The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many other Black people at the hands of the police and others, have sparked protests and riots across the world.

But outside of their families, and local communities, the names of those who have died still might not be as widely known by the public without video evidence. But when racial injustice goes viral, it amplifies conversations about inequality in ways that the justice system does not and can not.

Following the death of George Floyd, social movements were initiated, fundraisers were organized, and new laws were penned to create change. It’s almost too magnificent to believe, but that’s 

YouTube seems to understand this more than any brand. As a pioneer of online video, the company is using its platform to support anti-racism - both independently and with the help of talented creators.

To help spread the word, we’re highlighting important conversations from creators, plus what YouTube is doing to help. Keep scrolling to hear their perspectives, then do everything you can to support the 

 is highlighting racial justice issues. These featured videos, which you can view as playlists on YouTube’s own channel, share perspectives from Black creators, educational resources, and historical viewpoints on race.

Here are the 10 Playlists YouTube is promoting:

How to Talk to Kids About Racial Injustice

The videos within these playlists, namely “

”, discuss what it’s like to be Black in America. These featured creators talk about why Black people are angry and tired, what Black Lives Matter protests are really about, how to stay positive during dark times, and more.

Marques Brownlee on Tokenism and Racial Profiling

In terms of YouTubers creating conversations around racism and inequality, top tech expert 

 explains the loneliness of being the only Black person in white spaces. In a video published on June 4th, he taps into his youth, expressing his love for golf, ultimate frisbee, and making tech videos.

Although these things were great in the beginning, Marques confirms that as you climb the ranks, there’s much less diversity.

As a result, he began to question everything. Did he make the professional ultimate frisbee team because he was good enough? Or were decision-makers using his skin color to satisfy diversity quotas?

Being a competitor was almost enough to distract him from those worries, Brownlee says. Almost. He’d snap back to reality while driving away from practices, hyperaware of how he could be stopped by police for next to nothing.

To Brownlee, this painful duality—being tokenized but also hunted by authorities isn’t something we should try to disprove. He states:

“Not only is racism obviously unacceptable, but we also have to actively work against it. There’s always, somehow, people twisting that, making it political, making it a two-sided thing. I don’t understand how being anti-racist can possibly be controversial.”

Uninterrupted on the De-humanization of Black Athletes

, a sports network co-founded by Lebron James is also front and center of the conversation. The publisher uploaded a video on June 12th imploring sports fans to view professional athletes as more than just their jobs.

The video addresses the paradox of rooting for Black athletes on fields, courts, and arenas but nowhere else. It states:

“You ask us to move the chains, apply pressure, go for the jugular. You scream our names and wear our names and protect our names because we’re supposed to be family. But what about out here? Are you willing to scream for these names out here?”

Under that quote from the video, four names quickly flash across the screen: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, and Trayvon Martin. Uninterrupted doesn’t hold back in its message. The moving rhetoric of the narrator gives undeniable truth to every scene on the screen.

Important Conversations: Allyship and Black Trans Lives Matter

YouTube’s Spotlight playlists are only one way to join the conversation. TV personalities Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert are addressing racism on their own channels too.

By publishing videos about what it means to be anti-racist and 

, they are supporting Black lives and anti-racism.

These are great videos to watch because they normalize what allyship is supposed to be - using your platform, money, or time to dismantle racism as a non-person of color.

Nevertheless, the world has a long way to go in supporting all Black people. Often times, cisgender people carry the bulk of the conversation while members of the LGBTQ community are left out - especially Black transgender people.

Creators are addressing this too. YouTubers like Chauncey Jadore (below) and 

 are sharing their frustrations about the 

 because there are simply too many names: Riah Milton, Dominique Fells, Muhlaysia Booker, Kiki Fantroy, and Bee Love Slater, among others.

And what’s more, Black trans males are a part of that number, including the recent shooting of Tony McDade.

YouTube’s Initiative to Support Black Creators

In response to the global outcry for equality, YouTube is taking action. In a 

, she confirmed that YouTube will “amplify and develop the voices of Black creators” with a multiyear, $100M fund.

The money is already being put to use, and one of the first events was a live-streamed fundraiser called “Bear Witness, Take Action” on June 13th. It included artists and public figures such as Roxanne Gay and John Legend, as well as YouTubers 

For nearly two hours, “Bear Witness, Take Action” shared roundtable discussions, panels, and musical tributes to raise awareness for racial injustice. As of today's date, the live stream has generated over $1M.

The message from Black creators is clear: systemic racism, inequality, lack of visibility, police brutality, and other issues directly impacting Black lives need to be addressed on a global scale. Now.

YouTube is boldly amplifying that message and so should every other person, company, and brand.

As a pioneer in online video, YouTube is supporting #BlackLivesMatter both as a brand, and as a platform for Black creators.

Black Lives Matter: How the YouTube Community is Amplifying Black Voices

Now that summer is ending, we’re officially over the midyear hump and sliding toward the end of 2020. Considering everything that’s been going on – 

, the social isolation, and the financial uncertainty – how are you, as a YouTube creator, doing these days?

We’ve noticed that many of you are still creating on the platform and sharing your interests with the world. We’ve seen your at-home cooking tutorials, which have helped people feed their families during lockdowns. We’ve watched hours of your quarantine fitness videos to make sure we stay healthy outside the gym. 

