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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

#201

Post by nitrogen »

tejtm wrote: post #188
ceilingcorner wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes against pretty much everything in the zeitgeist, but yeah, men and boys are really hurting from this lack of all-male spaces. I hope culture boomerangs around enough to permit them sometime soon.

and on the other hand I see clubs such as Machining, Astronomy (and to a lesser degree HAM ?) struggling not to just be a dwindling old guy club.

Judging from the number of views machining videos get on YouTube, I suspect at least machining will have a chance of growing big again, under the name of "making".

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

#202

Post by PartiallyTyped »

jedimastert wrote: post #75
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…

> Cons: You can't go if you don't have the money for a haircut. This is something that people are unaware of (sort of on purpose), but barbershops in black communities become ad-hoc community centers, where black men can just go and be among other black men. Gatherings of black men were (and are) seen as suspicious or "gang-related", but if there's a large gathering of black men at a barbershop, they're all just ther…

This was addressed in the tv-show "New Amsterdam". The medical director of the New Amsterdam Public Hospital identified that barbershops are indeed community centers, after an almost fatal event where a black man almost died playing basketball.

The director figured that it is far more likely that men could get their heart checked if they didn't have to go out of their way to get to a hospital, and that was the right place to do it. He trained the main barber there on how to use the machine because he understood how much he cared about his friends, acquaintances, and the community he had fostered. IIRC he did that in many other barber shops in the area.

Funny enough, this approach also saves a lot of money because health problems can be identified faster than otherwise.

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

#203

Post by neartheplain »

ProjectArcturis wrote: post #180
ceilingcorner wrote: post #91

This used to be the case for most communities in America, before we decided that externalizing and professionalizing everything was the "economically efficient" solution. If you had a problem, you'd talk to the elder folks in your community and see what they thought about it. Now we barely know our neighbors and our community elders are shipped off to special-purpose holding facilities.

I don't know, the confidentiality of a professional therapist is huge. Plus a lot of the elders I know would advise you to deal with depression by sucking it up. Or try to pray the gay away.

>the confidentiality of a professional therapist is huge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_Confessional_and_t...

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

#204

Post by msla »

neartheplain wrote: post #203
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, the confidentiality of a professional therapist is huge. Plus a lot of the elders I know would advise you to deal with depression by sucking it up. Or try to pray the gay away.

>the confidentiality of a professional therapist is huge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_Confessional_and_t...

OK, but you're still back to "pray the gay away" if you go to a priest, at least through most of human history.

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

#205

Post by hncurious »

vmception wrote: post #174
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.

Barber shops are also full of the most toxic ignorant drivel you can possibly find in the physical world. This article and the positive comments highlights a need for actual mental health advocates aimed at men.

You may not realize this, but policing the speech of communities and advocating that they be re-educated by the proper authorities has historically been the stuff of nightmares.

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

#206

Post by motohagiography »

GavinMcG wrote: post #122
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?

Abuse, e.g. sadism, opportunism, deception are all definitions of unmasculine behaviours. There are men who behave in unmasculine ways, and I'd reassert they usually disqualify themselves from deeper friendship with men who don't. Among men, I would also say that negative traits are necessarily also unmasculine because they are usually immoderate instances of other qualities.

Of course, this is a practitioners view which perhaps does not reconcile itself to theory.

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

#207

Post by tenpies »

neartheplain wrote: post #203
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, the confidentiality of a professional therapist is huge. Plus a lot of the elders I know would advise you to deal with depression by sucking it up. Or try to pray the gay away.

>the confidentiality of a professional therapist is huge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_Confessional_and_t...

Should add that unlike any professional oath or body, Catholic priests will literally die before breaking the Confessional Seal. They will never follow any government or politician order to break it, and even the Pope himself cannot order them to do so. Many have gone to jail or been martyred keeping the Seal (as listed a bit lower in the same article).

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

#208

Post by mindcrime »

honkdaddy wrote: post #164
hhs wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? Indeed, in sociology this building of community is typically called the 'third place' [0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

Do HN folks have a "third place" they go to?

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of HN'er count a coffee shop or something as their "third place." For me, the cafe at the Barnes & Noble near my apartment is basically my "third place". Well... more like "second place" right now due to pandemic induced WFH status, but you get the idea.

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

#209

Post by dangus »

ceilingcorner wrote: post #91

This used to be the case for most communities in America, before we decided that externalizing and professionalizing everything was the "economically efficient" solution. If you had a problem, you'd talk to the elder folks in your community and see what they thought about it. Now we barely know our neighbors and our community elders are shipped off to special-purpose holding facilities.

This strikes me as rose-tinted nostalgia, along with straight up misinformation/weasel words. “Elders are shipped off to special-purpose holding facilities?” Really?

That’s just not a good-faith statement.

Younger people meet friends through work and school. Some of them – gasp – even know their neighbors!

But let’s be clear here: for even very close friends it’s often not preferable to burden them with my deepest chronic mental issues. They aren’t professionals and they don’t know how to approach those problems.

On top of that, there are negatives to that “village” system. Namely, peer pressure, shunning, gossip, etc. Sure, I want to confide in my family and friends, but there’s a line I won’t cross where a skilled, neutral, confidential party is the better choice.

I see the professionalization of mental health help to be an overall good thing. If I don’t trust my neighbor to help fix the engine control unit in my car why would I trust my neighbor to help me sort out complex mental health issues and find management tools and medication?

I’d guess that most of my family or neighbors’ or friends’ mental health advice is clinically, verifiably wrong/damaging/counterproductive.

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

#210

Post by shadilay »

sandworm101 wrote: post #147
ceilingcorner wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes against pretty much everything in the zeitgeist, but yeah, men and boys are really hurting from this lack of all-male spaces. I hope culture boomerangs around enough to permit them sometime soon.

Shooting clubs. The really aggressive ones that meet in the woods to "train". Still predominantly all-male.

For when you want to meet all the feds in your area.
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