Beauty Supply Stores Cause for Divide
By: Rafeeat Bishi
Recently, a tweet surfaced on social media. To summarize a black girl wrote that she had opened her own beauty supply and stated that people should stop going to "them Asians".A beauty supply store is where people, but most of the time Black women, find products to use for their hair and other personal needs.
Many people found the tweet to be racist towards Asians. A lot of the people replying were not Black women, so I understand why at the surface the tweets sounds bad. What I found funny was how this was the time people would preach about equality and POC solidarity ,but never showed that same energy when Black women were being oppressed.
I think the woman's feelings were 100% valid. She could've worded her tweet differently, but context matters. And the context was that we should support Black beauty businesses and not ones run by non-Black people who hold racist sentiments.People failed to recognize that for years, black women in particular have been harassed by Asian beauty-supply store owners. They've been followed, accused of stealing, and called the n-word. No one should have to walk in to a store, meant specifically for THEIR hair and other cosmetic needs, and be treated badly.
A Black owned beauty supply was forced to close down because they were barred from purchasing their stock from the Korean manufacturers and distributors. This is the case for many others. Because they are so rare, people are going to do what they can to promote their businesses as much as possible.
An argument can be made, that the Asian owners are just making their money. It's one thing to make the money in a respectable manner. To treat people like normal customers is basic decency. But to exploit the people that are the base of your business, and to disrespect them in unwarranted. And their profits are not going back into the communities they serve.
There is anti-Blackness prevalent all throughout Asia and many Black people have an implicit bias towards Asians. I think it's up to younger generations to have the discourse as a lot of older shop owners don't understand the nuance of their actions (or they understand and simply don't care)
Here's a link that explains it better: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/04/25/black-beauty-shops-korean-suppliers-roots-of-tension-mn
I see you and I believe what you are saying is valid. There's an extremely toxic anti-black ideology all over Asia and it has gotten so bad that skin whitening products are becoming more and more popular. I honestly do believe that Asian beauty store owners are hard working individuals doing what they can to survive, but discriminating against clientele is most certainly not the way to go. That's not business, that's hatred.
ReplyDeleteYup your last sentence was great! Business tactics shouldn't be equated with bad treatment. There's room for success for both groups.
DeleteThis is good. And I agree she definitely coulde worded that differently. it honestly would have been better if she just left that part of it or said something less negative. But I understand what youŕe saying. I love the beauty supplies in Hackensack because there are so many for so many different hair types and cultures. The one I go to even has products that you can only find in particulraly countries like, in my case, DR which is awesome and convenient. Its messed up that people cant even shop in peace.
ReplyDeleteRight. Imagine trying to buy cheap earrings and someone starts yelling at you.
DeleteWell done. Something I would've considered for the woman to do is to likely not have worded the tweet like that, or rather not speak of her problems with Asians, even if her feeling were valid. Although, she could possibly talk about that history you brought up between Black and Asian beauty stores to explain her feelings on Asians, but at the same time, try to be a little understanding of the other side.
ReplyDeleteYeah. In the heat of the moment words fly so I get that, but when it comes to subject matter like this we can try and be more careful with our wording
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