Black youth lack representation in schools and despite regularly engaging with media on their digital devices, they don’t have equal access to learn about the media arts. 

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• 79% of public school teachers across the United States in the 2017-2018 school year were white and “in schools where the majority of students were not white, the majority of teachers tended to be white” (National Center for Education Statistics).​

• 90% of the 220 Philadelphia School District schools had full-time art or music education and some had none according to a 2017 study (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

  • 14% of these schools had unequal access to the media arts.

• 81-91% of Black teens in the U.S. ages 13-17 have or have access to smartphones, desktop or laptop computers, and gaming consoles (Pew Research Center, 2022)

• “Up to 95% of youth ages 13–17 report using a social media platform, with more than a third saying they use social media ‘almost constantly.’” (The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory, 2023)

• “Over 90% of teens report using their phones to pass the time, connect with others (84%), and learn new things (83%).” (JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting, 2022)