bglhonline.com » black owned businesses http://bglhonline.com Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:02:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Saturday Retrospective: Should we support BLACK haircare business? http://bglhonline.com/2009/10/saturday-retrospective-should-we-support-black-haircare-business/ http://bglhonline.com/2009/10/saturday-retrospective-should-we-support-black-haircare-business/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:56:42 +0000 Black Girl With Long Hair http://bglhonline.com/?p=1330 My daily life brings me into contact with all sorts of people; black and otherwise. And when I’m buying things, I’m not really thinking about whether my products were made by a black person, or whether I’m buying from a black-owned store.

And why should I?
If we’re trying to get to a ‘post-racial world’, why should I maintain a fierce commitment to my “race”, which some might call zenophobic?

This is a question I’ve been struggling with lately as more and more information comes to light about the inequalities in the beauty industry. Chris Rock uncovered it at length in his film “Good Hair”. Basically, the black hair care industry is not owned by blacks. It’s owned by whites and Asians.

The sell the products. They manufacture the products. The own the stores.

So the question is: Should I care?
I would like to feel that I am autonomous, that I make my decisions out of reason — not loyalty to race.
But then again, isn’t it reasonable for blacks to take back the beauty industry? If only to rid it of its inherently exploitive nature? But then, even if we ‘take back’ the beauty industry, who’s to say that it will cease to be exploitive?

So what do we do? Where do we go? What are your thoughts on this?

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