Let’s keep it 100, no chaser.
YouTube gave us a microphone when the world often muted our voices. We built incredible spaces for natural hair journeys, financial literacy, cultural commentary, and unfiltered joy. We became the architects of our own narratives, building businesses and communities from our brilliance. But with that power has come a painful, self-inflicted darkness.
While we rightfully call out injustice everywhere else, we often turn a blind eye to the venom. We hurl this venom at each other in our own digital backyards. It’s heartbreaking. It’s toxic. And it has to stop.
From Sisterhood to Sabotage: The Ugly Flip Side of Our Success
As Black women, I see our creativity, humor, and sheer dominance on this platform every day. But the flip side is a corrosive toxicity that twists celebration into jealousy and community into a battlefield.
The triggers are almost always the same. It could be a disagreement over a man. Sometimes it’s jealousy about who’s the “number one” content creator in a niche. Other times, it’s simply the inability to handle another sister’s shine. Instead of using our platforms to uplift, we drag each other down for views, clicks, and super chats. We’ve gone from healthy competition to a crab-in-a-barrel mentality, digitized and on steroids.
The New Age of Bullying: When “Drama” Becomes Dangerous
This isn’t the messy comment sections of years past. Cyberbullying in our community has evolved into a coordinated, malicious campaign with real-world consequences.
We’ve weaponized the internet’s darkest tools, and we’re aiming them squarely at each other:
- The Art of Doxxing: You disagree with somebody? Suddenly, her home address and private phone number are “exposed.” This isn’t winning an argument; it’s putting her physical safety at risk.
- Weaponizing the System: The go-to move is no longer to create better content. It’s to make false reports to the FBI, police, or CPS. You’re not just trying to get her demonetized. You’re using systems steeped in bias against a fellow Black woman. This can potentially threaten her life. It can also endanger her children and her freedom.
- Digital Blackface with AI: The latest low? Using artificial intelligence to create images to taunt or make fun of someone or deepfake compromising images. This is the modern-day digital lynching, stripping a sister of her dignity because you can’t stand her success…or HER period.
- Wishing Ill on Innocents: The comments have moved beyond “I hope you fail.” They have escalated to “I hope your kids get ____.” We are speaking curses onto each other’s children. When did we become f**ked up women?
This isn’t “YouTube streets.” This is destructive, dangerous behavior that causes real mental health struggles and can spill over into real-life violence.
Why Are We Doing the Oppressor’s Work For Him?
We know the world doesn’t love us. We fight systemic racism, bigotry, and misogyny every single day. So why are we so eager to do their work for them?
There’s a deeper issue here. Many of us grew up in environments where women were pitted against each other. The idea that another Black woman’s success means there’s less for you—is a lie we’ve internalized and digitized. Instead of breaking the cycle, we teach other Black women that hate and sabotage are the price of success. These women are aspiring or rising content creators.
A Call for Accountability: Reclaiming Our Digital Space
This isn’t about being perfect or never disagreeing. It’s about realizing that we don’t have to destroy each other to create content. We can disagree, debate, and critique without threatening lives and livelihoods.
It’s time to hold up a mirror and ask ourselves, as creators and consumers:
- Am I building my platform on positivity and authenticity and REAL CONTENT—or on bullying and tearing down other women?
- Am I teaching the younger ones to stand tall or to stoop low for views?
- Am I adding value to the culture, or am I contributing to its destruction?
Every time we attack each other, we hand power back to the very systems that silence us. While we’re busy calling the FBI and CPS on each other, brands and real opportunities pass us by. The algorithm may thrive on negativity, but it comes at the cost of our collective soul.
Our Path to Healing: Choosing Community Over Clicks
We are powerful, resilient, and brilliant. Our ancestors dreamed of a day we could have our own platforms and our own economy. We are living that dream, but we’re using it to play a toxic, high-stakes game.
Let’s commit to doing better, starting today:
- Check Your Motives: Before you post, ask: “Am I building up, or am I tearing down?”
- Withhold Your Click: Stop feeding the beast. Don’t engage with these channels dedicated to destruction. Starve them of the currency they crave.
- Practice Radical Support: Actively support the Black women creators you love. Share their content. Defend them respectfully. Create a counter-culture of love.
There are so many things happening that are affecting us and we’re so busy online attacking each other. It is disgusting. We as black women need to be nicer to each other on these social media platforms. It is okay if we don’t like or don’t agree with someone. However, channeling that anger into getting people fired, doxxed, or getting their children taken is evil. This behavior needs to be studied because what the hell is the point! Log off and be mothers. Log off and go outside and live your life that you claim you have. If and or when they get rid of these social media platforms, then what do you have? NOTHING.