# We Are All Africans We Are All Africans is a photoshop meme built around a 2014 photograph of evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins wearing a T-shirt bearing that slogan, which Tumblr users started rewriting with anime jokes, fandom slang and shitposts in February 2015. The format turned Dawkins into an unwilling signpost for every weird corner of Tumblr and became one of the site's defining photoshop templates of the mid-2010s. ## Origin The source image came from Richard Dawkins himself. On February 27, 2014, Dawkins tweeted a photo of himself in the foundation shirt and captioned it 'We are all African apes. That's what my T-shirt means'[1]. The slogan sits on merchandise sold through his foundation's store to promote evolutionary biology[10]. Nearly a year later, on February 5, 2015, Tumblr user waifuthief posted an edit of the photograph with the T-shirt text swapped to read 'we are all shitposters'[3]. The post went on to pass 25,400 notes and set the template every later edit followed[6]. - **Platform:** Twitter (source photo) / Tumblr (viral spread) - **Creator:** waifuthief (Tumblr) - **Date:** 2015 ## Overview The format is simple. The front of Dawkins's shirt gets rewritten with whatever phrase a Tumblr user wants to project onto him, often an anime chest-pun reference, a piece of fandom slang, or a self-deprecating joke about shitposting[3]. His relaxed, slightly amused pose stays the same, which is part of the joke, and the earnest scientific slogan works as the straight line that the swapped text punches against[6]. The Dawkins Foundation originally sold the shirt as merchandise referencing the Out of Africa hypothesis in paleoanthropology, which places the origin of modern Homo sapiens on the African continent[2]. Edits range from goofy anime callbacks to pointed takedowns of Tumblr's own discourse habits, and most keep the three-line typography of the original design so the swap reads instantly. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is We Are All Africans? It's a photoshop meme that edits a photo of Richard Dawkins in a 'We Are All Africans' T-shirt by rewriting the shirt text with inside jokes[3]. ### Where did We Are All Africans come from? The source photo was tweeted by Richard Dawkins on February 27, 2014[1], and Tumblr user waifuthief posted the first photoshopped version on February 5, 2015[3]. ### What does We Are All Africans mean? The original shirt promotes the Out of Africa hypothesis, the paleoanthropology view that modern humans originated on the African continent before migrating outward[2]. ### How do you use We Are All Africans? Edit the shirt's slogan into any phrase that reads funny next to Dawkins's deadpan pose, typically an anime pun, a fandom in-joke, or a jab at Tumblr discourse[4]. ### Is We Are All Africans still popular? It's a 2015 Tumblr classic, with the most-circulated edits from the first wave still gathering notes years after posting[6]. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/438954378910003200]() 2. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans]() 3. [http://waifuthief.tumblr.com/post/110167260364]() 4. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160421010913/https://sitcorn.tumblr.com/post/110234565200]() 5. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170528130346/http://shiroyanagisawa.tumblr.com/post/110585683506]() 6. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-are-all-africans]() 7. [https://memedocumentation.tumblr.com/post/110673523640/explained-richard-dawkins-shirt-meme]() 8. [https://jumex.tumblr.com/post/113214229950/scrolling-thru-the-dash]() 9. [https://sympolite.tumblr.com/post/118170856474]() 10. [http://richarddawkins.myshopify.com/products/we-are-all-africans]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/we-are-all-africans Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library