In an instant, four Black teenage girls went from casually shopping in a Chesapeake, Virginia beauty supply store to being held captive and treated like criminals in a case of racial profiling!
This January incident isn’t isolated. Shop owners often feel entitled to harass and even physically assault Black women and it’s bringing up a major concern.
Neilsen reports that Black women spend more than $2.51 billion on hair grooming products annually. That kind of buying power deserves WAY more respect.
With so much revenue to go around, why are non-Black shop owners, with Asians dominating the industry’s distribution channels, blocking Black women from opening more welcoming establishments of their own?
Since the 1960s - when Korean wig making became big business - Asian hair trade deals, territorial family enterprises, and business hiring practices created to protect undocumented personnel all contributed to the creation of a secretive culture that excludes Black business owners from the industry.
Top distributors are encouraged to discriminate against outsiders and decades of racial tension like those that sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots only add fuel to the flame.
Black women will never accept disrespectful treatment.
Whether its suing individual shop owners or utilizing other channels and social media to purchase and profit off of the products they love, they are pushing forward to own their own businesses rather than being forced to tolerate prejudice, criminalization, and humiliation.