Race And The Web: Going After Niche Markets Or Practicing Digital Segregation?
The release of a Black focused web browser sparked quite a bit of controversy this past week. A TechCrunch post about it sparked reactions from both sides of the aisle. Some argued for the value of niche audiences while others debated that the idea of a Black browser is in and of itself separatism, racist even. But catering to niche audiences online is nothing new. In fact, browsers that focus on a specific market segment isn’t all that new either. For example there’s Gloss, a women focused fashion and beauty browser created using Flock, the social media browser. But what makes the launch of BlackBird both a controversial and sensitive topic, than even the launch of Gloss or Flock, is that it is focuses toward an ethnic segment versus a special interest group. Race is still an extremely touchy subject in America, and the Internet and web are not immune to this sensitivity regardless of how open it is. But aren’t most businesses, especially web businesses, started in this “web 2.0″ era defined by catering to a particular niche?
Really, if race based niche sites are racist then this inflated “web 2.0 bubble” has played a major role in the segregation of the web overall. Many of the sites we all follow on TechCrunch like (Digg, Techmeme, and Mixx ) were built and launched to service a niche, therefore fragmenting the web making it so we all think it’s “more personal” and “more authentic.” Remember when Global Grind was once the more authentic counterpart to Pageflakes’ for the hip-hop culture? Or how about the collaborative advice site for parenting Minti that was described by Mike Arrington as a “walled garden” even though he “…like(s) to see niche content sites spring up that use web 2.0 ideas – these services will help the masses start to use and understand things like tagging, ajax, etc.” While niche sites like the newly launched CodeBlack.com which is described as the “Black Amazon.com” will always have the debate of if it is really needed; CodeBlack’s CEO Quincy Newell thinks otherwise:
“In general there should be something for everyone, we are living in a society where it’s okay to have something for everyone. Everyone is welcomed.” He went on to say “The intent is to serve the need and/or perspective, not to exclude. We aren’t entering the market to be the ‘Black Amazon’ we entered to give back in the form of opportunities created for our community.” Newell believes his service provides opportunity by giving filmmakers and authors without major distribution deals the ability to distribute their content to an audience who may be interested in it. A portion of the proceeds from purchases from the site also go to the United Negro College Fund Scholarship.
In the case of CodeBlack, it is less of an Amazon and more of a Netfilx (or even Hulu ) which, from a business perspective, is a good niche to be in. Last time I checked “Watch Instantly” in Netflix there were (count’em) 34 African-American Comedy movies available to watch instantly. A quick search on Hulu for comedian Sommore brought back about 12 TV Clips, how many Movie Clips? Zero. So perhaps the real argument is being positioned as the Black “Insert Mainstream website.” I am no different. My own site is often referred to as the Black “TechCrunch” by others and even by my team and I. No jabb here TC but we aren’t, we actually are quite different. However it is a quick and easy way to help someone associate a concept they may not fully understand off the top with something that is much more familiar to them.
The point: How we can ALL move past the thought of a niche application or site being separatist? Today most of us can see past race, and I say most because racism does still exist. Brown vs The Board of Education integrated schools so we could all learn equally, together. We are a better society today because of this. What Brown vs the Board of Education did for society and integrating school systems, services like Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, and Open Social will do for this very fragmented web we weave now. There is no doubt that services such as these will integrate the web regardless of race, niche, special interest, or application preference.
Facebook didn’t discriminate against non-college students. Yahoo’s Shine isn’t sexist. Christian Café doesn’t discriminate against Muslims. Gay.com doesn’t discriminate against heterosexuals and Black websites and applications aren’t racist. It’s less about race and more about people wanting to share with people more like them whether that means common interests, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality or skin color, etc. And by the way everyone is doing it, it’s the new Black.
About the Author Angela Benton is the Founder and Publisher of BlackWeb20.com. Her experience spans a variety of industries including consultative relationships with companies such as UPS, Bizjournals.com, Realestate.com, and Lendingtree.com.
See all posts by Angela.
I didn’t mind the idea of blackbird. As a matter of fact I downloaded the browser, and appreciated the fact they had bookmarks of a variety of black websites that catered to my needs and was introduced to a few new blogs that tickled my fancy.
My pet peeve with blackbird is that it is not compatible with a lot of plugins and websites! That is quite annoying and now I am going back to my regular mozilla!! I’m just going to transfer my bookmarks from blackbird to mozilla.
“This new browser is no more segmented than IE, Firefox or Safari”
That’s one of the silliest things I’ve ever read. IE, FF, Safari et al make no preference over which race of people their browser is targeted at. Blackbird specifically and explicitly targets black people. One is clearly more segmented than the other by design!
“This allows us to go online the way we choose and finally have a more culturally relevant way of doing so”
All of the sites that are available through Blackbird are available through every other browser. Oh wait, did you mean there’s links in Blackbird to these sites? Other browsers have had bookmarking features since the very beginning.
“Niche is the new black”
Don’t you mean “black is the new niche”?
