The ‘Diversity on YouTube‘ panel at Vidcon 2014 featured Glozell Green, Jimmy Wong, Jessica Flakes (MalfoyIsOurKing), Andre Meadows (Black Nerd Comedy), HartBeat, Lilly Singh (Superwoman) and was moderated by Bing Chen a former YouTube engineer. The panel featured a variety of ethnic backgrounds and was focused on how YouTube and online media allows another outlet for different types of content to shine. Bing Chen performed nicely as a moderator for the panel as he has had first-hand experience working with YouTube talent in the past while at YouTube/Google.
Jimmy Wong was one of the more vocal members on the panel and admitted getting racial comments and slurs all the time and that viewers don’t seem to understand that they are people and regular human beings. Jimmy also went on to say that some community groups he admires and appreciates is the resurgence in table-top gaming and the ability for gamers to ‘let go’ of online and the Internet from time to time.
Andre Meadows talked about his frustrations of TV and the entertainment industry’s mentality of discrimination and how it often carries over to the online world and YouTube. Meadows also stated that the group of people he most clings to are what he calls ‘modern nerds’ and jokes about trying to keep up on all the popular shows like Doctor Who – admitting only having limited knowledge of the show but enough to ‘get by’ in a jam.
Glozell talked about never expecting to reach fame and popularity and that being a certain size and color never stopped her motivation and determination – even joking that everyone should fit her own size and sense of style which led to an audience applause. Glozell has a nice balance of down-to-earth humility as well as charm that transcends whatever medium she is involved in. She also complimented Netflix and shows like ‘Orange is the New Black‘ for representing all kinds of races and different types of personalities.
Jimmy Wong later stressed that people of all ages should take an awareness in global problems and the world around them. Wong said not to get caught up in local problems like what kids are doing in high school or teasing each other but to keep tabs on the bigger things in life then also joked abut how he listens to a lot of NPR radio.
Vidcon 2014 Online vs TV panel
https://coin-op.tv/vidcon-2014-online-vs-tv-panel/
Vidcon 2014 Growing up a YouTuber panel
https://coin-op.tv/vidcon-2014-growing-youtuber-panel/
Vidcon Official Website
http://vidcon.com