251–260 of 898 posts
The good thing business wise I guess is that the market possibilities are infinite, but I am not sure what world you want to create.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Netflix for black people" implies that the color of someone's skin determines so much about their personality that they need their own separate streaming service to watch shows on. I don't see how this is any improvement over the existing streaming services that already include a ton of indie content from a lot of different cultures.
I can certainly see where saying "for black people" doesn't sit well with a lot of people. However, that's exactly who we're targeting with the content. That doesn't mean it has to be exclusive. Most of the lyrics in rap songs are generally by black people and intended for black audiences, but it doesn't mean other people don't love it, can't appreciate it, or shouldn't listen. It just means the artist wanted to reac…
We tried "rap music for white people" and we decided we preferred the rap music for black people :D
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:…
My only problem with marketing "X for black people" is that marketing "X for white people" isn't socially acceptable.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know what country you're from but if you don't think there are subcultures in your country under-represented by the dominant media I'd assert you're almost definitely wrong. Perhaps it feels a little strange from the outside that such a subculture is definitively "black" but yeah, that's basically how things are in the US. The country has a deep history of racism and black people being literal slaves, in that…
It depends on where parent is from. There are a lot of relatively monolithic countries from an ethnic perspective. To the broader point, I think what Uzo is talking about is "representation." Which doesn't just mean "some type of person on the screen." It means the full diversity of experiences and aspirations of that type of person... on the screen. Living Single isn't Friends with African Americans. It's African Am…
Living Single was a good show because, unlike Friends, it was actually funny.
> That kind of... stopped. Once TV got homogenized and distributors realized that African American viewers would watch shows about white people, but white people weren't as happy watching shows about African Americans.
But let's be nuanced about this - I don't think that skin color is the real case. Everyone watched Cosby (and for the sake of discussion let's ignore the current situation with him). My (white) heavily bigoted/borderline racist grandmother watched Cosby. He was America's dad and loved by everyone. I think the real problem was that black characters weren't put into shows that represented widely popular, aspirational American ideals or lifestyles, which Cosby had (nuclear family with professional parents and kids dealing with kid stuff). If you want to say that really doesn't represent the majority of the black American experience you wouldn't be wrong, but it also doesn't represent the majority of the white/Hispanic/Asian American experience either. It was something to aspire to.
Those sorts of mass-appeal western values-type shows, IMHO, will be some of the best bridges to build in regards to race relations.
I can't help but feel like everyone commenting here read the headline, brushed straight past the lengthy explanation and went directly to outrage in the comment box. This is a streaming service set up to elevate content by black creators, to make up for the fact that the mainstream media under-represents those people. I'm struggling to see the outrage on a cultural level and on a startup level I can absolutely imagin…
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.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends on where parent is from. There are a lot of relatively monolithic countries from an ethnic perspective. To the broader point, I think what Uzo is talking about is "representation." Which doesn't just mean "some type of person on the screen." It means the full diversity of experiences and aspirations of that type of person... on the screen. Living Single isn't Friends with African Americans. It's African Am…
I couldn't agree more! You want to do PR for us?
Eth bro dot co at gmail