Courtesy of Netflix(LOS ANGELES) — Netflix is bringing black narratives to the forefront. In a tweet on Wednesday, the streamer announced they were standing behind the black experience.
“When we say “Black Lives Matter,” we also mean “Black storytelling matters,” the tweet read. “With an understanding that our commitment to true, systemic change will take time – we’re starting by highlighting powerful and complex narratives about the Black experience.”
Netflix then tweeted they have now added a Black Lives Matter category to their current content genres.
“When you log onto Netflix today, you will see a carefully curated list of titles that only begin to tell the complex and layered stories about racial injustice and Blackness in America http://netflix.com/blacklivesmatter,” the message reads.
The newly curated category includes important films like Ava DuVernay’s doc on racial inequality 13th, Spike Lee’s biographical drama Malcolm X, Barry Jenkins’ Oscar winner Moonlight, and former first lady Michelle Obama’s doc Becoming.
The creation of the social justice category comes less than a week after customers noticed that the 2011 movie The Help– starring Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer as housemaids— had become the number one streamed movie on Netflix.
Bryce Dallas Howard, who also starred in the film, asked her fans to find something better to watch.
“I’ve heard that #TheHelp is the most viewed film on Netflix right now!” she wrote on Instagram. “I’m so grateful for the exquisite friendships that came from that film — our bond is something I treasure deeply and will last a lifetime. This being said, The Help is a fictional story told through the perspective of a white character and was created by predominantly white storytellers.”
“We can all go further,” she continued, adding a list of films to “learn about the Civil Rights Movement, lynchings, segregation, Jim Crow,” and other important topics.
By Candice Williams
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