Both Netflix and Amazon already have a "Black Stories" category - not sure how this could have a chance against that kind of competition.
Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
521–530 of 898 posts
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#522Question to the mods- Would it be okay to make a Netflix for white people company and post it to hacker news? Question for the founders- At least since Feb 2021, Amazon and Netflix have created and promoted black voices by creating a separate category. Is the problem you attempt to solve more visibility and is what Amazon doing insufficient?
Well, the focus is (and, indeed, should be) on disadvantaged and under-represented minorities - at least until the playing field levels (which may take a while).
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#523Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I also grew up watching shows like these, and being a white person watching a black family didn't feel strange or incongruous at all. What was weird for me was as I got older, all of these shows became just samey Horsein Around type crap on top of that I do remember at a certain point noticing a stark difference between shows that were on UPN, WB, BET ect and ones that were on say like FX, Fox, ABC NBC I'd say start…
>I do remember at a certain point noticing a stark difference between shows that were on UPN, WB, BET ect and ones that were on say like FX, Fox, ABC NBC I'd say starting around the early 00s. I remember this fork in the road quite clearly. First noticed it when I saw ads for "The Parkers" on UPN during ad breaks for "Star Trek: Voyager." Prior to that point I'd watch hours upon hours of Cosby Show, Fresh Prince, San…
Would someone explain what changed for the rest of us?
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#524Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What does a Nigerian have in common with a Jamaican, apart from the melatonin in their skin? Why would they have similar tastes in media? They don't necessarily. Not speaking for the BlackOakTV folks here but I don't think this is trying to target all black people. The US is somewhat unique in having a large population that was ripped from their respective home countries and forced to create their own shared cultur…
> The US is somewhat unique in having a large population that was ripped from their respective home countries and forced to create their own shared culture under the thumb of slavery. Unique? "Between 1502 and 1866, of the 11.2 million Africans taken, only 388,000 arrived in North America, while the rest went to Brazil, the European colonies in the Caribbean and Spanish territories in Central and South America, in th…
Ths.In Cuba, for example, most people form a Cuban culture for all races.
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#525Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not though is it? "black people" are not a cultural group are they?
American black sorta kinda is, and I think Americanized thought leaders on all this stuff are muddying the waters immensely.
> sorta kinda
I think the muddying consists of the fact that conflating physical traits with cultural identity means that any criticism of the given culture can be and is frequently labeled as racism.
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#526Someone asked this:
> Wonder which certain long-nosed tribal "people" funded this one...
But I couldn't reply to it since it was flagged. The answer is Techstars Music, owned by Techstars which is founded by David Cohen
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/black-oak-tv/company...
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#527What's the advantage of a new service targeting black people as opposed to targeted content from Netflix? Netflix already infers what type of content you like and has a far greater content budget (or percentage of a content budget they can devote to this) than you can raise.
It's not like BET, where there is a clear advantage to having a channel with black oriented content. It feels more like a different cable provider.
If you were trying to make a YouTube competitor, I would understand that. User-generated content doesn't seem as solved as top-down development.
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#528If you manage to talk to Tyler Perry I have a pitch for a new movie idea. "Tyler Perry's Madea's Gillian's Island". Basically, Madea wins some sort of lottery and wins a free vacation all expenses paid to a resort in Mexico with her and the gang (and tyler + his daughter, and her new boyfriend) but the plane goes down over the bermuda triangle and they end up shored up on an unknown island. Throughout the film tyler'…
So; Gilligan's Island for black people
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#529I am not American but the overwhelming majority of the media I consume is American. Given the near hegemony of American popular culture, that is likely true for millions of non-Americans. All these people consume American content because they find it enjoyable and at some level relatable despite living in very different countries and not speaking English as their first language. At the end of the day, the human condi…
I think its clear by your statement that you have no idea about America.
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#530I think people who are being downvoted in this thread have valid points, and they’re not really critiquing the company, rather the problem seems to be your messaging. You shouldn’t say “Netflix for black people” because Netflix is for black people already. Moreover if I start selling boxed water called “water for black people” with black stories on the carton, I’m unnecessarily limiting my audience (even alienating s…
You make it sound like segregation end... the last few years, and especially the state voting laws passed in the past year, show that while it may not be explicit law anymore, it is still certainly what a lot of people are fighting to do in any way possible. I (as a middle age white male) WANT people to be thinking about because it's still happening 24/7, and people who aren't bigoted should be aware and pushing back…
> people who aren't bigoted should be aware and pushing back every minute, in every way they can.
Nah man, I think just being not-bigoted and intolerant of directly witnessed bigotry is good enough.