Nowhere to Turn to but Social Media: Indie Media is No Better for Us than Mainstream
I usually start conversations with an acknowledgment of our knowledge of it—at least with a rudimentary understanding of the topic. That said, we all know how hostile and dismissive mainstream media is of our voices, but most of us know little of how indie media is just as incredibly white and incredibly myopic.
We know that in all industries white male supremacy reigns supreme—even the ones created by us and for us. We know Hollywood has an abysmal track record of diversity and inclusion—especially behind the camera and despite the alias that is also known for: showbusiness. I’d take the moniker more seriously if it truly was a business looking to make a profit, but it is instead just another giant branch of white supremacy since diverse movies and shows get more views and earn more money. There is literally no excuse to keep us out since they can no longer use those two myths to remain so unseasoned, so unoriginal, so mediocre. And there’s literally no excuse to keep appropriating our cultures since we have enough creatives to construct more accurate simulacrums of our stories.
We also know that most newsrooms are occupied by white men. Mainstream media is beholden to its corporate patrons, so freedom and diversity of thought are scarce there, too. You don’t want to anger your overlords. You risked getting suspended or fired.
Digital media and the local news are on a death spiral and as white as they are, I’m having difficulties being indifferent to their demise—even if they are deserving of it because of their continuous exclusion of us. There has been a rise of another type of media, one that is supposed to be the antithesis of corporate-funded mainstream media, and that has been indie media—of the extreme Right and the Left. It goes without saying that the alt-right media would be white (despite there being a handful of people of color starting and starring in their own platforms), but it comes as no shock to many of us in the trenches of culture and politics that the Indie Left is just as white and male and as prohibitive of diverse thoughts of Black and Brown people.
Just take a minute to go through the staff of the more known well-funded indie platforms: The Intercept, The Young Turks, Jacobin, Current Affairs…even babies of the so-called “Dirtbag Left” such as the Chapo Trap House podcast have a diversity problem. On top and besides the appropriated “Trap House” term, they’re being hailed as the originators of bucking respectability politics when we all know Black and Brown advocates have been doing that since before many of us (and its hosts) were born—certainly way before 2016, when the podcast was created:
Please, even MLK wrote about the white moderate, a name that is usually interchanged with liberal, and even though he wasn’t vulgar, he was no less scathing about it. Malcolm X wasn’t coddling liberals with his criticism either. And if one does a cursory search through Black and Brown Twitter, one would find far superior observations with jokes and cuss words delivered with such surgical precision that it is indeed like wiping our asses with silk. Indie Black and Brown folks on Twitter aren’t making a fraction of what those white podcasters are making. Not even most Black Blue Checks, the ones who are trying to make ends meet with random writing gigs and inconsiderate platforms are getting paid so much money.
So believe, those white podcasters and digital platforms are neither original nor originators. They’re just white. And if you happen to encounter an Asian host or journalist working with them, I say it is the norm since white America has a hierarchy of people—they rather give jobs and access to them because they are viewed as less threatening, even if they face discrimination and aren’t considered for positions of leadership. We don’t get any access, let alone attain positions of power.
If by some act of God, we, Black and Brown people, are let in, our rhetoric has to be exactly like our white male bosses—just like the ones we have in corporate America. Most of those Black and Brown folks have to be Bernie Sanders supporters, for instance, and God forbid they have legit critiques of the man. You’d get booed, booted, deplatformed, and harassed. You have to resort to publishing your work independently of them, too. You certainly wouldn’t be making videos that go viral or earning enough money to support yourself with Patreon contributions. Many have resorted to being class reductionists, critical, dismissive, and indifferent of intersectionality, and to calling other Black and Brown people who don’t get in formation misinformed or sellouts. Some of them are threatening to withhold their votes if Bernie Sanders isn’t elected the nominee of the Democratic Party, but they won’t do the same with Bernie Sanders for being dismissive of reparations and a concrete Black agenda. It’s all mighty white of them.
That’s the state of indie media for us. You have to be anti-Black to even be considered. The only thing we have left to express ourselves freely at this point are social media platforms and even those are hostile to Black and Brown folks.
Please contribute more to independent Black and Brown voices—with engagement, with shares, with money. Our voices literally depend on your support.
P.S. Without our independent voices, there wouldn’t be any progress for us—for the world.
A mainstream or indie magazine would usually pay me between $250-$450 for one of my pieces. Since I decided to go solo for the sake of keeping my voice unedited and uncensored, I created this website. Keeping it afloat and these pieces coming is not just time-consuming, but it’s also costly because it angers a lot of those same mainstream papers and magazines (along with their donors) for calling them out—so their favorite retaliation tactic is deplatforming. Especially of unapologetic and unhypocritical Black and Brown voices. Ideally, I’d like to raise between $250-$450 per piece and many of you have actually stepped up to the plate and helped me accomplish that. For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you would like to see more of these and support one of the few unbought indie voices, please contribute:
If you prefer Venmo (@Cesar-Vargas-1) or Cash App ($vargas365) like I do, please try them instead.
Stand with the independent writers of the world.
César Vargas is an award-winning writer, advocate, strategist, speaker, and social critic with a loyal following and a robust social capital that spans from coast to coast: Journalists, celebrities, activists, artists, executives, politicians, and more. He was named one of 40 Under 40: Latinos in American Politics by the Huffington Post. He’s written about internal and external community affairs to several news outlets and quoted in others: The Huffington Post, NBC, Fox News, Voxxi, Okayafrica, Okayplayer, Sky News, Salon, The Guardian, Latino Magazine, Vibe, The Hill, BET, and his own online magazine—which has a fan base of over 25,000 people and has reached over a million—UPLIFTT. He’s familiar with having a voice that informs, invigorates, and inspires people—creating content that usually goes viral. He recently won two awards from Fusion and the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts for his films Some Kind of Spanish and Black Latina Unapologetically. He attained a degree in Films Studies from Queens College, CUNY. He’s currently heading Azul, a PR & marketing firm for the modern world.
