I love helping people make sense of the world and that’s what I try to do with my YouTube Channel, Black Diplomats.
I focus mostly on Ukraine, but what makes my reporting unique from others is my storytelling of underrepresented voices that are rarely sought out when discussing this country—especially in the context of this ongoing war. Many of the people I feature each week are Black and other people of color who you’d never think even live in Ukraine. When I’m not reporting out of Ukraine, I'm interviewing sex workers in Germany (forthcoming) and talking with transgender Africans who study in Poland (also forthcoming).
It’s my way of getting people of color to watch my content. If we want people of color to consume international storytelling, we need to tell the stories of people who look like them.
I named my media brand Black Diplomats because I became frustrated with mainstream media centering white peoples’ stories in foreign affairs news. The name came about out of defiance, but now I really like the idea that people in my hometown of Detroit can see that a Black boy from the hood can become a leader in international news reporting, and, yes, a diplomat.
For me, storytelling is diplomacy because I’m really good at helping opposing sides see the best in each other and also helping them to grow through their ignorance in constructive ways.
Mostly, I love being able to use storytelling to bring different types of people to one space where we can all watch each other's experiences on our laptops and cellphones and learn to better understand each other. If you’re ready to join me on the journey of how we can be better humans to one another, you’ve come to the right place.
Black Diplomats host Terrell Jermaine Starr is an independent American journalist based out of Kyiv, Ukraine and Brooklyn, NY. He is a former Fulbright grantee and a former nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. Conversant in Russian, Ukrainian, and Georgian, Terrell is an expert in Eastern European geopolitics and U.S. foreign affairs.
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Interested in having Terrell speak at your event? Send a request via his personal website.