Dating App Blk
.LET’S BE FRIENDS. INSTAGRAM: SHAMARISWORLD TWITTER: TUMBLR: SNAPCHAT: SHAMARI95. Best Black Dating Sites of 2021. Below are the best black dating sites and apps available, according to reviews by dating experts. Each features a large user base of black singles, and a high success rates for matches, hookups, and relationships. Download BLK - Dating for Black singles and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. BLK is the new app for Black single men and Black single women with a simple mission: To create an exclusive community where Black men and Black women can find meaningful connections with people who share similar likes and interests.
Whether you’re happily single, in a healthy relationship, or looking for love, it’s been a challenging time on the dating scene. Between 2020 and the ongoing pandemic, it seems like traditional dating may be a thing of the past. Some elements remain: a romantic night at your favorite restaurant or bar (outside of course) can still pop off with the required face masks. And a “sneaky link” – casual, discreet hookups – may definitely raise eyebrows in the time of quarantining, but is still possible with proper quarantining, temperature checks and testing available.
But it’s clear that online dating is king right now. From the simple swiping of apps like Tinder and Bumble to the more detailed, needle-in-a-haystack sorting options on platforms like Match.com and OkCupid, people are finding love from the comfort of their homes and the reliability of their smartphones. Though anyone who has tried online dating while Black will tell you that there are even more challenges involved, including the eligible dating pools for people of color.
In the hopes of helping you better navigate all this in the new year, and to make 2021 one of your best dating years ever, we called on Jonathan Kirkland, Head of Marketing & Brand at BLK – one of the largest dating apps for Black people, to give us some dating insight. Check out his tips to lead you in the right direction in your love life, and learn why you need to join BLK to make the right connection.
Madame Noire: How has 2020 changed the dating scene?
Jonathan Kirkland: There’s no doubt that the coronavirus changed the way people interacted in 2020. However, what we learned is that although people have been socially distancing, they do not want to be socially isolated. During the first two weeks of lockdown/quarantine (March 2020) – we saw an 18% increase in the daily user activity on BLK with users swiping 39% more and exchanging messages 61% more than they were pre-pandemic. Now here we are, 10 months later and we continue to see these positive trends month over month.
How is dating during a pandemic different than any other time?
People are taking more time to get to know one another on a deeper level and making more authentic connections. People are also finding creative ways to have “date nights” while being in separate homes – such as cooking a dinner together and watching streaming movies together, all while not being physically together.
What advice do you have for people when it comes to navigating dating apps?
Be open-minded. Be real. Understand that the next potential match is only a swipe away; therefore, present yourself in a way that will command attention to your profile page and make people intrigued, engaged, and interested. This means: (1) clear SOLO pics of you (nobody likes a group pic as your main pic and then have to figure out who is who), (2) take time to complete your bio, (3) state your intentions upfront.
Source: BLK App / BLK APP
What are some of the challenges Black people face with dating apps and how does BLK solve some of them?
Simply put, racism and discrimination. With the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, systemic racism, discrimination, and injustice against Black people were on full display for the world to see. Not only do these injustices live in real life, they also show up in the digital world, including dating apps. A study released by OkCupid (also a Match Group company) discovered that Black women were the least desirable group on general market dating apps. On general market dating apps, Black women receive the least amount of message replies, inbound messages, and right swipes amongst any other racial or ethnic group. At BLK, we have created a space where Blackness is celebrated and appreciated in all its forms. We go beyond just dating. We engage our community in conversations around topical cultural and social issues and reclaiming and giving new meaning specific to the Black American experience and Black relationships. BLK is in the business of Black love because Black love is our business – not just during Black History Month, but 24/7/365.
Dating apps have a reputation for hookups and short-term relationships. What is the key to finding long-term happiness or even a marriage partner in these online spaces?
