Looking forward to the comment that reads "after seeing all these HORRIBLE comments it shows we still need a lot of work to do to educate ourselves about race"
Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
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Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
#12I know it's well-intentioned, and I know American society has very real structural race problems which shouldn't be ignored or denied, but articles like this really risk being patronizing, and worse, implying that most or all black childhoods are as flawed as the one described.
Welcome to the American Media Establishment. It's better to just read FT and SCMP while only skimming the NYT/Fox/etc.
Why the South China Morning Post?
Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
#13Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
#14Yes, Lorenzo! I remember talking to my friend Lorenzo back in 2013-14 when he was just starting this. So proud to finally see someone I know as the top story on HN :-)
Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
#15They might not be therapists, but they are filling a similar role as therapy.
Sometimes people just need to vent towards an 'objective' (external) listener who will provide feedback of some sort.
Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
#16Why do people need to meld their ego with some nebulous "classification"?
Like yo I'm black. Yo I'm white. Yo I'm asian.
In reality, all humans are a continuous spectrum based off of groups of people that evolved in certain conditions over thousands of years.
What does a "white" person from Ireland have in common with a "white" person from the Caucuses?
What does a "black" person from Sierra Leone have in common with a "black" person from the deserts in the northeast of Africa?
Why does the media make us segregate ego formation based off of these shallow descriptors? Black white etc.
Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Welcome to the American Media Establishment. It's better to just read FT and SCMP while only skimming the NYT/Fox/etc.
Why the South China Morning Post?
SCMP was acquired by Alibaba and has become more supportive of Chinese Communist Party: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/south-china-morning-post/
. I can't vouch for this analysis. I think they are not what they used to be.
Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
#18If HN can look past the usual tropes, there's something interesting here. Lewis is trying to solve a problem a lot of other people are trying to solve: how can you have a normal community in US culture? Let me list a few solutions and you will see why his is better than average.
1. Religion.
Pros: Going to church has tied communities together for millennia, and if you could just find some better pastors, it could continue for several millennia more.
Cons: Secularly administering religion like a drug to treat social ills is against the precepts of every known religion, due to the fact that we'd all expect missionaries to believe what they're preaching. People who go around saying "I believe because it helps me" but who do not actually believe anything notwithstanding, we all know that's not self-consistent.
2. An amalgamation of historical myths and power structures that tie people together on the basis of perceived brotherhood.
Pros: People love being tied together on the basis of perceived brotherhood, tribal identity has been around a long time, and there is no debating with the idea that it works.
Cons: This is a description of every supremacist organization.
3. You talk to the guy at the barbershop.
Pros: You like to talk to the guy at the barbershop.
Cons: You can't go if you don't have the money for a haircut.
None of these options are perfect... but the barbershop plan is not that bad.
Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
#19Why do people need to meld their ego with some nebulous "classification"? Like yo I'm black. Yo I'm white. Yo I'm asian. In reality, all humans are a continuous spectrum based off of groups of people that evolved in certain conditions over thousands of years. What does a "white" person from Ireland have in common with a "white" person from the Caucuses? What does a "black" person from Sierra Leone have in common with…
> Why does the media make us segregate ego formation based off of these shallow descriptors? Black white etc.
Because it mases us fight eachother, and not the ones that we should be fighting.
Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men
#20Why do people need to meld their ego with some nebulous "classification"? Like yo I'm black. Yo I'm white. Yo I'm asian. In reality, all humans are a continuous spectrum based off of groups of people that evolved in certain conditions over thousands of years. What does a "white" person from Ireland have in common with a "white" person from the Caucuses? What does a "black" person from Sierra Leone have in common with…
Divide and conquer.