Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Black barbers have become mental health advocates for African American men

edition.cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 246 posts

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

#121

Post by chickenpotpie »

scarmig wrote: post #109
chickenpotpie wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selection bias: immigrating to the US from a far away country is easier if you’re educated and rich. Doesn’t mean you’re treated any better once you get here.

So your prediction would be that African immigrants would underperform other immigrant groups originating from far away countries, owing to racism once they land here?

No, my prediction is that regardless of what country someone came from, many people in the US will only see them as Black and theyll treat them differently for it.

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

#122

Post by GavinMcG »

motohagiography wrote: post #105

Viewing masculine gatherings and mentoring relationships through the lens of "therapy," is patronizing and another example of filtering culture through the narrative of powerlessness. Here's another take. Most people who say they want you to talk about your feelings are predators looking for angry and vulnerable young people who they can manipulate with sympathy and groom for other pipelines and agendas. The barber s…

The idea that abusers "cannot navigate masculine environments well" is absurd, ignores the fact that much abuse has taken place in masculine environments throughout history, and imagines that abusers somehow give themselves away by not presenting as traditionally masculine. Where are you getting this?

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

#123

Post by SinParadise »

okareaman wrote: post #31

For me, this article is about mentoring younger people and benefits it provides. I mentor a young brilliant programmer who I used to work with. I maintained a relationship with him after I retired. He called me up last night frantic about some issues. I know he drinks too much and that he has mental health issues, so I was able to talk him through it. We talked about solutions for his drinking problem. He thanked me…

You are a good man.

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

#124

Post by AnimalMuppet »

andyxor wrote: post #103
[deleted] wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Don’t bring up controversial political points if you don’t want to hear opposing views.

Well, "critical thinking" needs to supply a bit more than you have in this thread. You've spewed anger, and ideological talking points, but that's not critical thinking.

I guess you did hit "diversity of opinion", though...

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

#125

Post by hncurious »

klyrs wrote: post #86
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.

You might argue barbershops are better.

1. They are cheaper.

2. You get a haircut.

3. Community.

4. They are trained in the real world, and within the community they are serving.

5. The barber's incentives are aligned with yours. If they solve your problem, you're still a repeat customer. In the case of therapists and chiropractors, they are incentivized to manage your problem indefinitely or to find new problems.

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

#126

Post by olleromam91 »

randomopining wrote: post #115
lemmsjid wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By focusing on shared experience of cultural context or upbringing, you're ignoring the shared experience of how people are treated by others. People do have things in common based on skin color. For example, my sister is Filipina. She lives in a white dominated area which has a lot of xenophobia about Mexican immigrants. She has experienced several events where she gets mistaken as Mexican, simply by her skin color…

I agree with what you said. Good comment. My only issue is the level at which that single one-word descriptor is used above all others. So much focus is placed on "black" "white" etc... that it devalues the nuance of other descriptors. Like "immigrant", "rich", "poor", "college-educated" etc.

The focus is there because race has been the descriptor of choice for generations to quickly, lazily and cruelly discriminate against minority groups, and the lasting effects haven't even been fully understood yet, let alone remedied to the point where we can just ignore what has and is still happening because of someone's skin color.

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

#127

Post by Spivak »

randomopining wrote: post #83
Spivak wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"…

Nothing! You’re literally describing intersectionality. Other than you don’t like the terms black and white for some reason as things that are part of people’s lives we’re saying the exact same thing.

A black kid who grows up rich and goes to an Ivy League school still will still have the conversation with their parents about being black to explain why the other kids treat them differently or why they get stares in convenience stores.

Class has more of an effect on your day-to-day life than race. Sure. Fine. But your race is still a part of who you are and affects how you’re treated at all incomes which is the point. Like Jesus, Obama is rich AF and was the most powerful man on earth and his blackness was front and center his whole political career. There is no way a white political figure would have to deal with his haters posting bad photoshops of him in tribal garb where the whole thing is that he’s a scary foreign African. They might have to deal with other bullshit but not that which is the point.

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

#128

Post by okareaman »

SinParadise wrote: post #123
okareaman wrote: post #31

For me, this article is about mentoring younger people and benefits it provides. I mentor a young brilliant programmer who I used to work with. I maintained a relationship with him after I retired. He called me up last night frantic about some issues. I know he drinks too much and that he has mental health issues, so I was able to talk him through it. We talked about solutions for his drinking problem. He thanked me…

You are a good man.

Thank you. I think most healthy people have this goodness in them but the modern world puts more emphasis satisfying the self. I discovered the benefits of practicing kindness when someone was kind to me.

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

#129

Post by scarmig »

chickenpotpie wrote: post #121
scarmig wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your prediction would be that African immigrants would underperform other immigrant groups originating from far away countries, owing to racism once they land here?

No, my prediction is that regardless of what country someone came from, many people in the US will only see them as Black and theyll treat them differently for it.

But, immigrants from Thailand are no less well-off than immigrants from Nigeria. If Nigerian immigrants face discrimination because many people will only see them as black, does that mean Thai immigrants will outperform them? Or do Thai people face an equal amount of racism targeting them?

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

#130

Post by andruby »

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…

Option 3 is actually the plot of an episode of the medical drama series "New Amsterdam". The main character of the show is the director of a fiction NYC public hospital. In episode 4 of season 2 he tries to encourage black men to get medical checkups. He choses to teach the barbers how to take blood pressure and prescribe some basic meds. The episode centers around the mistrust that black people in the US have of public healthcare, and how barbers are a natural social center for that community.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Amsterdam_(2018_TV_series)...

Post reply on HN