The Rise and Fall of Black Planet (What Happened to BlackPlanet.com?)
A look back at the granddaddy of social media websites in Web 1.0.
Before the social media giants that tower over us today, a website set out to connect people with people, specifically targeting the African American community. That website was none other than Black Planet, founded by Dr. Omar Wasow and Benjamin Sun.
History of the Founders
Dr. Wasow was born on December 22, 1970, in Nairobi, Kenya, to a father of German Jewish descent and his mother, an African American woman. His parents worked in education, his father was an economics professor, and his mother was in early childhood education. Despite his family’s multi-ethnic solid roots, they are thoroughbred New Yorkers to the core.
When compared to others’ experiences of the biracial struggle, Dr. Wasow is not exempt. According to a 1997 article The Chronicle of Higher Education Online, he speaks on feeling alienated from his black community as a biracial person when he attended Stanford in the early ’90s:
“One of the most transformative periods of my life occurred when I was a student at Stanford. When I arrived, I felt totally alienated from the black community on campus. At the time, I was pretty illiterate about race politics, as I had come from New…
