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Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
671–680 of 898 posts
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#672Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you find any niche that makes sense, go for it Even if it meant objectifying people into a market segment just to make money, under the branding of empathy and identity? Just because it is branded “black” doesn’t mean it won’t perpetuate harmful racial stereotypes, such as “being black is the most important thing about you as a person”. In fact, it would have every reason to amplify that message to keep and grow…
>Even if it meant objectifying people into a market segment just to make money, under the branding of empathy and identity? Not to be rude, but what do you think a 'market segment' is? What is there besides market segments? For that matter, what is there besides money? at least in terms of the entertainment biz.
> Not to be rude
On the contrary, you’re making my point.
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#673Here's an idea - Build a tool that helps users discover black content on the internet rather than furthering the divide by building a racially segregated platform.
Make your substantive points without flamebait please. Without snark also. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I'll see you on the "Netflix for white people" thread.
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#674Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Where I work (US-company, but I work outside of US) it is similarly weird to me. We appear to have gone backwards in the past 5-10 years in my view - no longer can you just be "you", but now it feels like we have to be labelled, categorised, and segregated into different groups. We now have to make a big deal and a big song-and-dance to highlight our differences and define what our ethnic backgrounds are (app…
It is possible that American culture has already been divided more than most HN readers have been aware of. See Michael Harriot's "blackfamous" thread: https://twitter.com/michaelharriot/status/120569584639172198...
That thread was interesting. It had me thinking about all the people that _I_ consider to be famous, but which I doubt most people would be able to recognize.
I will admit, I did not know who Stacy Adams is. I wonder about the size of the portion of people who know who Stacy Adams is, or who Louis Vuitton is, that also know who Corrinne Yu is.
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#675My 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.
Most streaming services have "horror" sections as well, but I would say the majority of them are pretty lacking in comparison to a service like Shudder, which focuses specifically on horror. I could imagine a lot of the black specific sections on services being lacking in the same way.
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#676Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean ideally, in a western liberal society of humans, race shouldn't matter in comparison to sex which has biological meaning and social function. Culture matters, but culture isn't race (at least not in a western liberal society).
"Race shouldn't matter" is a fine thing to say, but is a really unhelpful principle for those people for whom it can't not matter. Or to put it another way, with an example: I'm sure there are plenty of non-religiously-observant American Jews who would be happy to treat race as a non-entity, but that's not much of an option for them when anti-Jewish slander and violence is an ongoing part of society.
So if all subgroups are subject to slander directed at their subgroup, then why is the answer to further segregate subgroups and create segregated services that only cater to certain subgroups?
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#677Strategically, are you trying to be a brand, a studio, a platform, an marketplace, or maybe all the above? I think the question I have is what to try to build first. As a brand, I see you trying to become a trusted provider of content for an underserved black-identifying audience with diverse tastes. To build brand first, I wonder if you don't want to put BlackOak-curated content out on existing media platforms. That…
Beautiful thoughts! Im taking note!
To your point, we are trying to be all of things... and I would add community to that list.
In terms of where we're starting, I'd say we've headed down the dual path of curator and studio. Five years ago, I think we could've been just a curator and come out earlier with a differentiated product. But today, with so many curated options out there, content differentiation was something we felt was key (and a part of our go to market).
With those paths, we offer creators at a certain point in their journeys they don't get elsewhere: investment. And at the same time, our viewers get to be among the first to discover new talent.
But like you said, we have lots to do to prove ourselves to many entities... so we know we have our work cut out for us!
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#678Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean ideally, in a western liberal society of humans, race shouldn't matter in comparison to sex which has biological meaning and social function. Culture matters, but culture isn't race (at least not in a western liberal society).
> Culture matters, but culture isn't race (at least not in a western liberal society). “Race” is, in origin, a mythology drawn around culture; it is either an actual ethnicity that is an in-group or an imaginary one ascribed on the basis of external appearance as an out-group. And the mere act of creating that distinction by an in-power group can create a shared experience reifying the ascribed ethnicity into a real…
Sure, I agree. So why do we need a Netflix for black people? How does that help? Why can't e.g. the existing Netflix simply air culturally black content if people are craving more of it? Why does the service itself need to be exclusive and segregated?
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#679Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you're problematically lumping all sorts of people who happen to have dark skin into a single category United States society has been problematically lumping people together based on skin tone for over 400 years; the GP didn't invent it today on HN. It's already been done and well-ingrained. If your skin is black, many people will treat you differently, to the extent that you may be subject to violence, many won't…
> United States society has been problematically lumping people together based on skin tone Wouldn't the best solution to this problem represent a rejection of such categorization? Wouldn't that necessarily exclude "X for Black People" in the same way it excludes "X for White People"? I'd like to live in a society where skin tone is no more important than hair color. Surely the best way to get there is to de-emphasiz…
>> United States society has been problematically lumping people together based on skin tone
> Wouldn't the best solution to this problem represent a rejection of such categorization? Wouldn't that necessarily exclude "X for Black People" in the same way it excludes "X for White People"? I'd like to live in a society where skin tone is no more important than hair color. Surely the best way to get there is to de-emphasize skin tone and therefore "blackness" and "whiteness"?
That would be ideal and I want to live in that world too. I also want to live in a world without war, but for now I support having a military because war is still a thing. Today, tomorrow, and likely for years to come, African-Americans do and will suffer from racism and are stereotyped into a class by much of society. Also, they should do whatever they want; who are you and I to tell them what to do? Why do they need your approval?
> As long as black people are in a special class that's protected from serious criticism they can never be equal to the rest of us.
That's not at all what puts African-Americans into a different class and makes them be seen as unequal by racists. The racists and systematic racism are the overwhelming cause; the discrimination and classes is already there; the question is, how do we provide 'liberty and justice for all' to the people in that class, as best we can, while it persists?
>> More importantly, it's impossible to distinguish criticism that is racist from that which is not.
> It's quite easy. If you criticize a practice of cannibalizing visitors then it's reasonably clear the culture/practices are at issue
Again, it's not; you call it double-speak.
>> But being born in a neighborhood to a culture doesn't make you responsible
> I would say that it exactly does. Who else can be responsible for a culture's practices than the people who maintain and perpetuate that culture?
How do you know if that individual 'maintains and perpetuates' the culture - culture being an undefinable, changing thing, defined by you? And if they do, what about you and I therefore maintaining and perpetuating widespread racism, which is common among white people, and which is probably the worst evil of American history?
Why is it so important to you to criticize other people's business? How about we focus on our own 'culture', conduct and its consequences?
Re: Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people
#680Offtopic, but not being from the USA I have real trouble understanding the concept of "blackness" in that country. What does it mean, exactly, to be black? Is it a genetic, a phenotypic or a cultural thing? How is it determined whether mixed-race people are black? And what about trans-racially adopted children? Does a black kid adopted by a white family become white? Does a white kid adopted by a black family become black? If two mixed-race siblings have different tone of skin, can one of them be black and the other white? I cannot manage to answer all these questions simultaneously without blatant contradictions, unless I assume (apparently, wrongly) that "being black or not" is not a partition of the set of all people.
In my country, in europe, it would seem that being black is not an identity but merely a physical characteristic like being blonde. I have never raised the issue explicitly, but I guess my black colleagues at work would not appreciate being classified as a different identity just for their skin color.