Marques Brownlee Talks Diversity in Tech

Written by Callum Taylor, published on 10 June 2020

"Instead of Being One of The Best Black Creators, I Wanted To Be One of The Best Creators, Period"

I don’t know about you, but one of my favourite past times when it comes to YouTube is watching tech videos. This could be content such as unboxings, reviews, and tier lists, watching someone else fully dissect a product before I take the plunge and buy it has now turned into a must.

I just love watching other people review different types of tech (even if I know I’m not going to buy it), and one of the best and popular personalities to produce this content is a man called Marques Brownlee.

Brownlee released a video titled ‘Reflecting on The Colour of My Skin’ which clearly explains and describes his experiences in the tech sector as a black man.

Below I will give a brief background into Marques’ career on YouTube and explain why his most recent video is so important.

He really is creating unique and exciting content that offers some of the best reviews at the best quality YouTube has to offer.

Background

Marques Brownlee (who also goes by MKBHD online) still in middle school at the time, started uploaded videos to YouTube in January 2009. His first videos centred around tech that he already owned, and he used a screensharing feature on his computer to record the videos.

This goes to show how possible it is for everyone to create content on tech - include yourself - when one of the most popular personalities started from such humble beginnings. Digiworks is a great free programme that will give you the opportunity to learn a wide range of online skills.

As the years went on, MKBHD’s channel only grew in popularity and quality – and with a lot of dedication and great content in between – Marques went from a middle school kid creating videos in his parents’ house, to interviewing billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and getting a one on one tour around Tesla’s LA factory with Elon Musk.

Speaking Out

The main point of this article isn’t to show every success Marques has gained over the years whilst creating videos on YouTube (although that does show the level this creator has got to) but it’s to discuss his, at the time of writing this, most recent video titled ‘Reflecting on The Colour of My Skin’.

This video is unlike any other Marques has made in that it reflects on how the creator feels being one of the only high level popular black tech creators on the platform.

Marques raises powerful points within his ten minute video, to which this article will touch upon the main bits in his post. He starts off by explaining that he decided to create this particular video as he was inspired by Neil deGrasse Tyson’s post of the same name.

Marques makes the point that he has been privileged in the sense that his parents have always supported and encouraged him to try new things - which included activities like Ultimate Frisbee, Golf and Tech – but the longer he stayed within these things and got rooted within their communities, the more race would start to come up.

At a high level, golf doesn’t have much diversity. At a high level, ultimate frisbee is not very diverse. At a high level, tech is not very diverse - Marques Brownlee, 2020.

MKBHD does an amazing job in showing how at a high level in all of these extremely different activities, a spotlight is put on the colour of your skin, no matter how professional the level becomes. Brownlee shows how being black in today’s society makes him second guess and question his position in the sports and sectors he loves.

What To Take From The Video

Marques says that he wants to try to be something for the 15 year old kids like him to look up to. I think at the minimum he’s doing that right now with the inspiring and creative free tech content he provides to people on his YouTube channel.

Marques ends his video by saying that people should know that this whole social media thing can make it feel like a very now thing, but this is an ongoing thing and we have to spread the message and be responsible and use our voices – and we have to move the needle.

The most recent and very important protests centering around Black Lives Matter have mentioned how systemic racism is alive and prevalent to this day - which includes YouTube and Tech - and needs to be irradiated for good.