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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

#81

Post by mosseater »

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…

Well, in terms of this article, we're talking about black barbers. This isn't a racism thing. There is a culture associated with black barbers. I was a white kid, I grew up in the hood. I would hang out with my friends while they got their haircut. Racism didn't keep me from getting my haircut there, the literal texture and makeup of my hair did. They specialized. And in black culture, the barber shop is one of the main socialization spots. It's a place demanding similar levels of respect as going to church, minus the dress code. It's a place, outside of so many other places in this white dominated world, where they can be themselves. It's a place "for them and by them". They can be themselves, the subconscious relaxes, they don't have to worry about someone being a bigot towards them.

Like it or not, black culture is a thing. Just like white culture is a thing. No one has to feel bad about it. Color is beautiful. The whole "I don't see color" concept is disingenuous to the human experience.

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

#82

Post by adolph »

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…

> Why does the media make us segregate ego formation based off of these shallow descriptors? Black white etc.

the basic scenario is that we’ve had a years-long moral panic in which elite white tastemakers adopted the political posture of radical Black academics out of purely competitive social impulses, trying on a ready-made political eschatology that blames the worlds ills on whiteness and men and yet somehow leaves space for an army of good white people and good men to cluck their tongue about it all.

https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/who-tells-them-what-the...

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

#83

Post by randomopining »

Spivak wrote: post #45
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…

Because you're being willfully obtuse of the authors meaning to make a point about semantics. Context and intersectionality (or PIE if you want a more nerdy less loaded term) matters here. White and black have specific meanings, a shared cultural history, and face similar issues and struggles in the US . And there's more to a person than just their "race" despite race being a particularly "loud" (i.e. strong predicto…

Actually, not at all.

What does a "white" working class Italian who's parents came over in the 50's have in common with a "white" old money millionaire guy who's German ancestors came over in the mid 1800's?

What does a "black" kid who went to a private school, then Ivy League, and now works at a Private Equity fund in NYC (this is my actual friend) have in common with a "black" kid growing up in Detroit?

The "white" and "black" descriptors of all of these people have little correlation with their daily lives... and yet it's the single adjective that media/Instagram etc speak the loudest about and make it into this huge thing.

Really the biggest separator in our society is socioeconomic wealth. And that should be the main descriptor.

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

#84

Post by wisethrowaway »

minikites wrote: post #42
chalst wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I find the article and some of the comments interesting, I don't think it's a good fit for HN. Articles should provoke curious conversation; this one, judging from the number of dead posts, is provoking too much tribalism.

If it was tribalism, the dead posts would be extreme opinions from both sides. The dead posts here are only from one side.

Which reminds you that HN moderation got outsourced to affiliates of the Democratic Party

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

#85

Post by runeblaze »

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…

While it is true that there is much diversity within each minority group, it is also true that the society often imposes discrimination solely based on one's skin color, and we can't just ignore society. I also think that this article is really mainly talking about the descendants of the enslaved people, which form the majority of US's black population, and is commonly referred to as the Black community.

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

#86

Post by klyrs »

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's also therapy. Way more expensive than a haircut, and it's highly stigmatized especially among men. It doesn't provide community, per se, but it can help a person work through the issues that are making it hard for them to find and keep friends.

And, yeah. A barbershop is a decent stand-in.

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

#87

Post by namlem »

ouid wrote: post #61
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 f…

I disagree that most of your examples are comparable, with the exception of gyms and coworkers/colleagues to a degree. Getting your hair cut is a qualitatively different type of experience. You have to sit still while it's happening, you can't just wander off. And there's even a degree of physical intimacy involved, even if it's purely professional. Likewise, in church you have to sit still, you can't go on your phone or leave early without people judging you. I think there's a reason why fitness quasi-cults like Crossfit and Soul Cycle have emerged, because the same principle is at play, social interaction with strangers is baked into the process. Sure, there are strangers at bars, concerts, etc., but you don't really have to engage with them and can walk away or go on your phone at any time.

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

#88

Post by sergiomattei »

randomopining wrote: post #47
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.

That's my point. You share language, el mundo espanol, etc. That's true cultural linkage. Whereas a "white" person from Ireland and a "white" person from Ukraine have very very little in common. A "black" person from South Africa and a "black" person from Colombia have very very little in common. And yet these are the main descriptors used in pop culture, Instagram, the media... and it's silly.

Huh, that's interesting. Although to be fair I haven't seen these descriptors used outside of the United States.

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

#89

Post by drocer88 »

3maj wrote: post #77
drocer88 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's unfortunate, I didn't know that. But they used to be fairly unbiased and critical of the Chinese government.

They used to be high quality. Many news organizations have dropped a few notches. It is unfortunate that Hong Kong has lost its independence and suffering more and more from Chinese Communist policies.

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

#90

Post by [deleted] »

andscoop wrote: post #76
andyxor wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there is no evidence for systemic racism, is a purely political invention. Dems are fishing for minority votes through their favorite propaganda channels, but I don't think this will help them

This comment is so far from my reality that I feel we must have different definitions of systemic racism. So I’m curious, what does systemic racism mean to you? Or to flip your statement around, what would systemic racism look like to you if it were to exist?

[deleted]
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