This Black History Month we asked our Youth Advisory Board and our Digital Champions about their nominations for Black people who inspire them online. The young people told us about the people who are making change online, using their platforms for good, and who they wanted to talk about this Black History Month.
Why not ask the young people you work with about their inspirations online this Black History Month?
Young peoples Nominations
Name: Simone Biles
Why are you nominating this person?: Simone has inspired many people with her story, as she’s faced racism online and in the gymnastics world. An example of this was when she was on Sky News discuss another gymnast saying “If we painted our skin black maybe we would all win.” which upset her. Regardless of the racism she’s faced, she’s said “You just have to keep going for those little ones looking up to us. It doesn’t matter what you look like. You can strive for greatness, and you can be great.” This shows how inspiring she can be and in fact made history as being the first black woman to win an all-around title at the 2013 World Championships in Belgium. She’s also a gold medalist and has achieved the all-around title at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
More information: https://www.instagram.com/simonebiles/
Name: Marques Brownlee
Why are you nominating this person?: The work he has done in the tech industry is, in my opinion, amazing. He continues to be a prominent figure in the YouTube industry and spreads his views about tech products to millions of followers/subscribers through his various social media accounts and podcast, Waveform. where he has become a voice of reason, a person who’s opinion is reliable. All in all, he is a very inspiring person.
More information: Marques Brownlee – YouTube
Name: Khoi Young
Why are you nominating this person?: He is an American gymnast at Paris 2024 Olympics competing as an alternate. Posts a lot about his journey through gymnastics on Instagram including videos from when he was younger compared to now, to highlight the progress he’s gone through.
More information: Khoi Young (@khoi.young)
Name: Kerry Washington
Why are you nominating this person?: She is an actor who has pivoted to activism, who has been outspoken on Insta and TikTok about social-media fueled mis and disinformation. Does some work with another woman called Lexi Underwood.
More information: Kerry Washington (@kerrywashington)
Name: Angela Benton
Why are you nominating this person?: She is an American businesswoman nominated because he wants to follow in her footsteps. Founded a company called NewME and helped tech companies raise money for activism.
More information: About Angela Benton
Name: Marques Brownlee
Why are you nominating this person?: YouTuber/content creator who I find inspiring because of the content he publishes via his platform, as it is always perfectly balanced between being engaging and informative. Marques also helps me to see which technologies are the best fit for his lifestyle if he were to buy them through his “Tech Reviews”.
More information: : Marques Brownlee
Childnet Staff Nominations
Name: Munya Chawawa
Why are you nominating this person?: As well as his comedy sketches, Munya also uses his platform to discuss important topics such as Black Lives Matter and racism in British advertisements. He has shown inspiring strength after moving to the UK and a young age and finding this very tough, and also independently building his platform and audience online to the size it is now.
More information: Munya Chawawa (@munyachawawa)
Name: Joris Lechêne
Why are you nominating this person?: Joris makes great content about a range of issues relating to diversity and inclusion, but with a particular focus on the legacy of colonialism and the very real impacts it is still having today. I’ve learnt a lot from his content, and he’s made me think more critically about the systems and structures we are surrounded by.
More information: Joris_explains (@joris_explains) | TikTok
Resources to help you celebrate
To help start conversations about life online for Black people, we have created a poster to display in the classroom.
The purpose of this poster is to spark discussions in your classroom about the experiences of Black people online, looking at ways to celebrate Black History Month, and to inspire the young people you work with to be upstanders online.
This resource is a great conversation starter to use in Black History Month and throughout the year. Why not ask your pupils the questions on the poster to find out their thoughts? You could also set the task for your pupils to create their own poster, or use the quotes as prompts for discussions in your classroom.
