http://www.blackplanet.com/

A Review on the website, www.blackplanet.com

The website www.blackplanet.com is a site basically meant for black people all over the world, Afro-Americans and black mixed races inclusive, although, it is inculcated with features that any other person interested in online magazine, gossips and any other informative platforms would find enjoyable and exciting. The slogan ‘The world is yours’ is no doubt as great as the site itself, as it further tells on the extent and where anyone can go. One shouldn’t allow common situations to debar him or her from the extent life could sustain, and one must as well understand that the blacks in America and all over the world need this to scale their challenges, mostly caused by the colour of their skins. The site has been on since 1999, owned and operated by Interactive One, Inc which is situated at 850 3rd Avenue, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10022, USA and of course, one must know that Interactive One is an arm of Radio One founded by Catherine Hughes, a great entrepreneur, philanthropist and role model who has a big heart for humanity.

Over the years the website has garnered the interest of a lot of people, black people especially, and has been a tenable source of research for someone who is trying to find out about one or two things concerning the black people, and even gossips involving them all over the world. Therefore, it is no doubt that the site has been one of the proud sites of the black people over the years, and it could be termed as one of the sites on the internet that raved and clamoured the first glint for the American intent of a black president in Barrack Obama in 2009. A dream come true for the blacks, after so many failures and shortcomings rooted in prejudice, conceit and preconceived political jingoism of the past since the great independence of 1779 from the Great Britain, and as expected by virtue of history and all other crafted biases that continued until the time of Martin Luther King jnr, Rosa Parks and also Jesse Jackson in 1984 that seemingly registered the fact that the black people in America are politically the second fiddle.

The website, as any true American, especially blacks, would say has been there for humanity and the black people; fighting their courses, no matter how flimsy, over the years, and of course preaching the achievements of the likes of Thurgood Marshal, Richard Wrights, Michael Jackson, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix among a few in ways that rarely any other sites would do. It has played a vital role in mixing business with pleasure; collaborating with other websites like www.blackatlas.com, www.blackdoctor.org, www.hellobeautiful.com, www.newsone.com , www.theurbandaily.com etc. Honestly, one cannot de-associate the essence of the website from the fight against discrimination which had over the years being the cause of the creation of organisations like Nation of Islam, the Black Panther, and even notorious gang groups like the Bloods and Crips.

The website till date, serves as a base for all black entertainers in the United States and extensively the world. In this light, the webmasters crafted it into an interactive forum for the black people all over the world whereby each person that registers are issued with a personalised homepage from whence he or she interacts with the rest of the world. The interesting part of all this is that we now have people that are even whites and any other races as members of the blackplanet community, and this in a way drastically tone down the discrimination and conceits. On the individual homepage of this website are features that allow one to make posts to be published on the internet, mail a friend privately, share pictures, videos and other things, to join or start a group, to join discussion platforms or forums, and there are adverts ranging from school admissions, automobiles, books, tickets and computer accessories to mention a few. The site also has updated versions for mobile browsing with Androids and other kinds of mini gadgets. Stimulating featured stories and forum discussions like; the 20 funniest men in America, the 20 badly dressed movie stars of all time, the 50 ugly stars of all time, the 10 tallest actors in a single movie and the likes mostly occupy the pages to whet people’s interest and keep them informed, and of course people also post in their views and judgement on certain issues in the forums. But, just as every other good thing, there is a bad aspect to this which is ingrained in the fact that mischievous persons have found their ways onto the platform solely to steal some information about people, especially emails, and thereafter send them fictitious mail filled with deceptive and appalling fabrications so as to swindle them. An experience I have had a number of times too. One can additionally say the sites’ disclaimers, warnings and recommendations about these mischievous activities may not be enough than for someone to be extra vigilant in typing his highly personal and sensitive information into the computer system. And finally, one must be wary of too-sweet freebies and fabrications designed to garner pity or attention from any unsuspecting person, because just as the internet could be a source of joy to people, it can as well be a harbinger of tales of woes.