First, we must not shame hookups and short-term relationships as a culture. The beauty of the African diaspora is that it is not monochromatic nor indistinguishable. We are a collection of communities and as such miraculously multifaceted – even in how we define our own personal relationships. Although the majority of BLK users are high intent users, meaning they are looking for serious relationships, we also have users looking for something more casual. And that is 100% okay. As we look at Gen Z young Millennial generations, 75% of BLK users are under 35, this is the age group leading the change in defining their own rules in terms of relationship status, education, employment, and gender “norms.” The key to finding what you are looking for on a dating app – whether that is short or long-term is being open, honest, transparent, and authentic in your intentions upfront. This way you will not waste your time, or anyone else’s.
What does the future of dating look like, from your perspective?
A recent Stanford University study revealed that meeting online has become the most popular way U.S. couples meet – followed by restaurants and bars. So what we are seeing with the popularity of dating apps is not a new trend, it is something we’ve already noticed, just accelerated by COVID-19. As we look to 2021 and beyond, we do not see this trend changing. We will see people turning to dating apps as another social media platform to connect with people who understand who they are and their experiences, which is found on niche apps like BLK. With this will come additional features extending beyond the core dating product, but into more lifestyle and everyday in-app engagements. Dating apps aren’t going anywhere anytime soon!
Cheyenne M. Davis reviews the most popular dating app for Black singles and asks the question, is it fat-friendly?
Although Plenty of Fish didn’t garner the best results, it still reinvigorated a sense of hope for me in dating apps and even in finding love, period. Now that I am experiencing “Mainstream Dating App Fatigue” from using three platforms owned by the same company, I have started to look for dating apps that are more niche or specific to a certain subgroup. In the spirit of Black History Month, what better app to choose than BLK?
An app developed by, you guessed it, Match Group, BLK (which to be quite honest, I don’t know if it’s pronounced “B-L-K” or “Black” as I personally call it) is created for Black daters and gives them a safe haven to match, meet and find love. Even though BLK has been around since 2017, according to Jonathan Kirkland, their Head of Marketing and Brand, the app has gained more traction and user activity in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Hearing this inspired me to give this app a try because it not only offered the impression that I will find like-minded folx, but I also felt that it would possibly be easier to date on this app being that it is specifically made with Black people in mind.
Infrastructure
At first glance, BLK is everything I imagined it to be, it almost looked like an upscale version of its predecessor SoulSwipe. For Black History Month, the app’s logo, which is normally white lettering on a black background, is spelled in kente cloth colors, and the interface of the app itself is on a black background as well. To add to the cheekiness of the dating app, on Sundays, it even sends you church-themed notifications to remind you to check it. Although this may seem corny or even cringe-worthy to some, I find BLK’s fun humor and incessant need to prove its affinity for “Blackness” to be quite entertaining.
My biggest issue with the app is its user-friendliness. Although it is a swipe app, navigating it as a whole isn’t as seamless as I would’ve liked for it to be. When swiping, all profiles are seen as a collection of pictures with the person’s name and age. In order to get more information on an individual, you have to tap on the small information icon. As a person who enjoys reading profiles, having to jump through hoops to find it is annoying and not so user-friendly at all. In addition to this, having only pictures and one’s name be the first thing you see initially, can give off the vibe that BLK is more of a hookup app and not necessarily one for dating. The app can also be glitchy at times with the occasional frozen screen slowing down the platform’s performance.
My final take on BLK’s infrastructure is that even though you can change your gender identification in your bio, which is very much unlike Plenty Of Fish where you have to make a whole new profile to change your gender, you can only choose between woman or man. This app is most definitely catering to cisgendered folx and isn’t inclusive of a-gendered, nonbinary, intersex, trans, and other folx who do not identify within the margins of the binary. This is super problematic to me because it paints a picture that only certain types of people, specifically those who are socially acceptable, are welcome on BLK, and y’all know that grinds my gears.
