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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

#561

Post by spaniard89277 »

nindalf wrote: post #311
spaniard89277 wrote: post #183

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 What constitutes under-repressented? Is proportionally represented ok? I mean, I'm one of those "subcultures" and honestly I don't feel the need to be represented in media. I'm ok with it, but I don't see what does it bring to me or to m…

Almost all the movies and TV shows and video games I’ve consumed featured no one who looked like me. But I still felt represented when a character behaved like I did or was interested in the same things I was - characteristics that formed a bigger part of my identity than my skin colour. I’d speculate you might be the same - you’re listening to stories that feature people who display characteristics similar to yours.…

> But here’s the thing you’re missing - if your race is a dominant part of your identity, like it is for many black people in America, it’s certainly normal to look for stories that feature black people and black stories. Stories where the characters experience problems and issues similar to the ones they might face in their lives.

Yeah, maybe, I can perhaps agree with that, but I still fail to see the political proposition.

Maybe I should live in the US to understand it, but honestly when I read about black-americans It seems many of their pressing issues are material ones, and the ones that aren't are probably very related to material ones and I fail to see how a netflix for black people is going to change any of that, except reinforce an ingroup-outgroup dynamic.

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

#562

Post by samstave »

afavour wrote: post #17

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…

As long as they aren't as douchey as /r/BlackPeopleTwitter (which is a racist subreddit that BANS anyone who is not black -- then more power to them. If they are promoting Black Content Creators and stories and shows, great! if they are looking to EXCLUDE non-black people from accessing their service/content, then fuck 'em.

/r/BlackPeopleTwitter mods are douchebags.

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

#563

Post by disneygibson »

quantum_solanum wrote: post #554
disneygibson wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most “white” people in America today were not considered so 100-150 years ago. Irish, Slavs, Eastern Europeans, Italians, Jews, Levantine Arabs, and pretty much everyone other than English, Germans and French. My point is that this identity was expanded to be inclusive in order to build social cohesion. That was a good thing, but now let’s rename it to just “American” and include all ethnic groups, instead of going b…

> "[white] identity was expanded to be inclusive in order to build social cohesion. That was a good thing.." Social cohesion largely as a means of sharpening anti-Blackness and of labor control, particularly during and after the defeat of Reconstruction and due to growing relevance of the industrial organized labor movement. Du Bois did an immense amount of work critiquing pretty much exactly this.

The entire history of cultures becoming Americanized was not purely an anti-black project. The history of Jews in America is a good example and they were subject to Ivy League quotas well after WW2.

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

#564

Post by thesausageking »

whoknowswhat11 wrote: post #81

My netflix feed at least has been pretty full of shows and movies that feature black stories and characters. I think they have a specific channel for this. So have the other streaming networks from what I've seen. My apple News+ has had a black experience and racial justice spotlight - you can't turn some of these off actually.

Those channels existing doesn't mean there isn't a market need. The grocery store I go to has a big international foods section and I still shop at the Indian market because they have a much better selection.

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

#565

Post by ntmathrow »

Can someone do the analysis from a game theory perspective to see what harms/benefits something like this can cause to the larger society? And if that is too complex to analyze (my suspicion) isn't this dangerous if we don't fully understand the negative consequences of it?

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

#566

Post by gamblor956 »

Maybe I just have enough black friends in Hollywood, but in the past few years, the following shows from black showrunners all made the cultural zeitgist on broadcast tv: Blackish, Empire, How to Get Away with Murder, and Bob and Abishola; and on on cable/streaming: Atlanta, Insecure, Power, Dear White People, Lovecraft Country, and I May Destroy You. (Note, I am friends with some of the writing staff and crew on several of these shows, so I am aware that I am not representative of the general public.)

And that doesn't even include anything on BET, or shows with black executive producers or showrunners but which were based on existing IP or were from non-black creators, like LA's Finest, All Rise, The Neighborhood, or the Shondaland shows.

And really, the big elephant in the room is BET. Which does everything you want to do, but it already has the connections to the black creators, and the black audience, and the black investors.

So it kind of seems like this is another SV startup that was created without a critical examination of what the market actually is beyond hoping to be potential acquisition target for an actual player (in this case, presumably BET).

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

#567

Post by Uzo0312 »

jedberg wrote: post #541

Everyone else has given you some good advice on your messaging, so I'll give you some business/technical advice as a former Netflix employee: Try to negotiate your contracts with global streaming rights. It shouldn't cost too much more but will make your life a lot easier as you try to expand globally. That was one thing that slowed Netflix's global expansion -- a lot of the content was not globally licensed. You wil…

Hey...this is really great stuff! Thank you so much for this. This...this is what I was hoping for!

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

#568

Post by kbenson »

dhosek wrote: post #69
afavour wrote: post #17

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…

My favorite part of it is that insofar as the objectors identify themselves, they're (of course) white. From the OPs description, although they don't say so explicitly, it's clear that they're Black. Long history¹ in this country of white folks telling Black folks what's appropriate for Black folks to say or do. 1. And let's not fool ourselves thinking that because I've used the word "history" that it's not still ver…

I'm not sure you can get much more "middlebrow dismissive" than assuming that people objecting are white and the people they are objecting to are black and therefore it must be for similar reasons to why white people objected to black people in the past for bad reasons, so you can just ignore them.

Importantly, even if you're right in a lot of the instances, it doesn't actually move the discussion forward in a useful way because it paints with too broad a brush and encourages others to do the same.

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

#569

Post by qkqk »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #340

I'm Russian and, probably, I don't really understand the situation with race in US. But I think that MLK was fighting against this "X for black people" thing. (X == buses, schools, shops, etc). Isn't it racism and segregation?

If you read more than the headline it might better your understanding.

Racism is the belief that different races are distinctly inferior or superior to one another. [1] I don't see anything in the author's post or the product that indicates they believe Black people are racially superior.

Segregation, specifically in context of what King was fighting for, means spatial or institutional separation of the races. [2] Clearly not the case here, they are pushing for more representation of Black people in media, not less.

(There are other civil rights leaders you can invoke besides MLK when you're feigning outrage btw)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation

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

#570

Post by HWR_14 »

namdnay wrote: post #211
snakeboy wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Now I’m European, so maybe I’m not in the right cultural mindset for this, but your comparison really highlights what is problematic for me: based on someone’s skin colour you are determining their culture/heritage. 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?

In the US, the vast majority of black people have descended from the enslaved Americans who have been in the US for hundreds of years. When people say "black culture" that's what they are referring to. Not that recent immigrants from Jamaica and Nigeria are from the same culture.

There's the further concept that due to systemic racism, Jamaican and Nigerian culture will blend into the larger black culture than the larger US culture. And the Nigerian and the Jamaican will experience a similar American experience, very different from what an Irish or German white person would.

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