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Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

edition.cnn.com

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Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#61

Post by ouid »

whatshisface wrote: post #18

If 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 con…

This is such a poorly crafted argument that it's hard to imagine it's not in bad faith. You listed religion twice! The only way this is representative of any kind of "normal" culture is if you have defined it that way.

Let's think about a couple more ways that you could go about obtaining a community in the US.

leisure: clubs, cafes, live music events, bars, gyms. proximity: neighborhood, induced parent communities from child communities. functional: PTAs, HOAs, coworkers, colleagues.

etc.

Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#62

Post by flyinglizard »

poopypoopington wrote: post #48
andyxor wrote: post #36

no matter how cute the barber story is, you can't ignore the fact this is political propaganda from a primary propaganda source. it's what pg calls "submarine PR", in this case for Dems "systemic racism" agenda, the more people believe this bs the more votes they get.

Honestly what? How is what you're saying not a racist dogwhistle? It's political propaganda why? Because they're Black?

At some point the “dog whistle” argument refers to signals that are so faint that they could just as well be imaginary.

Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#63

Post by minikites »

mikeyouse wrote: post #38
chickenpotpie wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ What does a "black" person from Sierra Leone have in common with a "black" person from the deserts in the northeast of Africa?” They face the same discrimination in America and in that they find companionship

And in the case of barbers - they have the same type of hair.. Why is this confusing for HNers?

I can think of at least two possibilities: a privileged/sheltered upbringing or an intentional mis-framing of the issue to make something reasonable seem unreasonable.

Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#64

Post by x86_64Ubuntu »

mikeyouse wrote: post #38
chickenpotpie wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ What does a "black" person from Sierra Leone have in common with a "black" person from the deserts in the northeast of Africa?” They face the same discrimination in America and in that they find companionship

And in the case of barbers - they have the same type of hair.. Why is this confusing for HNers?

Nothing is confusing to HNers, they are just expressing baseline racial anxiety and resentment.

Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#65

Post by umvi »

chickenpotpie wrote: post #25
randomopining wrote: post #16

Why 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…

“ What does a "black" person from Sierra Leone have in common with a "black" person from the deserts in the northeast of Africa?” They face the same discrimination in America and in that they find companionship

> They face the same discrimination in America and in that they find companionship

Do they, though? I think African Americans and African immigrants face very different problems in America. My next door neighbors on one side are from Ghana, my next door neighbors on the other side are African Americans. They have very different issues that they deal with and their lifestyles couldn't be more different.

My Ghana neighbors:

- Struggle with things like renewing work visas, applying for citizenship, immigration-related issues

- Buy/cook all their food from raw ingredients from African grocery stores

- 2 parent household

- Pay their own rent

My African American neighbors:

- struggle with substance abuse, truancy, obesity, unemployment

- Eat McDonalds/junk food/drink astronomical quantities of soda pop daily

- Single parent household

- Rely on the state for rent (HOC)

These are not isolated incidents - out of my neighborhood block here in Montgomery County, MD, there are multiple points of data that point to this segregation of lifestyles between African and African American. I see the police all the time at my African American neighbors' house (at least 3-4 times per year), whether it be because one of the teens was caught shoplifting, or they were making tons of noise in the middle of the night, or because of a domestic confrontation turning violent, etc. I've never seen the police once at my Ghana neighbors' house.

Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#66

Post by rory »

whatshisface wrote: post #18

If 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 con…

There have to be more options than that.

A country club?

A service org like Rotary / Lion's Club?

I'm not sure what's out there, but there must options other than Jihad, Kristallnacht, or barber shop.

Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#67

Post by [deleted] »

randomopining wrote: post #16

Why 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…

[deleted]

Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#68

Post by minikites »

randomopining wrote: post #41
antihero wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because membership of a group, especially for marginalised and oppressed peoples, is a way to have shared strength and be able to relate to others' experiences and protect each other. Which is an incredibly powerful and necessary until the world is significantly fairer. Also in the case of barbers, it is plainly obvious: Experience working with hair of a certain type.

What I'm saying is that the people in this "group" may have almost nothing in common at all, except for having a darker shade of skin color. Aka get rid of the simple descriptors of "white" "black" etc since they mean very little or nothing at all.

>may have almost nothing in common at all, except for having a darker shade of skin color

That darker shade causes them to be mistreated in similar ways by American society.

Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#69

Post by [deleted] »

whatshisface wrote: post #18

If 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 con…

[deleted]

Re: Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

#70

Post by sergiomattei »

isoskeles wrote: post #52
sergiomattei wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A shared set of experiences. I'm Latino, and when I visit the United States I get along well with other Latino folk because we share a set of experiences we can relate to. We probably grew up in different places but there's a background we have in common, like our language. It's called culture.

Funny, I don’t get along with many other Latinos despite being one. I think it’s this attitude that I’m supposed to speak the language and act a certain way as part of the “culture.”

Well, everyone's different. I find it much easier to relate to others that come from a similar culture to mine. We don't need to speak the language, but talking about stuff like our upbringing or whatever helps bond.

I personally wouldn't care if you acted a certain way, my definition of a Latino isn't that stereotypical.

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