In a recent article, we told you that a study was released showing that Black influencers were amongst the highest-paid influencers in 2020. The study, however, focused on said influencers inside a specific eco-system in particular.
Outside of that eco-system, however, Bloomberg News paints a very different reality.
“The phenomenon of White artists appropriating the work of Black creators—and getting paid more to do it—is as old as the entertainment industry itself,” said the outlet. “Now that there’s real money to be made on these platforms—brand endorsements on social media account for $10 billion a year globally, according to SignalFire, a venture capital firm that tracks industry data—a new class of gatekeepers has emerged.”
These gatekeepers, according to Bloomberg, are paying Black influencers hundreds of dollars in comparison to thousands of dollars that white influencers receive.
Even more egregiously, Black influencers are making less — dollar for dollar — than their white counterparts even when they have the same amount (or more) followers and engagement, and do more physical labor to generate the content.
Nowhere is this more evident than in how many advertising agencies, according to the outlet, paid Black influencers less than their white counterparts while advertising #BLM. There was a time that #BLM was considered divisive, but with the shift in the national conversation, that opinion changed.
However, it seems the desire to treat all influencers equally, regardless of skin color, has not.
