How to Ethically Navigate the Black Creator Economy

When it comes to equal economic opportunity for Black founders and recognition for Black creators, it’s a cold world. Companies are singled out in headlines such as “TikTok pledges to promote black creators after accusations of censorship” with little attention given to what empowers each corporations’ decision. A pattern is reinforced in which: consumers and industry marketers cry out against individual violating campaigns executions > the companies respond in turn with a promise of future financial investment > high-ranking Black influencers issue ‘They must do better than that; we need to be at the table’ statements > the press cycle subsides until the next public relations crisis.

At first look, we dismiss these issues as corporate, but they also can be systemic. As a friend reminded me several months ago, “All Silicon Valley businesses were built upon the foundation of white supremacy.” Before you balk, consider the unfair environments: racial segregation in the United States, remains long after the abolition of slavery.

This trickles down to Black digital creators. A study by Voxeu of artist development in the U.S. suggests that “a black American is only about half as likely to take up an artistic occupation.” If Black Americans are less likely to be noted artists and authors, and a digital divide persists in which “one in three African Americans … still don't have access to computer technology in their homes,” what hope is there for equitable representation in tech influence, or the Black creator economy?

Let's walkthrough the actions we can take together.

1. As a starting point to heal, those in power at venture capital firms can learn about and call out both stereotypical and subconscious interview bias during the selection process. The affinity bias puts Black leaders at a disadvantage because their personal relation to non-Black interviewers isn’t an indication of their knowledge or work capability. Interviewers can avoid stereotyping Black founders and should keep questions similar to those they ask white founders. Hiring managers should verbally encourage unexpected or unpopular ideas instead of trying to find a ‘culture fit’ to avoid cultural noise bias.
2. Related to the issue of unbalanced creator programs and underpaid creators, marketing managers might start with intentional inclusion every day. Employees can ensure Black creators are pitched for their next branded panel or marketing spot. They can take 10 minutes to peruse hashtags such as #blackcreator for prospective talent and give Black creators equal time to develop ideas rather being an afterthought and judged by rushed pitches. These small habitual fairness efforts will help program managers earn the trust of the creators on their platform. This will lead to the beginning of a healthy pattern of increased on-platform production and off-platform advocacy.
3. Next, justice. Justice within ethics are the moral principles that identify ways of fairly distributing benefits and burdens among the members of a society. Applying this?theory, wider and more deliberate changes would be required to set straight the inequities in venture-backed startups. Several organizations exemplify this penchant for justice, including Digital Undivided, AfroTech, FundBlackFounders, Inclusive Innovation Incubator and more. These dedicated programs recognize the disparity and have strategized how to re-distribute resources to the Black community. Justice manifests here in the form of affirmative action. Because white business leaders will never be able to accept the burdens Black leaders carry, they can instead opt to create justice by relinquishing their positions of power. Former Reddit co-founder and executive Chairman Alexis Ohanian serves as an example, leaving his board seat to make room for a Black board member and announcing “that future gains of his company stock would be invested in the black community.”?
4. Fairly distributing benefits for Black creators looks slightly different. In addition to economic investments and sponsorships for content, and materials (which are necessary to bridge the gap), Black creators need access to product marketing managers and partnerships managers so that they can troubleshoot the known account issues that create a barrier to creation, including harassment, account verification, distribution and algorithmic bias. Look no further than Patreon's Pull Up program for a prime example. Justice for social media creators looks like access to creative tools, best practices, product features in beta, in-product and editorial amplification and networking introductions.?
5. The networking introductions are key as they commonly set white creators up with sponsorships and partnerships outside of the apps they publish on, fetching six figure-sums for content that Black creators invent or popularize. This happened on Clubhouse, where a mostly white group of moderators in New York were credited by THR’s Etan Vlessing for launching “a dating-game format that went viral overnight.” This miscredit is egregious, as the shoot your shot format in question was invented and popularized by Black creators on Clubhouse, carried out weekly in Black-owned and populated clubs like The New Nigerian and Afropolitan Lounge. ‘Shoot your shot’ itself is a Black American colloquialism. Clubhouse co-founder Paul Davidson platformed the NYU moderators in weekly Townhall meetings to thousands of members, leading to these moderators signing with William Morris Endeavor, a talent agency that will facilitate brand deals for the moderators while Black creators go unpaid.?
6. A more responsible ethical practice is required, that forces individuals and corporations to provide due credit to Black creators and improve or generate positive economic outcomes with them or on their behalf. A more aggressive form of this justice might de-platform non-Black creators or provide an algorithmic boost to Black creators to balance inequity. However, I’m doubtful of the industry’s readiness for such measures.
7. Finally, we have caring - an ethical practice directly related to supporting Black creators. Caring, according to Santa Clara University ethics lecturer Laura Jacobus, “emphasizes the value of human relationships and of caring for the well-being of those who are dependent upon us.” Often, Black female creators suffer the double-brunt of racial and gendered pay disparity in the U.S. and take up archival roles to chronicle their experiences in the sheer hopes of being believed, if not equitably compensated. For example, influencer manager Adesuwa Ajayi “asks influencers to anonymously detail their past brand campaigns, sharing their engagement rate (what percentage of people interact with their content), how much they were paid, what they had to do, their race, and where they’re based.” Her anonymized studies reveal pay gaps between Black and white creators by factors of up to 10x. Some participants even received two emails from brands: one in which they were offered gigs without compensation, and another (mistaken pitch for a white creator) in which they were pitched with promised pay. This wouldn’t occur if brands or agencies exhibited care for the well-being of Black digital creators.
8. Brands and agencies must practice caring (this is heartbreaking even to write) by dedicating themselves to researching the pay gaps they perpetuate. They, like Ajayi, must demand that creators are compensated equally. The eventual harm done by this stereotyping and exclusion, compounded with the lack of research insights available about the new digital content creation industry, is truly immeasurable. The anecdotes available indicate a nefarious, systemic segregation that can partially be addressed through care. Brands who care can further nurture their relationships with digital creators through intentional gifting, wellness check-ins during and apart from the onslaught of highly-publicized, traumatic brutality events in the U.S., mentorship and the previously-addressed account support.

