There may be a misunderstanding here then. I may have expressed myself wrong. My point never was to underestimate the importance or cultural background of African American barbershops. Neither to confront the roots of racism that created that necessity. I agree with all that.

My only point is that it doesn't invalidate the importance that hair and hair saloons has for other people (for different reasons each). All in reference to a comment that said something on the line that white people's (and only white people's specifically) pain over looking old because balding is invalid.

[–] SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah you presented as asserting that racism isn't a valid concern regarding hair issues and that other "races" are just as vulnerable around hair issues. It’s a bad look.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I'm very sorry if it looked like that. Racism is a valid concern, obviously. I'm just saying that's not the only concern, not even for black people, or people of any race.

And that in the context of hair loss I would bet that racism is not the primary concern that pops when it happens. And that's beautiful, because that's something that ties many people together across races. Feeling bad when we notice our hair falls. And most of us feel bad not because that "hair saloon community thing", I don't know how many black people have that specify grievance about going bald. But what I've have always seen people of all races and colours complain about is the vanity thing, just the simple fact of wanting to have hair up there. Something that makes us all humans.

I specifically complained that while the "attack" was on white people. And only after the attack an argument was presented that only covered something that affected African Americans. I would have never said a thing if the original comment was "Black people fells this a lot because they also may loose the sense of belonging to a traditional African American space that protected them against racism". That's 100% real and valid. But the original comment was way different, wasn't it?

[–] SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But the original comment was way different, wasn't it?

Yeaaaaah, I think it was worth a corrective comment, not a long-ass thread with a bunch of misunderstanding in it, where "race" gets repeatedly used like it's scientific and not bullshit, and you really went to bat hard on a side issue of baldness in the bigger political issue, while appearing to argue against a vulnerable population's safe spaces.

People tried to school you because you seem to have a watered down view of racism. I suspect you're not North American maybe, where things are pretty tense on the topic.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yep. I'm from southern europe.

And for what it's worth the lecture was indeed interesting. And I learned about the relationships of African American hair saloons, black culture and racism. I had some sense of it based on classic movies, but this roots the knowledge about the topic further down.

And it's true that I genuinely believed that that kind of "segregation" (is that right?) of black people going to black saloons and white people going to white saloons was a thing of the sixties. And that nowadays it wasn't like that. But I stand corrected on that if you said that it's still an issue. Here there has been always a lot of saloons with PoC owners or workers as it is a typical migrant job, so I've never seen that reality, or if it does happen I'm not conscious of it.