Raven Schwam-Curtis ’20 — or @ravenreveals — has amassed more than 290,000 collective followers across her Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts, where she labels herself a “Gen Z Black and Jewish Educator.”
Schwam-Curtis’ content creation landed her the opportunity to interview former Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff on the rise in antisemitism in spring 2023.
Her educational content spotlights instances of social injustice, contextualizing situations within history and contemporary United States politics.
Schwam-Curtis posted a video on July 22, drawing attention to a Black man who was punched during a traffic stop. She also criticized conservative podcast host Charlie Kirk for attributing the high death count from Texas floods to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in a video posted on July 9.
Schwam-Curtis began generating humanities-focused lifestyle content on YouTube in 2021 as an M.A.-Ph.D. candidate in African American Studies at Northwestern University after finding most Ph.D. content online was STEM-focused. She has since amassed more than 12,000 subscribers on the platform.
However, Schwam-Curtis said her undergraduate education in feminist, gender and sexuality studies and Asian studies at Cornell was integral to both her content and graduate degree pursuits.
“I started to feel just this strong sense of urgency about what we were learning in the classroom,” she said, referencing her transition from lifestyle to an education-focus in her content. “Stories of suffocation and resistance and survival and thriving in the context of the United States and beyond.”
Schwam-Curtis said she garnered more than 10,000 followers on TikTok in her first year posting.
She describes the transition as starting “very, very organically, partially to make that lifestyle student content, and then evolved into, how can I use social media as a political tool, as an apparatus for education.”
Schwam-Curtis explained how she explored her Black and Jewish identities in her time at Cornell, eventually evolving into the focus of her current content creation. While connecting to her Black identity living in Ujamaa Residential College, Schwam-Curtis began to explore her Jewish background after she was invited to engage through Cornell Hillel.
“I was raised from my mom's side of the family, so my mom is Black and my dad is Ashkenazi,” she said, “So I'd never explored the religious valence of Judaism and more of that deep cultural dive.”
She attributes her time in cultural community spaces as an undergraduate to helping her develop and illuminate her sense of self.
Schwam-Curtis said she currently spends two to three hours every day creating content. She described being part of a nationwide movement towards online independent journalism, with her even earning press credentials for the Democratic National Convention in 2024.
“The truth is, we're kind of the guinea pigs right now in a weird way, recognizing the importance of social media as a political organizing tool,” Schwam-Curtis said. “We're able to reach people at a huge scale with a very small fraction of the resources.”
As a social education content creator, Schwam-Curtis believes that the current “political apparatus” is flawed by “wholesale glorifying and demonizing as we relate to parties.” She views her relationship to politics as “one on mitigation as opposed to deification.”
As Schwam-Curtis works to promote autonomy and highlight underrepresented communities, she offered advice for Cornell undergraduates and aspiring content creators.
“Trust yourself, and also that if you have a strong compulsion to do something, or if you see a gap in a kind of work that you know you can fill in a meaningful way, don't be afraid to step into your power,” Schwam-Curtis said. “Ultimately, you have no idea what kind of ripple effect you're going to have by choosing to be brave.”
Clarification, August 9, 12:20 p.m.: The article has been updated to clarify the content that Schwam-Curtis posts on social media and how her studies in undergrad influenced her content and graduate studies.
Anjelina Gonzalez is a member of the Class of 2026 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at agonzalez@cornellsun.com.
