I got a message today about "Black Hair." It quickly explained to me what I, as a black man, should and should not be putting in my hair, how Madame CJ Walker started the black hair care "industry" and how it is now taken over by Koreans.
It included a documentary called "Black Hair" that I then proceeded to watch on YouTube basically saying these same things -- only it actually showed real Koreans who have "taken over" the black hair industry as well as what I was supposed to believe was a black hair care product manufacturer who I should feel sorry for because the Koreans copied her products and undercut her prices and have now established a sort of monopoly against.
As irony would have it (or maybe this is just how it works when you read) I happened to be thinking about this issue recently.
If you've read the book "Black Bourgeoisie" (E. Franklin Frazier) then you are familiar with it too. I'm not all the way through it yet, but in it Frazier discusses what he calls the myth of the "black economy"... how the "black business class" has perpetuated this myth simply to round up support for their businesses and not necessarily for anyone's benefit but themselves (as any business owner would do, right?)
In other words he seems to be pointing out: black hair care, korean hair care, where ever you get it at, them dollars ain't coming back to you either way, as much as we might like to believe that the "black dollar" circulates more times when spent with black business and someone comes back to us through the karma of economics. Except that it, you are getting a product in return.
But contrary to popular belief, simply participating in an alternative economy alone does not put you any closer to liberation or salvation.
I don't think the book is an argument against black business, but certainly against us perpetuating what he calls a myth that supporting black business actually helps uplift the black masses. In other words, there is nothing inherently wrong with supporting black businesses or "alternative economies" but, I think he is saying, be clear on why you are doing it.
It's an interesting point. It may also need some updating to take into account those businesses that may have some revolutionary instruction intertwined in their business models, or that may have alternative business models altogether. But I find it a conversation that needs to be had.
Personally I'll support businesses in my neighborhood that are black owned. But I'm not driving out to the suburbs just to patronize a black owned business. One ought to exercise her complex brain and take into account more than one factor when deciding where to spend a dollar. In other words, of course it matters who you buy your products from, but there are several things to think about when making that decision. Don't be fooled (not even by your mama) into just thinking about one.
For example, proximity is a good factor that might be just as important as race or culture. And not just the proximity of the store but of the store owner as well. If the store and the store owner both live on my block there's a good chance I am helping improve my local economy by choosing that business. Quality of product is a good one. Price of product is a good one too.
I'm not accusing all businesses of this but some "alternative economies" thrive from overcharging for goods because they know they have a customer base that puts race before their own individual economic interests. It is virtuous to be selfless, but it seems sinful to overcharge an impoverished customer base by manipulating their loyalty.
I've seen too many urban businesses, not to mention churches, (Harlem, DC, Minnesota) that fill up parking lots on the weekend because the entire customer base (or congregation) lives 20 miles away. And too many shops that close at 6pm so that the store owner can get outta dodge. Soup Man (yeah I'm calling you out) in Harlem on 130th and Lenox Avenue closes before dinner time. What's that about? You up here tryna go home when everyone else is tryna eat after getting home. And we should support cause you're black owned? Get the f**** outta here. People have the most interest in the communities in which they live. Stop letting people make you think they have your interest in mind just because you are both the same color.
At least the Chinese restaurant owner down the street lives in my neighborhood. He has to, because his businesses stays open until 4am and opens at 9am.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Does it matter who you buy your products from?
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13 comments:
interesting point of view. But I have to state that the chinese dude probably won't hire you, and his children probably don't go to school in your neighborhood. he is not investing in the upliftment of african people though his customer base is predominately african. When's the last time you heard about that hair shop giving a black kid a scholarship to college? Or even supporting a black owned school? And for real, koreans have a network mentality, we as african people will find any reason not to support one anothers businesses. Why in the hell do you see the ASIAN MARKET? How many times have you went in there and seen a black person working? i think you should put pick up Amos Wilson's Blueprint for Black Power.
I think you're missing my point. Your response seemed like you really didn't read what I wrote.
I said I'm for black business, but I also said that there is a romantic myth that is perpetuated that black business will save us.
My question is, will it?