And perhaps most importantly, we’ve absorbed your positivity during hard times, aiming to shift our perspectives just as you shifted your content to help others.

With that being said, you can’t continue to do for others without checking on yourself first. Creator burnout, especially on YouTube, is a real thing. If you’ve been pushing through stressful situations to upload non-stop, it’s time to take inventory of where you are right now, both mentally and physically.

 CEO Josh Zimmerman spoke to us about the 

 and urged stressed creators to take the time to recalibrate.

vidIQ: Thanks for joining us, Josh. What are some of the things that may be contributing to creator burnout, particularly during COVID-19 and everything else that’s happening in the world right now?

Josh: COVID-19 has really just magnified all the circumstances that would normally lead to 

. All of us have had our routine and normalcy taken away from us (which has been a good thing because it's helping us protect others.) However, that’s forced many of us to blend our work-life balance in a way we’ve never had to before.

For creators, their work-life is already blended. So, a lot of people would assume, well, hey, this is not going to affect them, but it does because of a few things. CPMs are down, brand deals have been off the table, but at the same time, those creators still have expenses that need to be covered. The bigger channels may have a production team or a manager or agent that still needs to be paid. And of course, the need to pay taxes on income earned from YouTube never goes away.

What I’ve been seeing over the past few months is that YouTube views and watch time is up because people have been watching more content, but potential ad revenue has decreased so there’s a huge disparity happening here. Now, for creators to make up that deficit, they’re having to turn out two or three times the amount of content, just to make the money they were getting last year.

This is a hugely stressful position to be in. And when you get stressed, your body releases adrenaline, and there's only so much adrenaline in your body before your adrenals are tapped out. Once that happens, your brain and body go, "Oh, we got to replace this with something." So, it replaces it with cortisol, a chemical that induces fight, flight or freeze, but also blocks neurotransmitters of creativity. It’s a vicious cycle for any creator to find themselves in.

vidIQ: What are the early warning signs of burnout?

Josh: That's a really, really great question. One of the things that is most important when identifying whether you're burnt out is, if you think you are, then you probably are. You need to start letting that cortisol drain out by doing things that help calm and relax you. Perhaps you’ve done that in the past by socializing with friends or going to the gym, but of course, those things have been out of bounds.

I know a huge number of creators are caught on the hamster wheel right now, but I stress that if you keep going and you don't take a month or so off, how's that going to look for you? Taking a break is more than OK, otherwise, it may take you two, three, four, or even five months to fully recover from the stress. What's the worst that can happen if you take a break now.? Would you rather just step back and take care of yourself and work with a coach, or would you rather keep going and suffer and watch your channel spiral?

vidIQ: Being a YouTube creator can be quite a lonely business, can’t it?

Josh: It's one of the most lonely existences because you're often just looking into a camera, editing and uploading all by yourself, and then you do it all over again. Often, the only interaction you have is with people that you don't know. For the most part, subscribers won’t even comment, they’ll just watch then jump straight to another video.

It doesn't mean that you didn't make a difference, but you don't know. So it's very easy to be like, "Oh, I didn't do anything meaningful.” But just because they didn’t leave a comment doesn't mean your content didn't affect them. They had to log into YouTube, they had to see there was a new video, they made the decision to click on it, and perhaps sit through a couple of ads. So, they went through all of these steps just to watch. That is a huge feat in and of itself.

What people need right now is to feel connected to one another at a safe distance. And so, creators of any size have a great opportunity to spread that happiness and joy of their creativity, but they have to take care of themselves first.

vidIQ: What advice would you give to new creators who are just starting out? Perhaps those who were very enthusiastic at the start of the pandemic, and saw an opportunity to control their career and generate revenue from YouTube. But maybe two or three months into it, they're feeling demoralized or demotivated by the effect the pandemic has had on their lives and creativity.

Josh: Stay healthy. Because if you love creating and people like watching your content, you're helping more than you think. And that's the big thing; it doesn't matter how many subscribers you have, and it doesn't matter how many views you have. It only takes one view or one subscriber and suddenly there’s somebody out there in the world who’s connected with what you're saying and what you're doing.

And it's so easy to say, "Oh, only 100 subscribers, or only 100 viewers." That's 100 people! Imagine that amount of people sitting in your living room or bedroom, waiting for what you have to say! Keep going, because those 100 people are watching YOU. They're watching you for a reason because you make them happy. You give them something. And so, I would encourage those creators that are starting out to keep going.

Sometimes it takes years and years to be a success on YouTube, and unfortunately, we have a pandemic that has put a damper on everything. But what you're putting out there is helpful. So, read those comments, and engage with your audience. You’ll be amazed at why they're watching your videos, and that's going to give you the energy to keep going.

vidIQ: What advice would you have for someone who knows a creator who may be struggling right now?

Josh: I would say that the best thing that anybody can do is to reach out and check in with people you care about (whether they are a creator or not) and ask them, "Hey, how are you coping today?” Also, I would highly encourage creators to reach out to each other, and to their communities. The most successful creators are the ones who started to build their community almost from the get-go, so they know they have a section of their audience that now has their backs.

Many thanks to Josh for his insights. You can connect with him via 

We know the last few months have been tough for many online video creators, so we're checking in to see how you're doing.

Lydia Sweatt

Posts Written By Lydia Sweatt

Black Lives Matter: How the YouTube Community is Amplifying Black Voices

Hey, YouTube Creators – Are You Doing OK?