The woman behind the viral 'lose yo job' video explains the deeply personal story behind the meme that's become a protest anthem
- This is Johnniqua Charles, the elusive personality behind the viral "lose yo job" video.
- In a clip that gained traction online amid protests against police brutality, Charles was seen trolling a security guard who detained her outside of a night club in her small South Carolina town.
- After confidently asserting her right to know why she was being detained, Charles broke into song and dance. "You about to lose yo job," she repeated, twerking to an imaginary beat.
- After racking up thousands of views and likes on social media, Charles' song was remixed by multiple DJs and chanted by Black Lives Matter protesters across the country.
- Still reeling from the shock of becoming internet famous overnight, Charles shared the deeply personal story behind the viral video.
Johnniqua Charles, 27, never intended to write an anti-police brutality protest anthem. In fact, that couldn't have been further from her mind when, on a fateful night in January, she was detained after getting into an argument with a security guard outside a nightclub in her small, South Carolina town. In a clip of the encounter that went viral amid protests against police brutality, Charles is seen repeatedly asserting her right to know why she's being held.
"I don't wanna be detained for no goddamn reason," Charles told the guard who was restraining her. "Yeah, that's how the f--- I act, naturally. Ask anybody who know me."
The dispute started when Charles tried to re-enter the club and retrieve her purse before leaving in a car with friends, she explained to Insider. The club was closing, but Charles said she wasn't intoxicated, acting disorderly, or trying to go back in to continue partying. She'd simply forgotten to pick up her pocketbook from behind the DJ booth on her way out. Charles and the DJ were there together that night, but he was inside packing up his equipment at the time.
"Why are you detaining me?" Charles is seen asking the guard again, before adding an incredibly quotable word of warning: "You about to lose yo job."
The tiff escalated when Charles told the guard to "suck her d---," causing onlookers and fellow security guards to laugh. That's when another guard started filming the viral moment.
"I probably shouldn't have said that, but legally he still had no right to detain," Charles explained. "I guess he felt the need to, you know, show his manhood. So he, like, threw me up against the car, whatever. Like, roughed me up a little. He didn't hit me or nothin. He just roughed me up a little and then he put the handcuffs on me."
What happened next has become, practically overnight, the stuff of internet legend. Taking the guard's silence as her cue, Charles spontaneously turned "you about to lose yo job" into an original song and dance.
"You about to lose your job," she rapped over an imaginary beat, twerking. "Get this dance. You about to lose your job 'cause you are detaining me for nothing."
Charles says she's known for being a "goofy" person who loves to have a good time. She's always cracking jokes, whether she's on camera or not.
"I was a little upset, but I was trying to make light of the situation," Charles told Insider. "That's why I started the little chant, because it was like, OK. I'm not gonna do anything so that I can get arrested. Because if I do that, then — because I could have easily — I'm a healthy girl. Like, I'm a strong girl. I could have easily wrestled or tussled with him and gave him a bit of a reason to detain me or lock me up. But I have a little bit more sense than that."
When Charles' friend, the DJ, finally exited the club, he was shocked and confused to find her in custody.
"When the DJ tried to come over, like, to try to figure out what was going on, he [the guard] even told him to back up and like, go ahead and go about your business," Charles recounted. "I'm like, 'I am his business. That's my ride.' But once the real officer got there — this is the funny part to me. When the security guard told them what happened or what transpired, the cop was like, basically, take those handcuffs off that girl and let her go home."
The police officer, Charles continued, told the guard there was nothing she could be charged with.
"So I just got in the car and left," she added. "And he's [the guard] just standing there looking all crazy."
Knowing her rights, and how to conduct herself during encounters with law enforcement, has been essential to Charles' survival as a black woman. Criminalization disproportionately affects the lives of black Americans, and Charles is open about periodically engaging in two highly criminalized activities: drug use and sex work.
"I can be honest with you," she said. "I've been on and off of the streets for about six years. Ever since I've been 18, I've been on and off. I'd say, this last time, I'd probably say almost nine, 10 months. Sometimes it would be alcoholism, then sometimes it would be the drugs...That lifestyle just took over me. So the prostitution and drugs and the alcohol, I've been in that lifestyle for a long time."
The cyclical nature of poverty and its complex relationship with addiction is well-documented. At various points, Charles would "stop" and go home to her family.
"And then I'll go back," she said. "Because it's addiction."
The irony of Charles' viral fame is that she didn't know about it until last weekend, several days after the clip initially began trending online. An old acquaintance shared the video with Charles on Facebook a week ago, but she brushed it off and hadn't paid attention to it since. When her family was finally able to locate her after days of searching, her sister, Andrea, filled her in.
"It's like I've been looking for a breakthrough," she said. "Looking for, you know, something. And this happened right on time, because, yeah, just the day before — I was just out walkin' the streets. I'm just going to be very blunt with you. And I just so happened to see a car pull up on me. I'm thinking it's somebody trying to stop me, you know, and it's my sister, my aunt and my baby and my cousin and they just jumped out car. 'You have to come home. You have to come home, come home, please, please, please.' Like, basically, they kidnapped me. Not kidnapped, but you know what I mean."
The altercation between Charles and the guard technically predates the recent wave of protests. But it was immediately adopted as a Black Lives Matter protest anthem, remixed into a hit single, and turned into a social media dance challenge.
"I still don't get it," Charles said. "Cause I didn't know until yesterday. I'm just like, 'Oh girl, please, whatever.' Because I just thought it was just a little, a couple of shares on Facebook or something like that. I didn't know that people are making all kinds of TikToks and then using it in protests and stuff. So I just feel in awe."
"Like George Floyd," she added. "Some of his people actually reached out to me and said that the video brightened up their day. Stuff like that — that really touched my heart. Like people who say that they've been through addiction or they've been in prostitution before. Because it's more to this story than just what you see in that video."
Understanding the power of social media, Charles' sister, Andrea, set up an Instagram account (@getthisdance) to help fans figure out who Charles is. She's also helped Charles trademark her catchphrase, and collect tips and donations from those who want to compensate Charles for her work and support her recovery.
"I don't want to go back to the streets," Charles said. "I have no — I'm done with it completely."
Charles plans to use the donated money to find an apartment and start a small business, first and foremost.
"Being a mother, that's going to help put me in a position to where I can mother my son, the way that I'm supposed to mother my son," Charles said. "And we can be in our own space and be comfortable in our own space, you know? And it's just, now I can do so much for him that I never could do before. And I just feel — a lot of it's going to be put to the side."
She also hopes to write a book and work as a motivational speaker for women and girls.
"I'm just trying to use this platform that I have right now to do, to be as positive as I can and to change as many lives as I can," Charles said. "And not just by the video — by my story and by my testimony, because I know that it's a lot of people, it's a lot of women and girls who could be going through the same thing that I was going through. And only thing they need is guidance or just somebody who's been in that lifestyle and actually came out of it. And you know, it is a way out. And it is another way."