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

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621–630 of 898 posts

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

#621
post #205

I 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…

The context you're missing here is that "Black culture" in the U.S. really means "a blend of many African cultures of only poorly-known detail, plus a dose of some parts of western European culture, as heavily mediated by slavery and discrimination". It's associated with skin color most predominantly because that's the connecting factor for most people who were stripped of their original cultures and forced into slavery.

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

#622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If they're a few generations removed from their Nigerian or Jamaican ancestors, they probably don't have strong ties to their home countries' cultures. This seems true of most Americans whose families emigrated 3+ generations ago. "The melatonin in their skin" explicitly shaped many aspects of law, society, and culture in the US up until the 60s, which is still in living memory, so I don't think it's that surprising…

> "The melatonin in their skin" explicitly shaped many aspects of law, society, and culture in the US up until the 60s

I see it regularly today, as African-Americans and many other people commonly say. We can recall that overt racism is practiced in certain political groups which have expanded in popularity. Research shows that racist attacks have greatly increased over the last few years. Regarding the law, many of the laws that existed before the Voting Rights Act have been recently reinstated since the Supreme Court invalidated key parts of the Act and banned federal courts from addressing many state voting issues.

It's also not rare anymore in my personal experience, as it was before 2016. In the last month a white person told me that people with black skin were 'biologically different', which accounted for economic inequality. Over the weekend another told me, highly ironically, that 'minorities' were more prone to disinformation than white people, and that was the cause of problem of disinformation on the Internet. (For the record, I disagreed with both as effectively as I could - you can't tacitly approve.)

A significant cause of discrimination is that its impact and presence is overlooked by people who aren't affected by it. Racism doesn't affect me (directly), so it's not hard to say it's minimal.

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

#623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Black culture is not simply about skin tone.

That was... my point? My point is that "black person" is a problematic and overloaded descriptor. It can imply a cultural group ("american black culture") to which a light-skinned person can belong (can't they?) and which it should be tolerable to criticize. It can also imply a simple physical descriptor of traits belonging to African-descended people. Is an ethnic Nigerian born and raised there black? Do they belong…

>That was... my point? My point is that "black person" is a problematic and overloaded descriptor. It can imply a cultural group ("american black culture") to which a light-skinned person can belong (can't they?) and which it should be tolerable to criticize.

I literally wrote "Majority of Black Americans...who come in many different pigments"

> It can also imply a simple physical descriptor of traits belonging to African-descended people. Is an ethnic Nigerian born and raised there black? Do they belong to "American black culture"? So are they black and not-black at the same time? Do you see the problem(s) here?

This is why I wrote "Majority" but you should also consult a Nigerian-American

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

#624
post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a brown guy and I have fond memories of watching the Cosby show with my parents as a kid. I was saddened and disappointed to learn of Cosby’s horrific behavior later on, and it sucks that the show is now going to be lost because of the main characters real life persona. Really would love a modern day family show that is relatable and shows a successful family. Not too far fetched, but real like the set of Cosby s…

A lawyer and doctor having time to raise 5 kids spanning 20 years in age in a house in NYC seems ridiculous to me too.

Sure, and I'd argue modern family is even less relatable. For an immigrant family like mine, it was nice to see a successful family that still has to deal with issues and how they overcome them.

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

#625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People working for a mainstream service like Netflix are wrapped in maintaining their job and catering to white people. Having a separate streaming service with curators from the Black community means more opportunity to express unpopular ideas. This means less Harriet Tubman bios and more current culture/expression. edit: I should add that having watched a few shows like Jack & Jill (which I had never heard of until…

Thanks for your thoughts here! I'm definitely on the same page with you! Don't love labeling ourselves this way, but by having the "gatekeepers" of what goes on BlackOakTV look like the viewers we're targeting, it opens the door for a very differentiated content and platform experience.

I am wishing you all the best and just bought a subscription. If you need software developers I can help.

I am telling everyone I know about it as well. Getting the word out and early support is key!

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

#626
post #205

I 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.

Please don't be an asshole on HN. If you know more than someone else, that's great, but then please share some of what you know so the rest of us can learn. If you can't or don't want to, no problem—but then please don't post poisonous putdowns. They just make everything worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

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

#627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Black culture is not simply about skin tone.

That was... my point? My point is that "black person" is a problematic and overloaded descriptor. It can imply a cultural group ("american black culture") to which a light-skinned person can belong (can't they?) and which it should be tolerable to criticize. It can also imply a simple physical descriptor of traits belonging to African-descended people. Is an ethnic Nigerian born and raised there black? Do they belong…

Here, it clearly denotes American Black culture.

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

#628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to justify how "for " is exclusionary, as opposed to it's normal meaning of "focusing on ".

Saying it is For implies it is not for other groups. Again, realistically, how many white people would pay for a platform like this? If you think the number is substantial you are delusional. For starters, its being marketed "for black people", its all black content, and other platforms e.g Netflix already have content from black creators (albeit not as focused) Having said that, they do not need white people to sub…

No, it doesn't. It just needs to for this thread to have any oxygen, and so it will here until this tiny micro-current of the discourse dies out.

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

#629

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?

Oh my, buddy, you had it even worse than the yanks did. Have you ever had an apology from your state for the serfdom, any reparations? The Atlantic empire enslaved people different by color, language, religion and used them as a tool for centuries. Now, they are attempting to fix it. The Rus' enslaved people of it's own creed, skin color and religion. Made them property as well. But, when serfdom cracked, everyone wa…

We ban accounts that take HN threads into poisonous flamewars. The GP did that too, and shouldn't have, but this is a whole other level of nastiness and offtopicness. Please don't post like this to HN, if you want to keep commenting here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#630
post #427

Congrats on the launch, but you are attacking a difficult market, with a strong 'political' risk/factor as we can see in this thread. If I remember correctly there was a similar startup in YC S15 ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9903229 ) that shutdown 2 years after ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15292534 , https://techpoint.africa/2017/09/22/afrostream-shut-down/ ). In streaming content is king and ove…

> you are attacking a difficult market ... there was a similar startup in YC S15 ... that shutdown 2 years after ...

That applies to almost every startup ever. I expect that every founder can report hearing similar feedback.

I did omit one factor that differentiates this startup, but every startup has extra risks particular to it.

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