LET'S MAKE LEFTTUBE MORE DIVERSE TOGETHER
This isn’t something up for discussion; the numbers don’t lie. White people are vastly over-represented as far as secured bread, which is not ideal, as the working class is not just made up of white folks. The problems of working class POC are exacerbated by their identities, and while there is ongoing discussion about it on YouTube, it often doesn’t include a lot of the people it actually concerns.
When one considers the imperial nature of capitalism, one must work to understand how broad dehumanization and “scientific” justifications work to build a hierarchy of identity that helps uphold and further solidify the class structure, as well as give those without systemic critique groups of people to think they are “better” than. A condition of leftist solidarity cannot be achieved when we are not actively working to undermine this; our goals are the elimination of class and when identity works as part of the justification for defaulting certain groups to lower class positions (or even lower positions in a higher class), we cannot ignore this – it is part of the material conditions of our POC brothers, sisters, and siblings.
As leftist YouTubers wielding a significant amount of combined attention due to how the current structure exists, as well as people with a friendly and collaborative relationship, we wish to use our positions to attempt to put some power into some people of color’s hands. In short, we want to build a “find and fund” operation. We are discussing solutions that will be utilizing lots of capitalist infrastructure, as Leftist YouTube already does in general. It is currently unavoidable, but *insert Matt Bors comic here*.
The more people we are able to put the message of what capitalism really is in front of (as well as general calls for collectivization and cooperation), the more potential for total systemic change exists. However, we wish to do what is possible to subvert the actual system at play, namely, we want to do what is possible to address the material conditions of people who want to be uploading leftist YouTube content but can not. We don’t want to play favorites with ideologies and tendencies, but we must exclude liberals from this project, as liberalism is the justifying ideology for what we are trying to address: class struggle and the conditions that further marginalize anyone.
What we mean in more specific terms is this:
The Leftist Diversity Incubator chat server should not be considered a place to debate issues, nor should it be considered a place where hearsay about a new creator is appropriate. We don’t expect this to be a problem, but just to be entirely specific: the point and purpose is finding would-be creators and arming them with what is necessary to become a self-sufficient leftist YouTuber, alleviating the over-representation of white people in the leftist YouTube space without relying on liberals who will spread ideology that ultimately supports the status quo. This is not something we have seen done before, and if we can create a process that works, we wish to build similar incubators based on other factors, like class, health, ability, etc. However, there is a glaring issue that should be obvious in even the most cynical appropriation of the statistical data: Leftist YouTube is very white.
We thank everyone for their time in reading this, as well as any future volunteers or would-be leftist YouTubers, and sincerely look forward to taking steps forward.
Sincerely,
Peter Coffin
Angie Speaks
This isn’t something up for discussion; the numbers don’t lie. White people are vastly over-represented as far as secured bread, which is not ideal, as the working class is not just made up of white folks. The problems of working class POC are exacerbated by their identities, and while there is ongoing discussion about it on YouTube, it often doesn’t include a lot of the people it actually concerns.
When one considers the imperial nature of capitalism, one must work to understand how broad dehumanization and “scientific” justifications work to build a hierarchy of identity that helps uphold and further solidify the class structure, as well as give those without systemic critique groups of people to think they are “better” than. A condition of leftist solidarity cannot be achieved when we are not actively working to undermine this; our goals are the elimination of class and when identity works as part of the justification for defaulting certain groups to lower class positions (or even lower positions in a higher class), we cannot ignore this – it is part of the material conditions of our POC brothers, sisters, and siblings.
As leftist YouTubers wielding a significant amount of combined attention due to how the current structure exists, as well as people with a friendly and collaborative relationship, we wish to use our positions to attempt to put some power into some people of color’s hands. In short, we want to build a “find and fund” operation. We are discussing solutions that will be utilizing lots of capitalist infrastructure, as Leftist YouTube already does in general. It is currently unavoidable, but *insert Matt Bors comic here*.
The more people we are able to put the message of what capitalism really is in front of (as well as general calls for collectivization and cooperation), the more potential for total systemic change exists. However, we wish to do what is possible to subvert the actual system at play, namely, we want to do what is possible to address the material conditions of people who want to be uploading leftist YouTube content but can not. We don’t want to play favorites with ideologies and tendencies, but we must exclude liberals from this project, as liberalism is the justifying ideology for what we are trying to address: class struggle and the conditions that further marginalize anyone.
What we mean in more specific terms is this:
The Leftist Diversity Incubator chat server should not be considered a place to debate issues, nor should it be considered a place where hearsay about a new creator is appropriate. We don’t expect this to be a problem, but just to be entirely specific: the point and purpose is finding would-be creators and arming them with what is necessary to become a self-sufficient leftist YouTuber, alleviating the over-representation of white people in the leftist YouTube space without relying on liberals who will spread ideology that ultimately supports the status quo. This is not something we have seen done before, and if we can create a process that works, we wish to build similar incubators based on other factors, like class, health, ability, etc. However, there is a glaring issue that should be obvious in even the most cynical appropriation of the statistical data: Leftist YouTube is very white.
We thank everyone for their time in reading this, as well as any future volunteers or would-be leftist YouTubers, and sincerely look forward to taking steps forward.
Sincerely,
Peter Coffin
Angie Speaks
