What is Negro Solstice?

Negro Solstice is a Black Twitter joke format from December 2020 that imagined Black people gaining X-Men style superpowers on December 21st, 2020.

Where did Negro Solstice come from?

The joke started with a December 5th, 2020 tweet from @lottidot claiming the government was hiding Black people's real DNA, which would unlock on December 21st.

What does Negro Solstice mean?

@willtbh coined the name on December 15th, 2020, declaring December 21st the winter solstice when Black people would receive superpowers.

How do you use Negro Solstice?

Posters typically caption photos or videos of flight, levitation or super strength with lines like "us on December 21st" or "the news on December 21st".

Is Negro Solstice still popular?

After December 21st, 2020 passed without superpowers, the active joke cycle wound down, though the Negro Solstice name became a Black Twitter reference point for the moment.

Negro Solstice

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Published October 17, 2026

Negro Solstice, also known as On December 21st Our Real DNA Will Be Unlocked, started with a December 5th, 2020 tweet from @lottidot claiming Black people would gain superpowers on the winter solstice. The claim set off a week of Black Twitter jokes picturing flight, super strength and X-Men transformations, and by December 15th @willtbh had coined the Negro Solstice name that stuck across hashtags like #NegroSolstice and #December21.

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Overview

Posts in the format usually imagine what December 21st, 2020 would look like once the predicted DNA activation hit, with Black people flying over cities, levitating in lightning storms or showing up on the news as X-Men1. Humor runs on affection for the original earnest claim and on sci-fi imagery borrowed from Marvel comics and action films2. Captions tend to be short, often starting with "us on December 21st" or asking fellow Black users whether they are excited3.

Online discussion of December 21st carries older Doomsday weight tied to December 21st, 2012, when the Mayan Long Count calendar ended, so some posts play on apocalyptic visuals without expecting an actual apocalypse5. Writers at Revolt covered the joke cycle as a Black Twitter in-joke that moved between sincere conspiracy belief and collective laughter1. StayHipp also compiled the best examples for a wider audience8.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter / Black Twitter (viral spread)

Creator

@lottidot; @willtbh

Date

2020

On December 5th, 2020, Twitter user @lottidot replied to a thread about the COVID-19 vaccine, writing that the government wanted to change Black people's genetic code and that "on December 21 our Real DNA will be unlocked and majority will be able to do things that we thought were fiction"2. Revolt traced the exchange back to an argument about whether the virus was engineered in China to target a specific group before being altered to spread worldwide1.

The post gathered more than 15,000 retweets and 13,000 likes within a month5. Readers took the earnest tone as a joke setup, and the superpower format began inside 24 hours of the original tweet1.

How It Spread

On December 6th, 2020, @preciousbeyond posted "are all my black ppl excited for December 21st?" and gathered more than 45,000 likes within a month3. Two days later, @Jani__Gee wrote that "y'all will owe that girl a very sincere apology if December 21st hits and we all wake up as X-Men," which earned over 114,000 likes4. A December 9th video from @KaylaImaniM showing a boy pretending to have superpowers got more than 4.1 million views and 143,000 likes5.

Visual edits followed. On December 13th, @domssmarie posted a photo of a man levitating in a lightning storm captioned "the news on December 21st," which gathered 87,000 likes inside a week6. Media outlets including Revolt and StayHipp covered the trend as a Black Twitter moment1.

On December 15th, 2020, @willtbh declared that "December 21st is now and forever known as the Negro Solstice," earning 65,000 likes and starting the hashtags #NegroSolstice, #NegroSoulstice and #December217.

Timeline

2020-12-05

@lottidot tweets that Black people's real DNA will unlock on December 21st, 2020.

2020-12-06

@preciousbeyond asks if Black Twitter is excited for December 21st, one of the first viral jokes.

2020-12-08

@Jani__Gee posts the X-Men apology tweet, which gets more than 114,000 likes.

2020-12-09

@KaylaImaniM shares a video of a boy acting out superpowers captioned "Us on December 21st."

2020-12-13

@domssmarie tweets a photo of a man levitating in a lightning storm as "the news on December 21st."

2020-12-15

@willtbh coins the name Negro Solstice, launching the hashtag #NegroSolstice.

2020-12-16

Revolt publishes a roundup of the best Black Twitter superpower reactions.

How to Use This Meme

Posts in this format typically combine a short caption like "us on December 21st" with an image or video showing exaggerated powers, often flight, lightning or super strength6. Common conventions include referencing X-Men, apologizing in advance to @lottidot, or using the hashtags #NegroSolstice or #December217.