Creating a Profile
Similar to Tinder, creating a profile on this app was easy and didn’t require a lot of writing. The only thing it requires is your name, birthday, occupation, education, and a brief bio, and chile…do I mean brief. What sets my profile on this app apart from the previous ones is that I intentionally left out my work on fat activism or the fact that I support BLM. On other dating sites like OkCupid, Tinder, I tend to put these things on my profile because those apps cater to and have an audience that predominately white and non-Black. Having this information visible on my profile adds a level of protection in eliminating people who are ignorant. Being that BLK is a Black app, I felt a bit safer with sticking to my non-political interests because there is a greater chance of running into potential partners who have similar viewpoints as I do.
Source: Cheyenne M. Davis / Cheyenne M. Davis
Paid vs Free Subscriptions
In typical Match Group fashion, BLK offers free, Premium, and Elite memberships. In the Premium subscription, for as low as $9.99/mo, you can have unlimited likes, a monthly boost, and the ability to rewind on profiles that you’ve swiped left on. The step up to this is the Elite package, which for an additional $10 only allows you to see who has liked you already. To be frank, I find Match Group’s pricing system to be a bit of a scam when it comes to these paid subscriptions because they don’t come with enough incentives. Additionally, you would think that they would try to tap into some discounted or even free offerings for these features this month being that it is our month.
Membership aside, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised to see how astronomically more attractive the people on this app were compared to others. It was truly a breath of fresh air. However, once you remove the thirst and actually tap onto some profiles, you will definitely see a completely different story. I truly hate to say this, but a lot of the men on this app give off Black incel and “hotep” vibes. Most of them refer to women as “females” (big yikes), incorporate unnecessary rants about how they will block all folx who don’t identify as cis women for even telling them they’re attractive, followed by a few words about how they don’t support “gold diggers” and women with Cash App in their bios. I just swipe left on these types of men automatically because it’s super violent, and this type of thinking is late AF. Another thing that sends me into orbit is that most of these men in the NYC Metro Area seem to do the same poses, having the photographic trifecta of a “summertime fine shorts and fitted” pic, a “leaning against the car” picture, and the quintessential “sweatsuit and Jordans while standing in the stairwell” image to tie it all together.
Source: Cheyenne M. Davis / Cheyenne M. Davis
In terms of my personal experiences, I will note that BLK is the “perfect” marriage of the fat fetishism that I’ve endured on other platforms, but also with some pleasant surprises. Y’all know that I always receive messages like “U so thick (insert peach and smirking devil emoji here)” and some sexual innuendos here and there, and honestly, I’m pretty numb to it. However, I will say that I’ve gotten the most responses on this app from folx I would consider dating in the future. Despite having to weed out some chubby chasers, I am pleased to report that there are a few potential suitors I am interested in who I am currently talking to, so I will definitely keep you all updated as things progress.
The Verdict
Dating App Blk Free
Honestly, BLK has given me, even more hope in my dating app journey, thus receiving a fat friendliness rating of 3/5. Dealing with fat fetishists comes with the territory for every dating app, so I urge all of my fellow fat femmes, especially fat, Black femmes, to err on the side of caution when it comes to conversing with people who conflate having an affinity for larger folx and/or being fat amorous with fetishizing them. Despite this, I will say that my experiences, thus far, have been pretty positive and interesting. Now, to the many people who have relegated me to “niche” apps, I would like to make a note that platforms that are made for people and the groups that they identify with (i.e. racially specific or size-specific dating apps and services) are not utopian spaces for those folx to congregate and connect. They, too, are microcosms of the world that we exist in and are not devoid of critique.
In theory, BLK has the potential to be a great app for BLK folx to connect. However, I find it to be very performative in the way that it not only uses copywriting and design elements that feature African-American vernacular English but also includes things that may pique the interest of Black people. Keep in mind that this app is made by Match Group, whose executive and development teams are teeming with non-Black folx, so the app’s approach to dating and Blackness can come off as very disingenuous and lacking the progressiveness that they are trying to portray. All in all, BLK definitely has a lot of room for improvement, but I will say that it has given me opportunities to find new people to meet, talk to, and hopefully date.