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> "Tress – A social community for black women’s hairstyles" I wonder what would black women say if there was an app "Social community for white women's hairsty
by usaphp 10y ago
> "Tress – A social community for black women’s hairstyles"
I wonder what would black women say if there was an app "Social community for white women's hairstyles", would not it be considered racist?
- mc32 10y agoI'm not sure. Forget black and white. Just imagine an underserved market, it makes business sense to highlight the difference: Car insurance vs. Electric car insurance. To me it would make sense to highlight that the new company is targeting a particular market.
- untog 10y agoThis is simply a play for a specific, smaller market that isn't adequately covered today. To be clear (and I will own up to being not fully knowledge on this topic myself): many black women have very different hair than women of other races. The way they style it is different, the treatments they get are different, the products they use are different, and the issues they face are different. All of this is underepresented in most media today. Most social sites about hairstyles are white women's hairstyles sites by virtue of what they cover, even if it isn't their stated aim. This is a totally uncontroversial concept in most situations and markets, but somehow when race is involved people start behaving very oddly. A site specifically targeting white women isn't automatically racist, no. But such a site is not logical by any assessment of the current market. So absent that logic, people look for other reasons, and when you're targeting a specific race, and the economically dominant one at that, you're opening yourself up to such questions.
- laser 10y agoThere's an asymmetry you're not recognizing. Focusing on a subgroup is a niche, while focusing on the majority while excluding a subgroup is discriminatory. Which even then, might be okay, were it not for the history of oppressive discrimination.
- mistermann 10y agoVery well said.
- dang 10y agoThis breaks the HN guideline against bringing up same-old flamewars. Please don't do this here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- kmbriedis 10y agoThis actually is a genuine question with good answers! It is not like he brought the topic out of thin air PS. I also didn't know such market exists
- dang 10y agoI agree with you that some of the answers were surprisingly fine, but credit for that goes to the answerers. Trollish questions typically lead to useless spats.
- usaphp 10y agoTrolling? It was a genuine questions and I really liked the answers...
- dang 10y agoOk, I believe you. But that exact form of question is commonly used to start the flamiest flamewars around.
- sillysaurus3 10y agoOn controversial topics, it's best to frame the question very carefully. In this case, I'd recommend "I was hoping to know more about this topic. Why are black women the target market?" It's important because even with the best of intentions, the exact wording can lead to a catastrophe of a thread (or avert one).
- jameskegel 10y agoPlease don't start with this flimsy retort. GP has a legitimate question that happens to contain race as an important factor to his hypothesis
- telesilla 10y agoI'm a white female who grew up where there were no (at the time) African or other-similar-haired women. Not Paris, New York or London safe to say. It was only after spending time in the U.S. that I was introduced to things such as weaves, nappy hair, extensions, wigs.. it goes on. A huge industry and it's completely different from how I and my fellow-caucasian friends approach hair, which is essentially shampoo, condition & blow dry with a variety of products to create and fix shape. It's a different world.
- mistermann 10y agoThe documentary Good Hair (comedian Chris Rock stars) was excellent imho if you haven't seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So
- rhizome 10y agoYes, thank you. Black hair, both men's and women's, is a full-on subculture that doesn't exist in caucasian circles. The role of the barber/salon in black culture cannot be overstated. GP is simply ignorant.
- ryandamm 10y agoThanks for the reality check; specifics matter a lot. (My only question: how is it possibly a $500 bn/year market? The world economy is something like $60 tn; I have a hard time imagining black women's hair care is 1/120th of global GDP. I can't imagine hair care en toto is anything like ~0.8% of global GDP, either. I mean, if you're going to make up numbers... they should be plausible.)
- rattray 10y agoYou're clearly being an ass, but... "African hair" is unique relative to the hair from other parts of the globe. "European hair" isn't as meaningfully different from other (non-African) ethnicities.