Hey yall, I have some new merch! Stick around to the end of the video to learn
more about it. So I recently decided for like the 5th time
in 10 years to mute my notifications from people I don’t follow on Twitter. Because Twitter can be a dramatic hellscape
sometimes. But before I did that, I noticed a common
trend. Someone would post a tweet asking for recommendations
for creators of color who talk about politics. And I was often one of the people recommended. There was an uptick of this recently in light
of a discussion people were having about how the political space on YouTube seems to be
dominated by white people. I talked about this a little bit in my last
video. And one of the things that I pointed out is
that there really isn’t really a shortage of non-white YouTubers, even among those who
cover political and social issues. But for some reason, a lot of these creators
of color seem to be completely absent from white people’s radars. Which is why I assume there are all these
threads asking for recommendations. Now in terms of YouTube, I'm sure a lot of
this has to do with the way the algorithm recommends videos to people. But the algorithm does suggest videos based
on your user activity. So… But even outside of YouTube, You’re hard-pressed
to see the work of people of color signal boosted by white people. Unless it’s like Lizzo or something. So there’s this weird paradox of people
seemingly wanting to learn more about the experiences and ideas of people of color,
while also managing to completely avoid all of their work. It’s a curious situation, but it reminds
me of a question that I get asked a lot. Hi, I’m T1J. [WEIRD VOICE:] Follow me! Let’s check the voice mail. [CALLER:] Hey, T1J, this is Matt. I'm actually in South Carolina. As a white guy who used to be very much in
the anti-feminist, anti-SJW sphere, I’m kind of curious. Where do I even begin in looking for resources
to sort of expand my knowledge about the struggles faced by marginalized groups and stuff like
that? I think a lot of white folks who are trying
to be more of an ally could do with a primer on where to start educating themselves on
these issues. But hey, keep doing what you’re doing, and
have a good day! [T1J:] So this is a common question. And I can understand how it might be kind
of overwhelming to want to be a good ally but feel like you’re just not informed enough,
and maybe afraid that you might get something wrong. Especially in the social media era where people
have very little patience for the perceived missteps of others, because they’re so f*cking
perfect, right? But you may also find that marginalized people
are often unenthusiastic about being put in a position to educate others, or to teach
people how to educate themselves. Which is fair, they don’t have to. And in many cases they’re not well-equipped
to. Not everyone is skilled at dissecting difficult
topics in a way that is accessible to others. But even for those who are, I can see how
it could be frustrating to have to continuously explain what amounts to fairly basic information
to people. And some folks just don’t feel like doing
it. But there are people like me who create content
specifically to help people be more thoughtful about these kinds of things. In fact there a lot of people who do that. Like I said, in the internet era, there is
no shortage of voices coming from disadvantaged communities, like people of color, LGBTQ people,
disabled people, etc. These voices are still marginalized and often
silenced, especially when compared to more privileged groups, but they are definitely
out there, and in my opinion, not that hard to find. By the way, I say this with full respect to
Matt, the caller from the voicemail, I don’t mean to imply anything negative about him
specifically, in fact I think his question comes from a place of sincerity, but I’m
using his question as a launching point for a broader conversation. So take black people for example, I get a
lot of questions like Matt’s where people want to know how they can learn more about
the black experience, and how to relate to black people more effectively. Well the easiest way to learn about black
people, is to listen to black people. And the same goes for any group really. Some folks understand this, to some extent,
I think, which is why they keep tweeting at people for suggestions of PoC creators. But it’s interesting how often that when
people are asking for these suggestions, they are asking other white people. And I know this, because as I said, I’m
often tagged. And also sometimes I search myself on reddit. Don’t judge me. It’s common for people to ask for these
suggestions, either from public figures, their own followers, or from members of a community
they’re part of. And don’t get me wrong, I’ve had people
ask me for suggestions as well, like our friend Matt from the voicemail, and a few others,
especially after I talked about it in my last video, but I get the sense that the people
giving the suggestions are often, if not usually other white people. And to some extent this is kind of a circular
problem. They very well can’t ask people of color
for suggestions, if they don’t know where to find them in the first place. But again, some of yall are pulling a Sandra
Bullock. What do you mean my memes aren't fresh? And I’m not saying it’s bad for white
people to suggest content from people of color. But it’s hard not to see this as people
searching for content that has essentially been pre-approved by other white people, whether
consciously or not. I talked in my last video about how my channel
seems to be 'white-people approved,' which I think is why I’m one of the people who
gets suggested so often. But limiting your exposure only to those black
voices which have been deemed palatable by white people, really only gives you a fractured
view of the black experience. It’s a start, and it’s valid, and you
should take it seriously, but there’s so much more. So really there’s an important first step
