YouTube Slammed by Black YouTube Star Sky Williams After Encouraging People to ‘Subscribe to Black Creators’

Popular black YouTube star Sky Williams pointed out the hypocrisy of YouTube after the company encouraged people to “subscribe to black creators,” during Black History Month.

“Roses are red… Violets are blue… Subscribe to black creators,” was posted by YouTube on Twitter in an apparent attempt at poetry. The company’s Twitter account currently also boasts a “#CreateBlackHistory” profile picture.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Subscribe to black creators.

— YouTube (@YouTube) February 14, 2018

In response, popular black YouTube creator Sky Williams declared, “I am a Black Creator. When I made a video discussing Black issues, you flagged it, claimed I was ‘inciting racism against POC’, struck my channel and took everything from me.”

“Then your staff pretended to care by setting up a meeting that was due 4 months ago,” he continued. “Delete this.”

I am a Black Creator.

When I made a video discussing Black issues, you flagged it, claimed i was ‘inciting racism against POC’, struck my channel and took everything from me.

Then your staff pretended to care by setting up a meeting that was due 4 months ago.

Delete this. https://t.co/kfxPPmNZBR

— ♡♪!? (@SkyWilliams) February 15, 2018

Williams’ tweet quickly reached over 150,000 likes and nearly 45,000 retweets.

Williams went on to sharply criticize YouTube in a series of tweets after his first message to the video sharing giant.

You dont care about black creators.

You care about Docile black people who see a dumbass tweet like this and think it actually means something

You’re creating your own black friend so you can prove your not racist at dinner parties.

Delete this. https://t.co/kfxPPmNZBR

— ♡♪!? (@SkyWilliams) February 15, 2018

We black creators are fucking fantastic with or without you and your soapbox.

Don’t tell people to fucking sub to me because im black. I want people to sub to me because i’m a fucking excellent content creator.

This shows you don’t even WATCH black creators.

DELETE. THIS. https://t.co/kfxPPmNZBR

— ♡♪!? (@SkyWilliams) February 15, 2018

Williams summarized his position in a tweet stating the qualities in a channel that should drive user subscriptions, none of which are the creator’s race.

Subscribe to creators who make you laugh

who make you experience emotion

who value you as a fan

who challenges your way of thinking

who helps you cope when things get rough

who you relate to

who inspires you

and none of the aforementioned reasons are specific to race. https://t.co/kfxPPmNZBR

— ♡♪!? (@SkyWilliams) February 15, 2018

Other users also criticized YouTube for their post, proclaiming they would subscribe to channels based on their content instead of their race.

I will support good creators, does not matter the "color". Only stupid people and companies care about the "color".

— Nekki Basara (@Simio_pensador) February 14, 2018

i dont let race influence my decision thanks just imagine if it said white creators

— Joe Ferrante (@joekingbtw) February 14, 2018

Or, subscribe to who you like, regardless of skin color, and stop being racist.

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) February 14, 2018

Can't we just subscribe to content creators that we enjoy regardless of color or race?

— PRAWLN (@Prawln) February 15, 2018

YouTube has been frequently criticized for their increasing censorship and demonetization of videos.

As previously reported, “H3H3Productions, Jenna Marbles, iDubbbz, and an array of popular animators have all been affected, while conservative, libertarian, and classically liberal accounts such as Diamond and Silk, Mike Cernovich, Dave Rubin, have all been sanctioned in various ways.”