Social media has changed the way the entire world operates. If you don’t think so, a large segment of the globe was completely outraged when TikTok was temporarily out of service. The power of social media is an undeniable force in popular culture.
As with any medium, Black people have the innate ability to bring their unique perspective and ingenuity and influence, inspire, and inform everyone around the globe. Whether it’s fashion, dance trends, inside jokes, the latest tea, or hashtags for clarion calls for social justice, Black people have impacted the masses on social media.
Prentice Penny, director of Black Twitter: A People’s History, explained how Black people came to social media spaces and created community.
“And I think that’s some of the beauty of Black Twitter is these sort of real powerful moments like Trayvon Martin, and Black Lives Matter and Black girl magic and coexist alongside random craziness as this,” Penny told PBS.
In an exclusive interview, BET.com spoke with Fred Mwangaguhunga, the founder of Media Take Out, and Jamila Mustafa, host of MTV’s “Fresh Out Live” about “Reclaiming the Narrative: How Black Culture Drives Social Media.”
In the early days of the rise of social media in the early 2000s, Mwangaguhunga, a Columbia-trained attorney, noticed the lack of coverage of Black celebrity news. Intending to fill the void, he launched Media Take Out, which has become one of the most prominent websites covering Black celebrity news and gossip.
“If you’re a Black entrepreneur, you see the holes in the marketplace everywhere because we’re underrepresented in every industry. When I decided to go into the Blog World and pursue social media, there was all kinds of stigma around the African American market,” Mwangaguhunga said. “But I was just like, ‘You know what? I’m going for it. I see the opportunity there.”
Years later, Mwangaguhunga believed that social media opened the door for many Black creatives who were previously locked out of the media industry by gatekeepers.
“Social media came about so quickly and lowered the barriers to entry to kind of create something where before you maybe had to have a website and a lot of traffic,” he explained. “Now you can create a video, and hope to catch the winning algorithm and you could go from 0-100 in a week or two. Before it would take years building it up. But a lot of people don’t realize that social media is one piece of the larger media puzzle.”
Mustafa shared how Black creatives have used social media as the ultimate conduit of self-expression.
Regarding Black creatives in social media today, it’s pretty much how we’ve driven culture and lifestyle. It allows people to feel liberated through art and offers a different lens of life and lifestyle,” Mustafa said. “ Through creativity, through expression, Black artists are creating art or showcasing their talent or passion, and social media is just another vehicle for that.”
She also spoke about how Black creatives on social media are often not credited or properly compensated for the trends they created.
The best form of flattery is imitation and to have copious amounts of your materials and replicas of what you’re doing. That’s pretty much what a retweet is or when something or someone is trending, so we inspire pop culture. When Megan the Stallion and Beyoncé’s song went viral from the dance challenge, a Black girl created it,” she added.
With so much revenue generated on social media, Mustafa applauded creators with business acumen.
“We have to protect our art. Most times creatives just want to create and not think about laws, copyrights, how to make billions,” she continued. “You’re thinking about how to make the best art. That’s something that this generation has really become knowledgeable about. They really recognize how to protect their brands, how to build their brands, how to make multi-million dollar deals on social media influencers.”
For up-and-coming creatives, Mwangaguhunga noted that the social media space is going through massive changes with the advent of AI and understanding how apps and algorithms are at work.
“Social media is going through probably the biggest change of its life with AI. I think everything is in the air and everything is changing. The algorithms are moving quicker. The introduction of Tiktok was a game changer. We kind of understood how to work with Instagram and YouTube. With Tiktok, the life cycle of the social media star is getting a lot shorter.
Five years ago, you could have a lifespan of three or four years on social media before you started dropping off. Now that life cycle is down to three or four months,” he noted.
Regarding the future of Black creatives in social media, Mwangaguhunga believes it will continue growing as creators keep pushing boundaries.
“Black people are blowing up all over social media. You have guys like Kai Cenett. In two, three years, there’s going to be another person that takes it to another level when they figure out a new angle,” Mwangaguhunga said. “That’s always the goal of it all right? We’re all in this together. Whether or not you believe you’re in it with me or not. We’re all co-workers in this world, and we’re all looking to increase the size of the pie. That’s always how I looked at it.”
Mustafa hopes that Black creators will keep using their brilliance to create long-lasting brands with equity.
“My motto is ‘Aim to be significant, not famous.’ If I could tell any artist or anyone aiming to create on social media it’s just aim to be significant and create the art that’s going to last,” she said. “You should create a brand that is going to be able to have substance and sustainability.”
“We’re able to see art translated, we’re being able to see the social digital impact that Black creators are making. They’ve created Black platforms that have had a major impact on social media. That is undeniable.