to take for any person that’s trying to learn more about the experiences of any marginalized
groups. [punching sound effects]
Stop asking other people to do the work for you. Fun fact: Google… is free. I think googling things is underrated. Of course, not every result you stumble upon
is going to be useful or constructive, [JESSE:] I am an Oreo cookie, white on the
inside, black on the outside. Isn't that amazin? [T1J:] Ehhhhhh yikes. But again, stop being lazy. Do some reading, save some bookmarks, compare
your sources, see what adds up and see what doesn't, figure it out. [VOICEOVER:] So I wanted to try something
here to sort of give an example of what I'm talking about. And I want to stress that this is not the
only thing you should do if you're interested in learning more about marginalized groups,
or about anything. But it's a good place to start, and there's
really no reason not to do it. But just to make it as genuine as possible,
I wanted to try an aspect of it that I'm less familiar with, so I actually get to learn
some things too, while I'm making this video about how you can learn some things! So one aspect that I am personally less familiar
with is learning more about the plight of Native Americans. There's certain things that I've learned just
incidentally, but I've never intentionally looked into those kinds of issues and I'd
like to know more about it. Another things that I'm going to have to keep
in mind is that there are Natives that aren't Americans, so maybe just saying 'Natives'
is just better so you don't slip up, because the term "Native American" just kind of flows
in my head because I'm so used to it. I wouldn't want to meet a Native from, say,
Canada and still say Native American, so maybe I should get used to saying "Native" which
seems to be more preferred anyway. Now, say I wanted to learn more about the
plight of Natives in America. Again, we can make a starting point, just
by Googling it. This may seem silly, but lets just try Googling
it, and see what happens. So we've got a HuffPost article at the top
there. Sometimes HuffPost is really good, and sometimes
it's really...dubious. So let's see, what are 13 issues that Natives
are dealing with? I do like when articles give you things to
click on. "Native Americans face issues of mass incarceration
and policing." I didn't even know that. "Native peoples are disproportionately affected
by mass incarceration. In states with significant Native populations,
Native Americans are wildly overrepresented in the criminal justice system. In South Dakota for example, Native Americans
make up 9% of the total population, but 29% of the prison population." 29 percent!? That's a lot of people. So, you know, that's a claim, and they dropped
a link. So we can click on that link, and see what
it leads to. Okay, this is a graph that just kind of repeats
the same thing. If you really want to fact check it, you want
to go to the actual study that they're citing. So I don't much about this site. This site is called PrisonPolicy.org. So yeah that's something that you might want
to do. This is the results of their study. And that's just South Dakota, but that's still
wild. "In Alaska, they're 38% of the prison population. In Hawaii, they're 39%." And if you wanted to fact check all of those
things and look at the sources, you could. And you probably should do that. "Native communities are often impoverished
and jobless." That's something we probably could have guessed,
as racial minorities. "The federal government is still stripping
Native people of their land." That's something that I want to know more
about, actually. "Violence against women and children is especially
prevalent in Native communities." So you know, as I could have guessed. It seems that Native Americans deal with a
lot of the same social and economic issues that other ethnic minorities deal with. And they have unique issues as well, such
as, being indigenous people, they have a claim to a lot of the land, and a lot of the land,
even the ones that they have been given sovereignty over is being taken away from them. So that's an issue that's unique to that group
specifically. Whoever wrote that article did a pretty good
job of linking to things, so there's a lot of things to click on. Like I said, just don't be lazy. It's very not-hard. Just literally type it into Google and click
on stuff. Like, really. One thing I am interested in, being a YouTuber. I am not familiar, I don't think, of any Native
American YouTubers, or any Native or indigenous YouTubers at all. So I'll just type in "Native American YouTubers." I guess I'll just click this "top 49 Native/Indigenous
YouTubers." Sekteoma--Seukteoma? I literally just clicked to see if she would
say her name. He's got a clip of his family celebrating
Thanksgiving Day. And this is interesting because I think a
lot of people don't think that Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. But some of them do. This is awesome. This person makes wooden stop motion videos. It appears to be in the Native language, but
it's still really cool. So this is the perfect video for me right
now. This is a person who apparently has made a
resource to find Native YouTubers. So this is kind of exactly what I'm looking
for. This is another video that just a list of
Native Youtubers. So there's a few of these. It kind of reminds me of old school YouTubers
where people were kind of in it just to make videos and stuff. They weren't doing it for money or doing it
for fame. They just liked making videos and liked interacting
with the community. And it seems like that's what's going on here,
and I really dig it alot actually. [T1J:] So I think that literally Google is
a great place to start learning about other groups and cultures. And if you’re doing an earnest deep dive,
you will no doubt find an unlimited amount of things to read, watch, and listen to. I thought it was especially cool that I was
