Diversity on television has always been a source of contention in communities of color. Yet with the creation of webseries, online media outlets such as YouTube have served as a promised land for individuals eager to provide more multiracial content. Russell Simmons is one of the latest celebrities to partner with the online video community company to produce a new "post-racial" YouTube channel titled ADD. “Hollywood doesn’t realize — it’s not like ‘Do more black stuff,’ ” Simmons told the LA Times. “I’m an American. I don’t want to be patronized. I want to be included.”
Jay-Z, Queen Latifah and Diddy, and former BET Entertainment President Reginald Hudlin will also be launching new YouTube channels in the coming week, according to reports. “These voices aren’t really heard loudly on other platforms,” Malik Ducard, YouTube’s director of content partnerships, told reporters. It’s a “really amazing and large opportunity we have with online distribution for the African American marketplace, for the Latino and for the Asian audiences that hunger for content. And we are happy to get it and serve it up for them.”