You didn't really seem to say anything towards that.
You asked me a bunch of questions about what the "Korean" and "Chinese dude" won't do that I assume you're saying the black business will.
I'm saying just cause a business is black does not mean it will do those things either.
And I'm also saying that just because a business does do that does that mean we should love it forever? And give it unconditional support? One scholarship doesn't change the world either.
All I'm saying is that the myth that puts this unquestionable faith in black business should be challenged.
Certain black businesses should be supported, but certain one's shouldn't. There is no easy law to implement that will guide people in all their circumstances, and I think we often try and do that or seek that.
I'm merely saying we should educate people to THINK and give them suggested factors to consider when choosing where to shop, not give them another stupid law to follow that will become irrelevant in time, like all man-made laws.
I'm always looking for good books to read so I'll check that Wilson joint out.
what about the fact that we are buying the products that the korean lady sells in the first place? theorists and intellectuals tend to like to pretend that those superficial issues dont matter much but they are incredily symptomatic of the larger issues.
hmm... not sure what you mean? like the fact that we even are eating chinese food? or buying hair weave?
what I am saying is that black owned business as an insitution are already a rarity, and yes support a black owned business by default is a healthy move for african people period. Should you support that business just because it is black...why not? Koreans support other korean business just because they are korean!! We as Afrikan people have not exhausted this strategy of black owned business supporting, just look at MARCUS GARVEY and what he was able to accomplish with that strategy, we haven't seen anything like it since. I argue that to give african people a reason not to support black business showcases a symptom of self-hatred/inferiority complex or at least a level of disbelief that we as afrikan people can and will have to solve our own problems.
We are living in a global community now. So the ideal situation would be that we can suport people on merit and they do the same to us. THAT is the ideal we should support. The person who treats us well and does business well should be supported.
African people cannot solve "their" problems, because all of our problems are now intertwined. All people of color should be working with and supporting each other. I think THAT is our only real chance for worldwide quality of life for people of color. We should be supporting each other.
After all, the separation that happened between the Africans and the Natives was a tool for the White settlers. If Africans and Natives had been able to forge a fast and tight bond with one another (and Africans with each other), we all would be better off.
Not sure if I've been clear, but my point is that people of color should be seeing each other as partners if not brothers. We are not one another's enemy. And we are not one another's competition. The Asians are not our enemy. They are not the people we should be fighting. We are fighting the same fight.
This reminds me of a comment I saw in a movie "Beyond Beats and Rhymes": the narrator (and filmmaker) was discussing why Black male rappers beef with each other violently while never attacking the White male record executives who are taking their money. The narrator suggests that we attack who we feel we actually have a chance of winning against. We don't attack powerful enemies, because that's scary. Instead you take out your rage on the guy like you, who you might be able to beat.
I'm sayin... you say that "supporting a black owned business by default is a healthy move for african people period"... but I ain't seen no evidence that this in and of itself is true.
I'm NOT disagreeing that supporting black businesses can be good. But I'm saying BLACKNESS cannot be the only factor.
The Korean example doesn't address the point that race can be an easy form of attracting business and can easily be manipulated.
For all we know the Koreans at the bottom of the ladder might be in just as bad of a condition as poor black folk.
The business owners in the Korean community may be taking advantage and exploiting Korean workers and consumer too.
My point is that there needs to be a challenge and demands on the part of consumers. Pressure should be put on all businesses that a person frequents to be better and to serve that person's interests.
Read the Forbes article on this site that was posted this week about the Craigslist dude... he is practicing revolutionary business by refusing to cave in to the american capitalist model of "maximizing profit"...
Harold Cruse (and perhaps Cedric Robinson) would argue that for however much we all love Garvey (and I do) that he was sometimes blinded by his drive to be a black capitalist and his failure to move into a new black radicalist conception of business and economics when it came to the structure of black business.
Why aren't more black grocery stores made into co-ops?
Why was John H. Johnson (I love him too and may he rest in peace) a ruthless capitalist who bullied his businesses peers and had a monopoly on black media?
Why did the people allow this?
Because we have bought the myth for too long that we are to shut up and support anything black, just because it is black.
