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Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

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Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#161

Post by elliekelly »

knicholes wrote: post #109
sokoloff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BET wasn’t offensive me. Telemundo wasn’t offensive to me. Nickelodeon wasn’t offensive to me. Food Network wasn’t offensive to me. Serving targeted programming to an identifiable minority audience seems like a perfectly reasonable business (and social) proposition. I don’t know that “Netflix for Black People” will test well, but it seems perfectly fine to me. [white middle-aged male if context matters]. Edit to add:…

It kind of assumes that all black people will like these kinds of shows, like Nickelodeon assumed that all kids would like their shows. In a world where diversity is so celebrated, I find it odd to try to show black people only other black people. Kids like kids shows because the content is more suited for kids. I know the original poster said they felt good seeing the shows with black people in the 90s, but can't th…

I'm a woman and I think most of the shows on WeTV are stupid but I'm not offended by someone trying to create a channel of content geared towards women. Lots of women do enjoy their programming, I just don't happen to be one of them. I suspect there are a lot of men and NB people who happen to like WeTV, too. And even though they might not be the demographic the channel aims to please, they're more than welcome.

This isn't the same as "drinking fountains for black people" because it's targeted programming but it's not exclusionary.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#162

Post by yellowbanana »

There is a default opposition on anything that twitter activists have been protesting for in the past few years

Netflix for Africans Netflix for Asians Netflix for Indians ... sounds normal.

But

Netflix for Black People Netflix for Women Netflix for LGBT

Will definitely cause an outrage

An other example on how we are tribal, even if the tribes are just activists vs non-activists.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#163

Post by arcturus17 »

sobrave1098 wrote: post #82

I'm a huge fan of other cultures and think they need to be celebrated because they make all of our lives richer..but I wish there would be less animosity towards white people. 'White culture' creates all of the countries that people from every other country are fleeing to, or trying to immigrate to. White people created Democracy, Checks and Balances, overwhelming amount of the technology that makes our lives great,…

How is any of that “white culture” though?

Granted it’s been predominantly made of white people but there was never any explicit awareness of race like there is in black culture, as far as I can tell…

Western culture (a term which would be more familiar to me at least) is in fact heavily predicated on judeo-christian values hailing from the Middle East, where people were not really white… Similarly in the Classical World there was a lot of mingling between races.

I’m European and I despise identity politics but the whole idea of “white culture” is just weird to me. I think of it as a race-agnostic “western culture”, and I don’t think it’s at odds with “black culture”, or that the existence of “black culture” logically means there exists a “white culture” - other than maybe at the fringes.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#166

Post by brownerd »

chemeng wrote: post #100
JacobDotVI wrote: post #33

>Hello Sunshine was founded by Witherspoon in 2016 to create content focused on female voices. ... "Kevin and Tom and our partners at Blackstone see what we see – women’s stories matter, and we have economic power as consumers, creators and business leaders. Their commitment enables us to double-down on our mission and our ambitious growth agenda,” Harden said in a release. Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine to be so…

Yes, it’s very interesting that “X for Women” seems non-controversial to most people, but “X for [underserved group]” brings out the trolls en masse.

Perhaps if you tried to approach people with different views from you with an open mind and genuinely listened instead of calling them "trolls" you'd learn more interesting things.

If you study the history of the world, "tribalism" in some sense is a common theme throughout all cultures, many wars and many injustices. It might have been "Protestant vs Catholic" or "Sunni vs Shiite" or "Serb vs Croat" or whichever tribal, ethnic, religious or language grouping was relevant to the area.

In every single case, if the groups remained separated and saw one another as "othered" the problems spanned years and generations and the societies remained fractured and insecure. Only in the societies where people dropped the labels that separated them and merged into one identity did they thrive and improve conditions for all people. In short- the best way to help Black people in America isn't to perpetuate our separate identity, but to remove the power and significance of racial identifiers entirely.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#167

Post by ansible »

jandrese wrote: post #88
h3daz wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only problem with marketing "X for black people" is that marketing "X for white people" isn't socially acceptable.

You say this like the Hallmark channel or Lifetime don't exist.

Certainly those channels have never been marketed as "a channel for white people" as an explicit statement. Just because they are channels for white people and white American culture doesn't change that.

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#168

Post by tssva »

tcoff91 wrote: post #84
tag2103 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does "Netflix for Black People" scarily remind me of "Water fountains for Black People". This is horrifying, OP please consider this in your approach.

You’re essentially saying that black people need to erase their cultural identity and assimilate into the dominant culture and shut up and watch tv shows about white people like the rest of us and be happy about it. Black people live a different experience than other groups, and maybe they want different shows that resonate with them. BET has been successful for a long time and this service is BET for the internet.

"this service is BET for the internet."

Wouldn't BET+ be BET for the internet?

Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people

#170

Post by snakeboy »

commandlinefan wrote: post #53
zwieback wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agree. How is it racist to offer something as a business, it's not like it's a government or other public project. We already have BET so this is just a similar offering in a different format. "Netflix for black people" might not be a good choice as a tagline, though.

> How is it racist to offer something as a business, it's not like it's a government or other public project I've seen people suggest that censorship is only censorship if the government does it, but suggesting that racism is only racism when the government does it too is a first.

> but suggesting that racism is only racism when the government does it too is a first.

I think you've misunderstood this post. This is less like a "white's only" restaurant, and more like an Italian food restaurant. It's supporting a cultural niche, not excluding another.

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