Yesterday (September 7), YouTube announced the platform is presenting a slate of new and returning projects dedicated to racial justice, elevating Black culture, and amplifying Black voices. The projects are part of the recently announced $100 million #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund.
“YouTube is committed to spotlighting community-driven storytelling and the important issues that people of color and other marginalized communities face every day,” said Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Original Content for YouTube Originals. “Now more than ever, it’s essential that we develop, support, and elevate content that is created by and for the Black community.”
Over the next three years, the global #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund will be used to acquire and produce YouTube Originals programming. According to the company, the $100M endowment will directly support Black creators and artists as a way to help them thrive on YouTube.
Some of the new and returning YouTube Original programs supported by the fund include the “Kids & Families” series Onyx Family Dinner, the 12-episode criminal justice reform docuseries Resist, the Barbershop Medicine special, the Bear Witness, Take Action livestream, and the two-hour HBCU Homecoming 2020: Meet Me On The Yard celebration.
Meet Me On The Yard will stream live on October 24 at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. The event will help raise money for the United Negro College Fund and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Jackson State University’s Sonic Boom of The South and Florida A&M University’s Marching 100 bands are expected to perform.
The showcase will also feature step performances as well as appearances from students, alumni, and YouTube creators. Plus, viewers will get to see inspirational video packages representing the legacy of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Jesse Collins, Shawn Gee, Dionne Harmon, Brandon Pankey, and Chris Wagner are credited as executive producers of HBCU Homecoming 2020: Meet Me On The Yard.
“Race has never been an easy issue to confront but the events over the last few months have opened up doors of dialogue and action that had once seemed closed,” says Malik Ducard, YouTube’s Vice President, Content Partnerships. “Across YouTube, we have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to contribute to these conversations about racial justice in a meaningful way.”
Ducard continues, “Through our $100 million content fund and other initiatives, we are continuing the important work of amplifying Black voices, making YouTube a better place for Black creators, educating people on the diversity of the Black experience, and centering Black people as the messengers of their own stories.”
Other upcoming and returning YouTube Originals titles centered on content about the Black experience, Black visionaries, or racial justice were developed prior to the launch of YouTube’s Black Content Fund. Together We Rise, Trapped: Cash Bail in America, BookTube, The Outsiders, Glad You Asked, and Lockdown are presented on the video-sharing website.
