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Madam C.J. Walker, an early 20th-century black woman who built a hair company
- WalterBright 11y ago> men like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller—who cornered emerging industries and amassed incredible wealth at the expense of the public and their employees. That implies that it was a zero sum game. This is far from correct. Standard Oil, for example, drove the price of kerosene down 70%, which was of considerable benefit to the public.
- mynameishere 11y agoCreating the steel industry? Creating the oil industry? Pffft. How does that make anyone proud of their hair? You tell me! Heck, Rockefeller didn't even have any hair, and Carnegie, precious little. Seriously, how can anyone get past that first sentence in all its brazen stupidity?
- dang 11y agoIt's an interesting historical article about someone remarkable. It's unhelpful to flame the entire thing based on one sentence you don't like, and your comment adds nothing but lighter fluid to the GP's observation.
- marcusgarvey 11y agoWhat seems "stupid" is to underestimate the impact that pulling the right emotional triggers -- as this article purports Madame Walker did -- has on building a successful business.
- ZeroGravitas 11y agoSorry, I couldn't get past the "brazen stupidity" of your first sentence, as you apparently believe that the steel and oil industries were created by two particular gentleman. Though, this seems like no way to have a conversation.
- Turing_Machine 11y agoStandard Oil also saved the whales, according to some. :-) http://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenmeyer/2010/11/05/the-man-who-saved-the-whales/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenmeyer/2010/11/05/the-man-w...
- pma 11y agomagda_wang, God bless you for bringing this piece to HN.Keep it up.
- linuxkerneldev 11y agoI found this article difficult and confusing to read. It says stuff like: "beauty standards that placed a high value on lighter skin and hairstyles that imitated white looks," then says: "began offering skin-lightening and hair-straightening products to compete with white companies that marketed these items to black consumers" "Walker rebuffed a reporter in response to an article that derisively referred to her as the “de-kink queen.” " I couldn't figure out if the article was saying Walker was a black woman who supported natural hair for black women (which I imagine would be a good thing for black women, and good for the planet as well given the toxic chemicals in hair straighteners, and general waste of resources on hair) or if the article is saying she just built a hair company and provided whatever the masses wanted even if it was damaging to their own self-image and communities?
- masterminding 11y agoIt was saying the latter because she did the latter. It's the same way people in poverty choose to sell drugs to their own community to escape those conditions themselves. Maybe not the right thing but impoverished conditions make people make questionable decisions.
- Maken 11y agoThe article states that the company started selling these kind of "looking more whiteish" products after she has already passed away, not during her leadership. Her marketing was focused in making women look more healthy, not more white.