To understand the viral outrage and fierce gatekeeping over what at first appears to be an innocuous beauty tip, you need to understand some crucial context: the beauty industry is a notoriously inequitable space for black women. Being able to walk into a high-street beauty store such as Boots or Superdrug and find products that cater to darker skin tones and afro hair textures is only a very recent phenomenon.
The presence of enough black women to be a notable market is a recent phenomenon.
According to a report from TreasureTress released last November, black people make up 2% of the adult population
Still not a very large part of the market either.
Even now, the choices available will vary wildly depending on where you are in the country.
The melanistically talented population is highly concentrated geographically.
What is it about reality that this bint has such trouble with?
’Black hair shops are rarely black-owned…’
If your main complaint is that there’s not enough of them, who cares who owns them?
But of course that’s not your main complaint, is it? It never is.
“The melanistically talented population is highly concentrated geographically”
Sounds like the epitome of a Niche. Where’s a (black) entrepreneur when you need one?
Well, yes, and try having 11.5 wide feet. You don’t get much in the way of shoes on the high street, have to either buy from Amazon or old fashioned shoe shops.
Can I get a heightest oppression grift going from this?
This is totally bollocks. I’ve had two black girlfriends in the UK. One Caribbean “red” & the other full african, can’t find her in the dark unless she smiles, black. Half of the girls I know here are of one tint or another. None of them have had the slightest problem buying cosmetics appropriate for their skin colour. Unless, as you say, they’re out in some godforsaken place in the boonies don’t see coloured girls from one year to another. In which case they don’t stock things they ain’t gonna sell. It’s like the hair. They’re not going to find a hair salon does Afro & extensions in some village in the Highlands.
They all cope with it. If some bint out of the Guardian can’t, that’s her problem. Maybe she should fuck off back where she came from. Hackney or somewhere.
The question isn’t who is ‘allowed’ to use what, but why black women have so few options in the first place
Idk, ask your Dad.
An owner opetated store in my town has had to tag beauty products for black people due to the high number of thefts of those products. Of course, there is a local outcry because the store doesn’t tag beauty products for white people, which is obviously racist. The owner of the store stated that either the thefts stop, or the store will stop stocking them, which would save the cost of the electronic tags. Of course, there are complaints about this proposal. You just can’t please some people.
It’s result-equity sought, not equality. What they want is not proper numerical representation, but to be able to find and get what they want as easily and cheaply as the majority find and get what they want, no matter the market realities involved. It might be wasteful and expensive to do that – to provide a black woman shopper with full choices everywhere no matter where – but the majority should absorb that cost just to be equitable. Good luck for that.
Where’s a (black) entrepreneur when you need one?
There’s an oversupply of them. One thing there isn’t a shortage of black girls want to run black hair & cosmetics businesses. It’s trying to make any money doing it’s the problem. Too much competition.
To understand the viral outrage and fierce gatekeeping over what at first appears to be an innocuous beauty tip, you need to understand some crucial context:
The context, btw, is horrible, burning, unquenchable jealousy of European women’s long, straight, fine hair. That’s why she’s furiously typing thousands of words about negro hair products.
Black hair shops are rarely black-owned…’
Numerous videos of undocumented cosmetic shopping from the USA provide compelling evidence to deter potential black entrepreneurs.
– The context, btw, is horrible, burning, unquenchable jealousy of European women’s long, straight, fine hair.
Them fuzzy wuzzies ‘d like it down ’em, Captain Mainwaring.
“They’re not going to find a hair salon does Afro & extensions in some village in the Highlands.”
I live in SW England. Can recall seeing abt 12 black faces during the past year and 10 of those were on a weekend visit to Aberdeen.
Just had a quick look for barbershops in Lagos. That cater for white men. Couldn’t find any in the first half a dozen google search results. Plenty that cater for black men though.
If there aren’t (m)any, I wonder why not? It’s one of lifes little conundrums isn’t it?
Been trying to post this for a few hours but keep getting 403 Forbidden…….
Addolff,
That’s because the matrix has detected your crimethink.
Cosmetics, such as skin toners, have been around for at least 50 years particularly since there is a substantial market for these is in Africa and Asia as well as the USA, so there is a well developed product range from a number of cosmetics companies. Plus since there is significant variation in complexions among White people in the UK and Europe, it seems unlikely Black woman are not able easily to find what they want.
Cosmetics favoured by Black/Asian woman are complexion lighteners, or to even put patchy complexion.
As for Afro hair-dos that has been around since the 60s even among ‘with-it’ White men and women.
If Black women can’t walk into stores like Boots and find what they want, they should have gone to SpecSavers first.
Nope. It’s clearly racism by the melanin weak to keep other people in the cities. Stores don’t stock what the melanin enhanced people want where there are no melanin enhanced people so they never go out of the area they live in. Clearly the fault of people not living in the same area, with no knowledge of that area, nor any understanding of how to welcome people of a type they rarely see. The melanin compromised need to stock stuff they may never sell to be anti-racist. As Saint D’Angelo says… it’s not whether but how racism manifests.
The ladies who are complaining actually do not miss out here — unless acne and looking like a badly dried mop with a clown face is the goal here.
(This goes for any race and gender, if you ever have been ambush-kissed by rancid fat laden lips and smeared with foundation in the process by a well-meaning drunk, you know what I mean and that is before we discuss the sense in painting one’s eyes to look like a domestic violence victim.)
“black people make up 2% of the adult population” Only 2%! Is that because illegals often claim to be under 16?
Don’t talk to me about narrow shoes, BoM4. I didn’t bother to buy a new pair while I was on holiday. But when I got home, I realised the soles of my spare pair were too hard.
Now I’ll have to get some more!!! Whine, whine, whine, whine!!!
The economist shoots itself in the foot at the end of every article, no matter how valid their points, by always stating that the solution is less regulation, no matter what.
Worstall does something similar in his blogs posts; various valid points, and at the end a line of so of him being a prick.
Or even, given that I’m not writing a weekly newspaper, story selection by Worstall so that I get to make one of my favourite points at the end of what I write.
Jus’ sayin’.
And, of course, I do not in fact always say there should be less regulation.
I assume Chops hasn’t read The Economist for about 20 years, which was the last time this might have been a valid observation.
The opening words were appropriate: “Sod off.”
I seem to recall that there was a fairly noisy farting contest with our chocolate-coloured cousins over the Pond; about how cosmetic items, potions, useless but extremely-necessary hair straighteners etc., were subject to being behind locked shield areas, because they were, strangely enough, the target of choice for shop-lifting, or as we straight talkers say: THEFT.
The raucous cries of ‘Racist Discrimination’ echoed up and down the aisles worked, at least in certain shops who didn’t have the courage to state; “We will not help thieves”, and the locks were removed: AND THE THEFT STATISTICS ROCKETED.