[INTERVIEW] Visionary Darial Clewis Has Established An Online Community For US Called BLAQSPOT
By
La'Ronnieca Maye February 21, 2018
Blaqspot is an up and coming all-in-one social media platform designed with “us” in mind. Re-launched this past December as Blaqspot 3.0, this black owned network celebrates the uniqueness and authenticity of African Americans. Blaqspot connects black social media influencers, activists, job seekers and networkers with larger audiences and resources within their local communities. Darial Clewis, CEO of Blaqspot talks to us about the start of this revolutionary movement and the launch of his network, including the latest development, Blaqspot TV.
Parlé Mag: Let’s get right to it. Tell us about the man behind Blaqspot Media, the person starting the movement.
Darial Clewis: Let’s see. I’m from deep East Texas. A little town called Social Springs. I grew up in the 80’s…the 70’s and 80’s so I’ve seen the de-evolution (if you wanna call it that) of race relations for the past 40 years. I was into some nerdy type stuff—baseball, band, stuff like that.
Parlé Mag: Wow! That’s impressive.
Darial Clewis: I spent 4 and a half years in the navy. And after that, I just went into different fields. Everything from mostly sales and business development to actually running and developing call centers.
So then in 2016 after all the murder-porn, this was around the time Philando Castile was killed, I started seeing a lot of people on social media getting their accounts blocked and banned and censored and the amount of trolling that goes on with black people when they try to express themselves and how they’re feeling or what they’re actually thinking about the situation online. And so, the idea came together, that, we need our own social media site. I was in a position to build a cable network so I said maybe we can have our own social media site and make it exclusively black and for black people. And so that was kind of the brainchild of Blaqspot. I spoke to my wife about it and she was on board, so I just kind of charged forward and we launched the site back in October of 2016. It kind of fizzled, a little bit until about January. Then so many people heard about it and started talking about it and all of a sudden in January 2017 we went from having a couple hundred members to twenty five hundred people showing up every couple of days to post something.
Parlé Mag: Oh wow! That’s awesome.
Darial Clewis: Yeah, it was awesome. We also learned our first lesson.
Parlé Mag: Which was?
Darial Clewis: When the people come, the trolls come also.
Parlé Mag: Oh, yeah. [Laughter] They are always lurking.
Darial Clewis: Right! We went through a serious hacking thing and whatnot. They shut the site down for a couple of hours. Slowed it down for a couple of days, whatever. Just going at it. We brought in a couple of experts and that hasn’t been an issue since. That all brought about Blaqspot 2.0.
Parlé Mag: I read that you used to help your wife (she’s a baker); with website set up and building websites. When you were doing that, did you ever think that this is what you would be doing? Creating a social media site for black people?
Darial Clewis: I literally had ZERO idea. When I was building (And what I built) for her was an online video training community where she teaches women how to make various kinds of cakes and treats and things. She’s had several of her students go on to quit their regular jobs and go into business for themselves. So we’re kind of proud of that.
Parlé Mag: You should be!
Darial Clewis: We do everything together. We do EVERYthing together. All of our business ventures since the day we got married, 13 years ago, have been together. We’ve always done everything together.
Parlé Mag: It’s astonishing me that you all are able to do that. I’m sure there’s a sense of relief that you have such amazing support. And it exemplifies the meaning of teamwork, that you guys are able to do every business venture together with the full support of your spouse. That has to make a world of difference when you’re doing different things.
Darial Clewis: Most definitely. One thing we talk about on Blaqspot and with people in general is that despite what people try to fell you, the black man and black woman need each other.
Parlé Mag: I agree.
Darial Clewis: Not just in a business sense, but also in a support sense because my wife understands my daily struggle more than anyone. And I understand hers, as a black woman. So you know with just communication, love, trust and the desire not to quit and not to give up on each other, you can accomplish anything.
Parlé Mag: I agree, wholeheartedly. Was your response as welcoming from other family members and friends when you began to share with them what you were creating?
Darial Clewis: Um, well ya know. Family that care—
Parlé Mag: [Laughter] We know how that goes!
Darial Clewis: Exactly, and, I mean it happens. Because they say “oh you’re doing this, oh you’re doing that, whatever…” but at the end of the day I think that most people (And I hate to use this term) in the “pro-black” community if that’s what you want to call it, typically are few and far in between. So you don’t expect a lot from them until you make your first million. [Laughter]
Parlé Mag: Oh yes, of course! That’s when everyone shows up to say how much they have always believed in you. Or they sell stories to TMZ about how they knew you and supported you. That’s unfortunately [laughs] how it goes.
Darial Clewis: Right, right. Exactly.
Parlé Mag: When I was looking at your site-the overlay and what you guys were aiming to do, what came to mind for me was Blackplanet.
