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Why Twitter Is Calling Abigail Fisher ‘Becky With the Bad Grades': A Brief Explainer

By Emma Pettit June 23, 2016

After the Supreme Court upheld the use of race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas at Austin in a

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After the Supreme Court upheld the use of race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas at Austin in a 4-to-3 decision on Thursday morning, Twitter did what Twitter does best: generated a pop-culture mashup.

The hashtag #BeckyWithTheBadGrades started trending. It refers both to Abigail N. Fisher, the white female student who sued to overturn the university’s affirmative-action policy after she was denied admission, and to a Beyoncé lyric from the song “Sorry” off her most recent album, Lemonade.

For those not well versed in Beyoncé, on the track she tells an ex-lover that because she is no longer around to put up with his nonsense, “he better call Becky with the good hair.” “Becky” is a term for a stereotypical white woman, and the mention of her “good hair” alludes to society’s elevation of whiteness, especially white beauty, and how whiteness is considered “good” or preferable to any nonwhite alternative. Thus “Becky with the good hair” became a succinct phrase on the internet to call out white privilege.

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By twisting the phrase to refer to Ms. Fisher’s supposed “bad grades” (she scored 1180 on the SAT and had a grade-point average of 3.59, according to court records cited by ProPublica), Twitter has anointed her the “Becky” of the moment. Professors, Austin graduates, and others across the Twitterverse have weighed in:


#beckywiththebadgrades Life must be really hard for you when we’re your professors! #StayMadAbby #ErasingTheDeficits pic.twitter.com/BjIDIPmmVL

— Chezare A. Warren (@DrChezareWarren) June 23, 2016


I am the proudest @UTAustin grad today. BYEEEE Abigail. #Beckywiththebadgrades

— Rebecca Gorena (@rebeccagorena) June 23, 2016


Lil Abby better grow up. The SCOTUS has told her. I see she’s salty in the corner, she’s sneaking out the back door #beckywiththebadgrades

— Lala Perkins (@SteelersGurlie) June 23, 2016

You spend 5 years suing the school for curving you, and then the Supreme Court Hit you with the “NAH” #BeckyWithTheBadGrades

— RespeckMyPolitics (@StanFritz) June 23, 2016

And here’s a “Crying Jordan” for good measure:

@thefarmerjones pic.twitter.com/q7JbQBIILB

— Myles Brown (@mdotbrown) June 23, 2016

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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About the Author
Emma Pettit
Emma Pettit is a senior reporter at The Chronicle who covers the ways people within higher ed work and live — whether strange, funny, harmful, or hopeful. She’s also interested in political interference on campus, as well as overlooked crevices of academe, such as a scrappy puppetry program at an R1 university and a charmed football team at a Kansas community college. Follow her on Twitter at @EmmaJanePettit, or email her at emma.pettit@chronicle.com.
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