Thank you everyone for joining in on this discussion. A lot of valid points have been raised , and that makes me happy. :Rose: Here is my view of it (in brief
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I don't know the exact solution to the problem - and I just want to state the disclaimer that my intention was not to claim so. My goal was to make us aware of the situation and get us talking about it. No progress can be made until people are first aware and then begin to discuss possible solutions. I do agree that Black Americans have a lot of buying power in this country. I also agree that we need to start to break into the business of our own hair on a grander scale. That's the bottom line - we need to step up and do what needs to be done. However, I will still try to shop at black owned black hair care businesses. I am not saying that we should necessarily boycott Asian BSS's... heck, that is dang near impossible. I am just saying that we need to support black owned BSS's as much as possible (as soon as we know where they are). I know that is not always easy either, because you all know that some of us are not always the most professional, and some of us are not always kind and cooperative with our own. However, that is part of the larger problem. We need to become more cooperative with each other, be smarter about our finances, be professionals and pull together. This is precisely why Koreans own most of the Black Hair Care industry right now. They know how to stick together. We need to do the same if we are ever going to make more progress. We also need to take into account the fact that it is becoming increasingly harder for black people to buy wholesale from distributors because they are owned by Asians who do not WANT to sell to black people. Also, products that are produced by black companies are being counter-fitted and sold from these Asian BSS's so that they will not have to buy the product from the black companies. They buy wholesale from the black companies, learn how their products are made, come up with their own cheap version, and then eventually stop buying from the original black manufacturer. This is detrimental to businesses. Therefore, saying "we need to own our own," however true it may be, is not as easy as it sounds. Therefore, if we stop giving them so much of our business, and they know that it is because of what they are doing, it may prompt them to get their act together, and stop putting a lock and the market so that blacks cannot enter.
Once this is done, then maybe we will see more black owned BSS's to support.
You guys are great, and you always provide such wonderful insight from many different angles!!!! Keep it coming ladies!!!!!!!
By the way, I don't shop at Wal-Mart either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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