Frazier is saying that there is a class of black people who benefit from the perpetuation of this myth disproportionately.
We ought to be able to see the injustice in that and acknowledge it without being defensive about our beloved black businesses as a whole.
Too often black folk start businesses because they want to own something and they want to be the boss... and everyone accepts this and is proud because, hey he or she is black and "doing her thing"... afterall, she coulda ended up in jail.
It's time to demand more is all I'm saying...
And I feel free saying that, fully knowing that what we have is great too in it's own right.
And just because I demand more doesn't mean I ain't greatful for what I got.
" as long as the Negro's cultural identity is in question or open to self-doubts, then there can be no positive identification with the real
demands of his political and economic existence"
Harold Cruse, in The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual.
===he sums up what i mean to say
"I'm sayin... you say that "supporting a black owned business by default is a healthy move for african people period"... but I ain't seen no evidence that this in and of itself is true."
what about Phillip A. Payton and the other men involved with them who owned the real estate company that bought so much real estate in formerly all white Harlem? ( talked about in that same book)
i totally agree with that harold cruse quote.
confucious said that "the beginning of all wisdom is to call things by their right names."
and i think this is what harold cruse was saying.
about they Payton example... it was a great business idea. but it deserved the support of black people not ONLY becaue it was a black business but because it had the interests of black poor people in mind. this is something that many black real estate agencies today do not have in mind:
The organization which "created such a stir," the Afro-American Realty Company, was formed in Harlem by Payton and several other black businessmen, initially to save a number of buildings on West 135th Street, from which dozens of black tenants were to be evicted. The white owners of the buildings planned to replace the tenants with whites. Payton and his partners first attempted to lease the particular buildings. When this failed, they bought two of them outright, which effectively put an end to the attempted evictions. (LINK
Secondly, I think what Frazier is saying in his book is similar to the private/charter school debate... that even though business may save us in some instances, it is foolish to think that similar problems all around the country could be solved in a similar matter.
just because one charter school in new york saves 50 kids and is a success does not mean that it will be possible to guarantee all kids the same type of thing, in fact it doesn't even guarantee all kids a school. thus the need for public school which guarantees, at a minimum, all kids a school to go to.
similarly, just because one black real estate company succeeds at saving some black tenants in harlem from being evicted, does not mean that the answer to proventing white real estate agents from evicting black residents is to form black real estate agencies across the country in every black community.
there must be some across the board guarantees against discriminatory housing and mortgage lending...
not to dismiss the successes and contributions, but they cannot be romanticized as some kid of grand solution to problems.
nobody's romanticizing anything. Lol. it was simply an example i ran across in a book i just began to read. they did more than just evict some white people.
"there must be some across the board guarantees against discriminatory housing and mortgage lending.."
making the policy doesnt mean that it will be enforced--american history alone has proved that alone and i think it goes without saying.
i see the point you're making though--put out the fire instead of trying to cover every house in the way with a tarp and water gun.
And actually I dont really disagree with the point you're making. Except that I do believe in having and supporting your own.
"But contrary to popular belief, simply participating in an alternative economy alone does not put you any closer to liberation or salvation."
I disagree. Its a step towards realizing the power of your choice. Sure it doesnt get you all the way there but its s step.
I havent read Robinson or any one else who speaks to these issues so I cant come up with spffy quotes and some adequate analysis to counteract your points ( not that I feel the need to do that anyway for the most part)but I can say that I like the feeling I get from buying black even if I have to put forth a little effort in getting it.
But then maybe Im just a romantic.
( please note that no offense is ever intended)
"And actually I dont really disagree with the point you're making. Except that I do believe in having and supporting your own."
i too believe in having and supporting your own. so I agree with you.
"I disagree. Its a step towards realizing the power of your choice. Sure it doesnt get you all the way there but its s step."
i too believe it is a 'step' in the right direction. all i've been saying is that it is not the one shot answer that it is often worshipped as and i believe that's all franklin frazier was saying in his book. so we agree here too.
No,their money,our money it does not matter. Yhis is a white man's world so ultimately it makes no difference.
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