Snapchat celebrates Black History Month with 'Young, Black and Proud' story
Snapchat is taking new steps to celebrate Black History Month in its app.
The app is rolling out a set special geofilters and launching a new "Our Story" called "Young Black and Proud," which encourages Snapchat users to share their experiences and what makes them proud, to commemorate Black History Month.
As with other "Our Stories," the content will be curated by Snapchat's editorial team and be live in the app for 24 hours. To go with the Our Story, Snapchat has added a set of Black History Month-themed geolfilters meant to encourage users to talk about their backgrounds and what makes them proud.
The filters will be live in the app while the "Our Story" is live in cities like Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Boston and Houston, as well as on the campuses of a handful of historically black colleges, like Howard University and Spelman College. The story will be viewable to all Snapchat users in the U.S. and Canada.
Snapchat will also have a separate set of filters later in the month that will highlight lesser known figures who have played an important role in black education, to go with this year's theme for Black History Month: "The crisis in black education."
The Black History Month initiatives suggest that Snap is putting more thought into diversity.
Launching just days ahead of when the company is expected to publicly file its initial public offering, the Black History Month initiatives suggest that Snap is putting much more thought into diversity than in years past.
Though Snapchat has had geofilters for Black History Month in years past, this is the first time the company has launched a curated story on the subject. The company now has a dedicated African-American diversity group, who created the education-themed filters that will be launches later in the month.
That's a notable shift for the company company, which previously came under fire for racially insensitive filters, including a Bob Marley lens that was compared to blackface, and an "anime-inspired" lens that was criticized as "digital yellowface." (Snap has said neither were intended to be offensive.)
Topics Snapchat Social Media
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
