Does Youtube Prefer Lighter Skin People?

Recently, as I was scrolling through the list of suggested videos to watch, I saw internet fame and why its discriminatory/racist by a YouTuber I recently discovered, Taraola. As she begins I think, isn’t she exaggerating, though? A lot of white YouTubers have worked their butts off for where they are. There are also successful YouTubers who are minorities. When she began to state the statistics, I was dumbfounded.

I went back and checked her references. The first was an article from Black Girl Long Hair written in December of 2015. It  did not make the claim that there are only six Female YouTubers of African decent that have over one million subscribers, although it only listed six :

1. My Life as Eva
2. Glozell
3. Andrea’s Choice
4. Samantha Maria
5. Teala Dunn
6. It’s My Raye Raye

Here, Taraola is not referring to explicit racism, she is talking about what has been termed systematic racism, that is the human interactive system has a bias towards historically privileged groups, whatever that may be. The system essentially puts a white, cis-gendered, male at the top of the food chain, and a queer female of color at the bottom.

I decided to make a personal evaluation, I skimmed through the 208 people I am subscribed to, 55 have over one million subscribers only five of them were black women with subscribers over one million, and only one black male over a million, Swoozie. One YouTuber that is not on that list (of course the article was written in 2015) is Mademoiselle Gloria a french YouTuber.  Patricia Bright was almost there with (918 k),  and The Chic Natural with (991 k). If you include Swoozie only 11% of the people I subscribe to that have over a million subscribers, are black. So what does that say about me? Of course, as a black female I actively seek out channels with hosts that look like me, and yet only 11% of those over a million are black? So then what does the subscriptions of a white girl look like?

Anna Akana, a multiracial YouTuber recently posted a YouTube video about prejudice against Asians in the entertainment industry, where she describes how she was overlooked as the lead role and instead given the role of “best friend.” Shocking right?

Here are some channels I recommend: Taraola, Aluel Bol Kuanyin, Brownstone Unlimited, Cydnee Black, Kim Thai, and MelaninRich.

Do you know any channels owned by a POC? Are you a POC and want to promote your channel? Feel free to leave a comment. Change starts with us, the consumers, to change the bias in the entertainment industry, even in YouTube.