You want a browser that filters out content which isn’t specifically targeted towards black people? This is not leading anywhere good.. what happens when the anti-black browsers appear that filter out black content instead of filtering out everything else? Or the anti-semitic browsers?
The vast majority of these black-only initiatives are blatant rip-offs that simply add “Black” in the name and offer little to no value beyond “comfort” of the black users that don’t want to realise that they live in a multi-cultural world.
(awaits shouts of “racist!”…)
This new browser is no more segmented than IE, Firefox or Safari. It’s simply a preferential point of interest or entry. We now approach the web as a vast container of specifics. This allows us to go online the way we choose and finally have a more culturally relevant way of doing so. Niche is the new black, if you will.
The racist claim comes from people who are fed up with having to tread so lightly around the issue of race for so long for fear of being branded a racist. If one of them created a white-only browser, he’d instantly be labelled a racist and probably chased out of town. It’s a knee-jerk reaction that has no real basis. Obviously black-only initiatives aren’t racist – perhaps mildly discriminatory, but not racist.
“How we can ALL move past the thought of a niche application or site being separatist?”
We can’t. Not if the application really is separatist. We can’t pretend that it isn’t. Having a million and one black-only applications (whether it’s an ISP, a website or a music award ceremony) perpetuates separation and segregation, and that should be obvious.
The reason this has all come out now and not when the MOBO’s were created is because it’s obviously gone too far now. I mean, it’s a web browser. Why does anyone need a black one? It’s like creating a black telephone (Blackphone anyone?) handset. You can still call all the same numbers and people on the other end don’t sound any different when you do, so what’s the point, except to remind everyone that we look a little different?
The point about black cultural media not being so readily available may be well founded, but surely the answer would be to push for better integration, NOT create an entirely separate black-only world?
In the words of Michael Jackson, “I’m not gonna spend my life being a colour”. He was right. We shouldn’t. Instead of constantly reminding each other that this guy’s black and this guy’s white, we should instead be working together to remember that actually we’re all the same colour underneath.
Color does not equal culture.
As a white man married to a black woman for 11 years, I find it absurd. The idea that there needs to be a black way to access information is one of the most ridiculous I have ever encountered. I want my daughter to grow up in a world were people do not make assumptions about her because of her color.
Two steps forward, one step back.
Lets say for instance that BlackBird doesnt fail and it is a great success. What’s the problem with that? I have a house full of kids that see themselves in their browser now they want to know more about the feed, plugins, and how BlackBird was designed. BlackBird at least opens the door of empowerment just like seeing a black candidate does. It is functional it is not vaporware and MOST of all it is just beginning 40A Inc the company that operates BlackBird has been totally responsive to all the requests for more information and suggestions that i gave them. I have only been around the web since the beginning of Prodigy, Compuserve, and Steve Case went to Commodore for startup money for AOL.
I am proud of this product do i think it is the best it could be no but has it crashed on any of our 3 slow computers like IE? Does has it attracted any spyware? NO and it feels faster than FireFox 3. Right now Chrome and BlackBird are the 2 most stable Browsers we (5) people in this house are using for music, video, social media and email almost 16 hours straight right now the 17 yo boy is chatting via Meebo, Myspace and listening to music on Imeem.com. Basically it works! Thats all i can ask of software on 1st version
I think the most basic thing to remember is that this has been tried in many iterations over the last 12 years and it failed time and time again — and its probably going to fail again. Blackbird is *not* the first black browser
Why is it likely to fail? For core communication services (like connecting to the net, cell phone, etc) people want flagship brands that they can trust from major companies
So for all those with dreams of custom tool bars, custom browsers, race based ISPs (remember Blinks and so many others), race based mobile phones for a fully acculturated audience, or re-hashing a popular site’s theme ‘in black’ — you probably want to think again…its been tried and each time has had lackluster results
What makes a browser black — a few built in links and its color?…cmon
There is a place for culturally sensitive content as a core focus for a publishing company…trying to do it via a communications platform seems futile
Good post it’s always amazing to me when Black services are called “racist” by people who refused to promote and market to Black people. These people use say stuff like black people don’t buy XYZ or they are marketing to the general public or whatever. Yet our products and services are called niche marketing as if what’s good for Black in America is not good for America. Rap music and hip hop culture examples of what they (read: mainstream business) racistly (is that a word!) were against but if you look at products and services rap music and hip hop culture brought to the America and the World you will see what’s good for Black America is good for the America. It’s too bad to that the opposite doesn’t always apply.
Great post Angela. I remember having similar discussions (okay, arguments really) with people who just didn’t understand why BET had to exist when it first came out. It’s interesting that so many years later, we are still having the same discussions! You are right, it definitely isn’t about race, or sex, or class, etc. It’s about choice and for the mainstream to get over being threatened by that choice.
I agree with almost everything you said there Angela. However there will always be those who just “dont get it”. As far as a “black browser: goes. I have no problem with the fact that one exists but do we really need such a thing. I’m pretty happy with my Firefox.