Hair & The Black Dollar – The Ugly Truth!
Recently, journalist Roland Martin, cited a figure that has often been used to illustrate just how little blacks spend in their very own community compared to other racial and ethnic groups. The study claims, “the lifespan of a dollar in the Asian community is 28 days, in the Jewish community the lifespan of a dollar is 19 days and the lifespan in the African-American community is approximately six hours.” There has been much speculation as to whether or not these claims are true; but if this is the case, we have to wonder why and what are the issues. Let’s talk discuss Hair & The Black Dollar for just a minute.
With studies indicating that the black community doesn’t support other blacked owned businesses as much as other ethnic groups is just flat out sad, but we have to ask ourselves, why is that?!
Well, I can’t speak for everybody else, but to me and I’ll say it again.. TO ME… and this is just MY opinion, but most, and NOT ALL black owned businesses lack professionalism. I hate to say it, but it’s true! And I know many people are going to try to “come for me” but this has been MY experience.
For those that know me, know that I am all about uplifting the community and “fighting the good fight against the man”, but for a large majority of the time, I am always disappointed whenever I try to support the next brutha man’s or sistah gurl’s business operations.
Hair & The Black Dollar
For example, yall know I gotta keep my hair looking right, so of course, by nature I would automatically patronize a black salon owner and black hair stylist before I went any place else. Now… this is where the problem lies. TARDINESS!!!! There’s a lot of things I can tolerate and overlook but playing with my time is not one of them. if I set an appointment with a so called “professional”, I expect him/her to be there on time.
For instance, my appointment is set for 9:30 a.m. and the stylist doesn’t come strolling in until 11:30- 12 o’clock (noon). Taking her sweet precious time, talking about “wat cha getting done today”. When the first words out of her mouth should be “oh, hey girl.. I apologize for being late.” And maybe, just maybe “I’ll give you a discount on your services for today”. Now.. I am a very forgiving person, so if this happens 1 or 2 times, ok… ok.. No big problem, right? But when my stylist is late for every single appointment, that’s when it becomes completely unacceptable. And of course, she wants you to pay her the full amount for the services, plus a tip for her troubles (for doing her job). Which I always do anyway because that’s just the type of person I am.
Experiences such as this, amongst many other situations,
Like going to a blacked owned restaurant and they have over 20 items on the menu but only have 5 items available for you to order. And please don’t act like y’all don’t know what I am talking about. lol
Hair & The Black Dollar – The Ugly Truth!
These types of conditions have made it difficult for me to support or patronize black owned enterprises. My biggest problem with the black community is, when we go to a business that maybe owned by an Asian or Latino, we expect them to have everything all together. Everything must be perfect. From the service to making sure they have everything in stock. And if they don’t, we make a huge commotion about it and declare we’re never coming back. In my opinion, Black business owners need to raise their standards and/or professionalism and take more pride in their accomplishments. When this happens, I truly believe that the black dollar will then circulate for a longer period of time in the black community.
