Damn that was good! I've been thinking about this subject for years now. I always wondered how it was possible to have 5 BSS in a one mile radius, all selling the same products, and have them all stay in business. I came to the conclusion that when it comes to black women and beauty, the asian community have discovered that there is room for everyone.
I talked about this to my father a while back, and he said that korean people come from korea just to start nail salons and BSS stores, they have their own associations that provide funding to do this in korea, and once they come over here they have korean assoc. That support them.
Have you ever seen a korean beauty supply store go out of business?
Now, I don't blame them for finding a niche market....they've discovered a glodmine. However, I do not like the way some/most of these store owners treat their core consumer. Someone posted before that the black owned BSS had rude employees....well, there is something to be said about how mei ling all of a sudden needs to reorganize the shampoo bottles in every isle you go. There is a reason for this. This is not becuase of past shoplifter experiences.
I live in a black community where the average family income is 80,000/yr, and houses sell for $800,000-10million. Why the hell would any of these people want to steal a stinkin $3 dollar jar of Blue Magic? Well, it doesn't matter to asian store owners because part of the market research statistics they recieve when they start these BSS include the percentage rate of shoplifting among black people.
Another question, why is it that, eventhough we all know these stores make enough money, most asian owned BSS never clean up? I've noticed it has gotten better over the years, but I remember a time when all the hair was in a pile over here, the shampoo bottles where all smooshed over there, and the carpet look like it was growing hair....and yet we continued to come in droves(then complained about it to our friends while we opened up our new bottle of optimum care)
Lastly, I think that a woman on the documentary made a good point. The black community doesn't know how valuable it is to this country. They make money off of us, which is fine, then treat us unfairly. We create ideas out of necessity, then they take our ideas, make them their own, and don't give credit for these ideas, or atleast include us in the usage.
Did you know that companies are making cleansing conditioners now? They are geared toward caucasians because by doing this it is more market friendly.
And everybody knows that all races wear weaves now. But why are we the only ones that get a bad rep when we sport our weaves? Instead of "her extensions make her hair look so much fuller!", we get "She must be bald headed under there"
Did you know that asian women and some white women relax there hair?
And in europe (spec. germany), cornrowing, microbraiding, hair added individual braids, and dreadlocks among young white people are popular.
I could go on and on (more than I already have
), but my point is that we should take these types of issues seriously, not just for face value. It's not just an issue of other ethnicities making a boat load off the black community. But more an issue of black people slowly loosing their right and ability to have a voice IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITY.
