Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people • Hacker News Board

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

#321

Post by meiraleal » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

liotier wrote: post #273

mattlondon wrote: post #228

Earlier 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…

I'm typical French and my daughters' mother is African... I had to explain to my daughters the whole concept of race categories and I struggled because it seemed ridiculous and aberrant to them - it is alien to their multicultural daily life. They would laugh at having to chose between being black or white. I don't understand how Americans tolerate being categorized this way. My category: "Other" - always.

You get to understand when you see the divide of prosperity, government support, unequal laws, school access, etc in numbers.

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

#322

Post by gunshai » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

graderjs wrote: post #187

Great idea, man. This is awesome! This is exactly what people should be doing--using tech to make the world better. Hope you can look back 10 years from now and think so many interesting black stories might not have got told except for BlackOak! I definitely think segmenting away from the dominant studio model is the only way to break the crazily unrepresentative nature of most of the (still admittedly great) stories…

I am generally curious, when does under represented move to represented or appropriately represented?

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

#323

Post by ldargin » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

dharmab wrote: post #22

f6v wrote: post #2

“X for black people” sounds so bizarre to me(non-American). The cultural divide between the people must be insane.

"for Black stories" would be a positive way to phrase this.

Calling a it a "Netflix for Black People" works for a informal elevator spiel; it shows that they squarely target black American viewers. "Black stories" is used by Netflix and Hulu.

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

#324

Post by fnord77 » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

f6v wrote: post #2

“X for black people” sounds so bizarre to me(non-American). The cultural divide between the people must be insane.

it's pretty bad. Not just on race. Youngest vs Young vs middle age vs old. leftist vs liberal vs conservative vs rightwing. LGBT vs non-LGBT. Working-class vs white collar class. nortnern states vs southern states. California vs flyover states. hipsters vs squares. punks vs. preps.

It's really tiresome.

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

#325

Post by endisneigh » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

krapp wrote: post #267

unixhero wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US must be sooooo ripped apart by now.

No, it's just mostly triggered white people concern trolling as usual.

Personally I’ve never, ever encountered someone who isn’t in the privileged class having these concerns lol.

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

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Post by zentiggr » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #251

So next is Netflix for asian americans, Netflix for blonde women, and why not Netflix for ugly people who are sick of only watching beautiful people on screen? 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.

So you're opposed to the basic concept of marketing niches?

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

#327

Post by yaacov » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

disneygibson wrote: post #220

KittenInABox wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concept of "white" is not a consequence of the melting pot idea. The concept of "white" was explicitly born as a way to justify enslaving and treating a group of people as property for generations. If one wants to solve the injustices of the past, its important to actually acknowledge the reality of those injustices and how they feed into modern day. The "melting pot" theory I suspect was always a form of injusti…

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…

The word ‘white’ means a lot of different things. Those groups may not have been considered white socially but they were always legally white for the purposes of immigration, not being enslaved, not being subjected to Jim Crow.

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

#328

Post by meiraleal » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

weimerica wrote: post #314

warent wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that white Americans don't have the same American experience as black Americans, which is where the divide comes from and it creates another culture. It's been getting a lot better, but there are still two legal systems, two education systems, etc. My perspective as a white man is that when black people create something for themselves like this, it's reclaiming the power. Like how they use the N word w…

> The problem is that white Americans don't have the same American experience as black Americans, which is where the divide comes from and it creates another culture. It's been getting a lot better, but there are still two legal systems, two education systems, etc. It's really more about how much money you have in your pocket, what neighborhood you're in - but please continue driving a racial wedge to further divide…

> It's really more about how much money you have in your pocket, what neighborhood you're in

And the most important that you don't mention, the mobility. If there is no mobility and black people will be forever on the poor side, the elephant is still in the room.

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

#329

Post by LordHumungous » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

f6v wrote: post #2

“X for black people” sounds so bizarre to me(non-American). The cultural divide between the people must be insane.

Yes, Black Americans have their own culture from music to literature to TV shows like Good Times and the Jeffersons. This is not seen as a bad thing here, it has produced many great things.

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

#330

Post by vorpalhex » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

at_a_remove wrote: post #216

disneygibson wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it’s encouraging separatism. I would much rather have a startup that promotes black creators to the broader culture than one exclusionary by design. Looking at top musicians, artists, and other cultural figures, it seems to me like this is already largely the case. Hip hop sales come in large part from white people. I want more of this cultural sharing, not isolationism.

It's not cultural sharing now, it's appropriation . See also the endless monologues about dreadlocks.

Remember that twitter isn't real life. For every college freshmen tweeting about the sushi counter being cultural appropriation, 98% of people disagree.

Just because someone is loud and inflammatory does not mean their views are widely held.