The actions the technology industry and its resulting companies, built on the foundation of white supremacy, have taken in response to these ethical failures is promising. For example, within dedicated venture funds, “the number of Black & Latinx women represented in the ProjectDiane 2020 database has doubled since 2018, indicating that more of these women are founding startups in the ecosystem.” As a result of the ‘racial reckoning’ of 2020, social media companies jumped to invest in or more loudly grow multimillion dollar Black creator funds and programs, including Facebook, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Banks and venture funds did the same ‘for’ Black founders, likely to escape criticism.

I also find that these responses (whether individually genuine or obligated by business ethics) are often too modest or fearful. I believe the fear is two-fold: White business leaders fear being “canceled” or nationally criticized for any non-politically correct blunders in pursuing equity, and Black employees fear termination or ostracization at their companies for advocating too loudly for Black founders and creators. On a corporate level within technology, there is an unspoken fear of a company’s vocal support for Black creators driving conservatives away from their platforms, equally weighted with the fear of losing Black creators as regular users or creators because of a lack of trust. The result of this fear is a series of lookalike statements that ‘stand in solidarity with the Black community’ (an apparently singular, monolithic group of people) or worse, ‘communities of color.’ Corporations are afraid to issue statements naming exactly which racial groups they have wronged, only moving to do so when competing companies name these groups more specifically and an industry standard is created.

This is not to erase the presence of Black employees within these venture and social media technology companies, who have long been advocating for justice and racial equity, calling out stereotypes and interview bias, and pushing for positive economic outcomes for Black users. I believe that, in critiquing these multi-billion-dollar companies, the impact and intention of these Black employees is overlooked and invalidated. Personally, I believe it impossible for any of these programs to be effective without the consultation and non-tokenized contributions of Black employees, founders and creators. Each incremental program should be celebrated, but not in a way that the noise of the celebration allows corporations that perpetuate inequity to rest.?

In examining ethical ways for companies to heal the Black creator economy, I recommend white and non-Black leaders take it upon themselves to learn about segregation in the U.S. and challenge their own affinity biases, hire diverse employees for balanced perspectives when decision-making internally (for partnerships, product development and global policy), develop more unique communications and partnerships programs with Black creators, and pay Black creators to publish on their services.

Are you a marketing manager or business leader? Set a meeting to implement these ideas within your company and let me know how it goes.

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--- Joy Ofodu