'Blatant discrimination' — AfriForum launches petition against Netflix Black Creatives Empowerment Fund

Civil rights organisation AfriForum has accused Netflix of “blatant discrimination”, after the international streaming giant introduced a Black Creatives Empowerment Fund for young black filmmakers.

Netflix announced the fund last month, earmarking R6.1m “to support Black representation in the film and TV industry”.

Two-thirds of the funding will go to scholarships and cancelling student debts, while the remainder will be donated to the Independent Black Filmmakers Collective.

“The Netflix Black Creatives Empowerment Fund will be implemented in a two-pronged approach: the first being a $100,000 (about R1.53m) grant in benefit of The Independent Black Filmmakers Collective NPC (IBFC), with the second being $300,000 (about R4.58m) designated towards funding full scholarships at higher education institutions in SA to support the formal qualification and training of aspiring black creatives in the film and TV disciplines,” Netflix said.

However, the fund has been slammed by AfriForum, which claimed it excludes students “based on the colour of their skin, regardless of their financial background”.

“Blatant discrimination of this nature is unacceptable. With this scholarship, an ambitious white student that wants to apply will be immediately rejected based solely on the colour of their skin, regardless of their financial background.

“To demonstrate how cruelly discriminatory this scholarship is, its criteria favours the black child of a rich politician or billionaire over a white child of an impoverished household,” said Ernst van Zyl, campaign officer for strategy and content at AfriForum.

When approached by TshisaLIVE, Netflix said it would not comment on AfriForum’s claims.

AfriForum said it would write to Netflix about its grievances and had started a petition against the fund.