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

151–160 of 246 posts

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

#151

Post by chalst »

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.

I don't think you see the whole of the harm done here. Yes, the extreme opinions come from one side, but to deal with it, the non-extremists have to take opinion-suppressing measures. Just the process of recognising and flagging posts that are bad for us is polarising.

There's a balance to be struck: I don't like the idea that the extremists determine what interesting content is permissible to discuss on HN. But while bringing attention to and discussing this article is good for consciousness-raising, I think this polarising process is damaging HN.

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

#152

Post by rory »

jedimastert wrote: post #143
rory wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That fits the stereotype in my head, but I'm not sure what you're getting at. Just that they're bad?

No, I'm saying that black communities are disproportionately affected by poverty. Simply put, country clubs are not an option for the vast majority of Black Americans, not to mention the overt racism.

Ah got it, makes sense. I guess I was just responding to "how can you have a normal community in US culture?" in abstract, not in regards to the people in the article.

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

#153

Post by MisterBastahrd »

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.

There's a reason for that.

Two people walk into a random corner store. One is a poor, immigrant person who happens to be white. The other is a rich, college-educated citizen who happens to be black.

Guess which one most shop owners are gonna be keeping an eye on.

I am a white father of black children. My hometown has a notorious speed trap that every person in the community knows snares black motorists. If my children were white, I wouldn't even have to mention it except in passing. But they aren't, and if they ever drive around in that town when they are older, I will have to specifically point out to them where the speed trap is to keep them safe from the people who are supposed to be there to protect them.

The one-word descriptor IS the most important one for dealing with strangers and law enforcement in the US whether anyone likes it or not. It's unfortunate and unfair, but unfairness and misfortune never stopped the world from turning.

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

#154

Post by dragonwriter »

mc32 wrote: post #135
jedimastert wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the ignorance in these comments say otherwise...

There were a couple of movies around this trope. Black TV also has this trope (kind of like how other comedies might insert a bar(tender) scene). People are unaware of lots of things. Ask, who are your two senators. You'd be surprised in today's day and age of constant media barrage, but many people can't answer.

> There were a couple of movies around this trope.

It’s even referenced in a Disney (Pixar Animation Studios) film (Soul, where the main character’s history of arms-length interactions in that context as a violation of social norms is called out.)

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

#155

Post by t-writescode »

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…

As a person in their mid-30s who is having to meet and rebuild their friend group, it’s fascinating to me how the list of places you provide almost entirely are “go with a group, don’t want to be bothered” places.

The hunt for the Third Place, especially among those that are “not 20” is very real and comparatively difficult.

I happen to have met a smallish group of people that I can start to grow as a community with that I actually want to, but this is a recent development and I’m grateful to the people that found me.

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

#156

Post by rory »

cehrlich wrote: post #146
rory wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That fits the stereotype in my head, but I'm not sure what you're getting at. Just that they're bad?

That they're not a valid option for a large percentage of the population.

That's true, but hanging out at a Black Barber shop is also not a realistic option for a large percentage of the population.

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

#157

Post by jatone »

Dracophoenix wrote: post #136
rory wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Freemasonry. And for a near-exclusively African-American patronage, there are Prince Hall Freemason lodges[1]. While most Masonic lodges have a "belief in a Supreme Being" requirement, lodge activities are more secular and grounded in their application. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Hall_Freemasonry

thankfully I believe I am a supreme being, so that isn't an issue!

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

#158

Post by Dracophoenix »

chickenpotpie wrote: post #100
neither_color wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be verifiable by looking at the economic and educational outcomes of African and Caribbean immigrants in comparison to ADOS. If discrimination is all there is to it then their outcomes should be the same. Spoiler alert: It's not the same. https://www.ft.com/content/ca39b445-442a-4845-a07c-0f5dae5f3... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_U... Ghanian and Nigerian Americans make above…

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.

How do you explain the people that arrived in the United States through asylum? I wouldn't say that the Chinese immigrants who immigrated to the US during the Cultural Revolution in '70s or the swell in Indian and African diaspora in the '90s were rich. Most left everything they had behind including family members and had to start from the bottom rung. And yet, in one or two generations, they're sons and daughters are the ones populating Stanford and Silicon Valley.

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

#159

Post by imbnwa »

namlem wrote: post #93
sandworm101 wrote: post #33

It isn't because they are barbers. That is secondary. These are men's groups. This is men helping other men. Thanks to continued differences re hairstyles barber shops are one of the very few all-male places left in modern society (other than locker rooms which have a distinct competitive air). So it is no surprise that many urban men feel at home and are more willing to talk at the barber than anywhere else.

I'm not sure that's entirely true. I feel like the same dynamic is still present in mixed-gender salons.

I can vouch that in both Black and Puerto Rican barbershops, the ones in my neighborhood and have attended for most of my life, the range of possible topics is much less confined than a unisex space. Like, to the degree that I have to question your level of experience.

It's not just dude's safely talking about their problems as the article highlights, that's an aspect, its literally dudes speaking freely without female intervention, e.g. men talking sex, etc.

When a mother comes in to drop off her son or waits idly with him until he's gotten his cut, or a barber's girlfriend makes a quick stop in, the topics will change. Dudes don't just keep talking about the multiple women that they're engaging simultaneously in the presence of women (I understand one may find this topic distasteful but that's how some men use that space) , particularly since in these neighborhoods there are three degrees of separation or less, if not out of simple decency.

Edit: Just to inflect this even more personally, my mother even was explicit about her desire for me to be acculturated more thoroughly in common Black masculinity by dropping me off at the barber shop because I was, relative to the other men in the world I grew up in, too bookish and (what gets called) introverted (I don't really like the use of that term but that's a different discussion), i.e. relatively feminine. That didn't really work, lol, but it was one of the few times she made her thought process explicit in my presence, which is why I distinctly remember it.

Post reply on HN