place on the internet, and everybody seems to want it. Carrying the tradition of so-called “Black Twitter”, melanated creators are again helping make TikTok the house everybody wants to party at.

Songs like Megan The Stallion’s “Savage” and Drake’s “Toosie Slide”, which premiered on the app are helping seed that trend. Their catchy lyrics and accompanying dance challenges, are part of what have helped propel the Wuhan-based imprint to become a $75 billion company Meanwhile, Campbell is seizing the audience. The doc speaks out. Whether on Tik Tok, Instagram or penning an article, he speaks up for Black life.

In his most recent op-ed for the Seattle Times, he spoke to the disease that continues to construct us the most: racism.

“When one watches the video of George Floyd on the ground with another man’s knee pressed into his neck, it is nearly impossible for these words not to haunt one with a distinct level of truth and accuracy,” he says. “Irrelevant of profession or walk of life, we deserve an America that gives us the benefit of the doubt or at least an America that allows us to breathe.”

But as we have done for centuries, Campbell does not let the darkness overshadow his joy.

He continues to dance. He continued to share. He continues to work.

“The main reason I started this was because I wanted to reach the youth, and to connect with the African American youth.”