Darial Clewis: Um hmm.
By
La'Ronnieca Maye February 21, 2018
Blaqspot is an up and coming all-in-one social media platform designed with “us” in mind. Re-launched this past December as Blaqspot 3.0, this black owned network celebrates the uniqueness and authenticity of African Americans. Blaqspot connects black social media influencers, activists, job seekers and networkers with larger audiences and resources within their local communities. Darial Clewis, CEO of Blaqspot talks to us about the start of this revolutionary movement and the launch of his network, including the latest development, Blaqspot TV.
Parlé Mag: Let’s get right to it. Tell us about the man behind Blaqspot Media, the person starting the movement.
Darial Clewis: Let’s see. I’m from deep East Texas. A little town called Social Springs. I grew up in the 80’s…the 70’s and 80’s so I’ve seen the de-evolution (if you wanna call it that) of race relations for the past 40 years. I was into some nerdy type stuff—baseball, band, stuff like that.
Parlé Mag: Wow! That’s impressive.
Darial Clewis: I spent 4 and a half years in the navy. And after that, I just went into different fields. Everything from mostly sales and business development to actually running and developing call centers.
So then in 2016 after all the murder-porn, this was around the time Philando Castile was killed, I started seeing a lot of people on social media getting their accounts blocked and banned and censored and the amount of trolling that goes on with black people when they try to express themselves and how they’re feeling or what they’re actually thinking about the situation online. And so, the idea came together, that, we need our own social media site. I was in a position to build a cable network so I said maybe we can have our own social media site and make it exclusively black and for black people. And so that was kind of the brainchild of Blaqspot. I spoke to my wife about it and she was on board, so I just kind of charged forward and we launched the site back in October of 2016. It kind of fizzled, a little bit until about January. Then so many people heard about it and started talking about it and all of a sudden in January 2017 we went from having a couple hundred members to twenty five hundred people showing up every couple of days to post something.
Parlé Mag: Oh wow! That’s awesome.
Darial Clewis: Yeah, it was awesome. We also learned our first lesson.
Parlé Mag: Which was?
Darial Clewis: When the people come, the trolls come also.
Parlé Mag: Oh, yeah. [Laughter] They are always lurking.
Darial Clewis: Right! We went through a serious hacking thing and whatnot. They shut the site down for a couple of hours. Slowed it down for a couple of days, whatever. Just going at it. We brought in a couple of experts and that hasn’t been an issue since. That all brought about Blaqspot 2.0.
Parlé Mag: I read that you used to help your wife (she’s a baker); with website set up and building websites. When you were doing that, did you ever think that this is what you would be doing? Creating a social media site for black people?
Darial Clewis: I literally had ZERO idea. When I was building (And what I built) for her was an online video training community where she teaches women how to make various kinds of cakes and treats and things. She’s had several of her students go on to quit their regular jobs and go into business for themselves. So we’re kind of proud of that.
Parlé Mag: You should be!
Darial Clewis: We do everything together. We do EVERYthing together. All of our business ventures since the day we got married, 13 years ago, have been together. We’ve always done everything together.
Parlé Mag: It’s astonishing me that you all are able to do that. I’m sure there’s a sense of relief that you have such amazing support. And it exemplifies the meaning of teamwork, that you guys are able to do every business venture together with the full support of your spouse. That has to make a world of difference when you’re doing different things.
Darial Clewis: Most definitely. One thing we talk about on Blaqspot and with people in general is that despite what people try to fell you, the black man and black woman need each other.
Parlé Mag: I agree.
Darial Clewis: Not just in a business sense, but also in a support sense because my wife understands my daily struggle more than anyone. And I understand hers, as a black woman. So you know with just communication, love, trust and the desire not to quit and not to give up on each other, you can accomplish anything.
Parlé Mag: I agree, wholeheartedly. Was your response as welcoming from other family members and friends when you began to share with them what you were creating?
Darial Clewis: Um, well ya know. Family that care—
Parlé Mag: [Laughter] We know how that goes!
Darial Clewis: Exactly, and, I mean it happens. Because they say “oh you’re doing this, oh you’re doing that, whatever…” but at the end of the day I think that most people (And I hate to use this term) in the “pro-black” community if that’s what you want to call it, typically are few and far in between. So you don’t expect a lot from them until you make your first million. [Laughter]
Parlé Mag: Oh yes, of course! That’s when everyone shows up to say how much they have always believed in you. Or they sell stories to TMZ about how they knew you and supported you. That’s unfortunately [laughs] how it goes.
Darial Clewis: Right, right. Exactly.
Parlé Mag: When I was looking at your site-the overlay and what you guys were aiming to do, what came to mind for me was Blackplanet.
Darial Clewis: Um hmm.
guy for a second