able to find a couple of lists of Native creators, as suggested by other Native creators. Which is to say lists that haven’t been
curated by white people. A lot of those channels might feel a little
bit out of my wheelhouse, I might not relate to them that much, but that’s the point. If I refuse to leave my comfort zone, then
I’m limiting how much I can learn. But there’s no magic bullet to this kind
of thing, people are complicated and if you want to learn more about them, it’s going
to take some work. It’s also important to acknowledge that
no matter how much recon and research you do on a group of people, you will always lack
that firsthand experience, so you'll never be able to get the FULL story. And firsthand experience, in my opinion, is
the most significant factor. So Googling is just the tip of the iceberg. Ultimately, you’re gonna have to actually
talk to people who have that first-hand experience. If you don’t know a lot about the people
in these groups, it’s likely that you have a few preconceived ideas about them, and if
you don’t have any experience with them, those notions are almost certainly incorrect
or incomplete. Whether they are good or bad. And the best break through that is to spend
time with the people. And I’m not talking about emailing them
questions or inviting them on your podcast. I mean if you want to do that, then feel free
to try to do that, but I mean ongoing real human interactions. Speak with your neighbors, and coworkers,
and classmates. Meet their families, attend their events. Instead of going to karaoke Saturday night
and belting out Total Eclipse of the Heart like you usually do, maybe try going to the
jazz club where all the old black people hang out, or go watch a drag show at a gay bar. Attend political events, go to meetings, join
social clubs. Just hang out with people really. Of course, be respectful, I think that these
kinds of things are usually welcoming to everyone but it’s important to understand that sometimes
people in marginalized groups require their own spaces where they feel safe. So like, if you’re gonna be weird, definitely
don’t go. But if you do, just relax and be nice. And if people are uncomfortable with you being
there, just politely leave and try something else. I’m not telling you to ask questions or
interview people, or even “observe”, I’m just saying just go hang out, interact, be
a person in the world outside of your bubble. I believe that forming real relationships
with other human beings is the most effective solution to prejudice, and is really the best
way to learn about other people. Once you do all this, I feel like your main
takeaway is gonna be that people are just people. Whether they are black or white or gay or
trans or disabled, or Jewish or Muslim. Whether they are gangstas or religious or
sex workers or musicians or athletes. The range of character traits is pretty much
the same. People are just people. Some people are awesome, and some people are
not so awesome. And what group you're in, rarely has anything
to do with it. But you should also eventually pick up on
the fact that people in certain groups have unique issues that they have simply because
they are in that group. And for many of those groups, those issues
are systemic and oppressive. And finally, you’ll probably also figure
out that no group is a monolith. Even within the same communities, different
people live different lives, and have different worldviews and different ideas about how to
solve their issues. And all of those ideas are at the very least
worth listening to. And of course this makes the everything much
more complicated. But nobody said this was gonna be easy. I think the hardest part is just being humble
enough to recognize that sometimes, you just lack the firsthand experience needed to truly
understand what someone else is going through. Sometimes you just have to listen and believe. And I know the “rational skeptics” act
like they hate that phrase, but really that’s just a basic part of being a compassionate
human being. When someone tells you their story, you don’t
be a dick about it. Pretty basic stuff. So the last step is to take what you’re
learning and bring it back to your own friends and family and community. And I’m not asking you to preach or become
an activist, but if you want to, feel free. But it's not necessary. But you can start discussions, you can challenge
the ideas that you hear, you can ask those people the same questions that you’re asking
Google. It’s difficult to get to a point where you
feel like you can fully understand someone else’s situation, in fact it may be technically
impossible. \
But learning and researching the basics and beginning to develop empathy for other human
beings, I think is not that complicated. You just have to stop being lazy. What might be difficult I suspect, is getting
to the point where you admit that you need to do that in the first place, and that’s
why I appreciate people like Matt. But, DAS JUS ME DOE. What do you think? Thank you for watching my video, and thanks
to everyone who supports me on Patreon. My Patrons are literally what keeps this channel
afloat. So if you like what I do and want to help
me out, consider dropping a buck a month on Patreon. I’m also pretty excited to announce the
launch of my new T1J Merch. I’ve had a lot of different ones throughout
the years but I wanted to take it back to the basics with some new DAS JUS ME DOE and
HAKO T-Shirts, as well as these cute little chibi T1J stickers. Check them out at the1janitor.com/store. This is also another great way to support
the channel if you like what I do! Also if you’d like send me a question or
comment or if you just wanna say hi, you can call the number on your screen and leave me
a voicemail. And maybe I’ll respond to it in a future
video. Thanks again for watching and remember to
Stay HAKO.
I do recommend using a well-curated search engine. My non-google search yesterday for metal bands with PoC brought up a few stormfront pages in the results O_o
this one about the sub
Very nice.