Poor Mike Aldrich. After turning away a black patron from his barber shop, saying he wouldn’t be able to help the guy because he wasn’t good at doing black hair, the Bellows Falls barber has become the target of some substantial community ire. The Associated Press reported that Aldrich’s refusal to barber the patron — Dr. Darryl Fisher, of Taos, N.M. — sparked a demonstration by people who claimed his denial of service was racially motivated.
Oh, you gotta love Vermont and its knee-jerk PCness. Well done, white people, for making a fuss about something you know nothing about — black hair.
It is entirely possible that Aldrich is, in fact, a racist who didn’t want to cut Fisher’s hair because he doesn’t like people of color. If that’s the case, I best not be defending the guy. But let’s assume for the sake of argument that Aldrich is a stand-up guy who loves all people regardless of color, creed, political persuasion or sexual proclivity. Then this story makes a lot more sense.
When Fisher walked into Mike’s Barber Shop, he asked Aldrich if a barber was around to cut his coif. Aldrich, the barber who owns the shop, told Fisher the barber wasn’t in. A few hours later, Fisher walked by the shop and saw Aldrich cutting hair. Clearly, dude was a barber. And clearly, he’s also a bad fibber.
But, as Aldrich told the AP, he was simply trying to mitigate embarrassment for both men. See, Aldrich, like 99.9 percent of white hair stylists, doesn’t know how to cut black hair. That’s understandable, since he lives in Bellows Falls, a town of 3000 white people and 11 black people. If you’re the aggrieved patron, Fisher, why would you want someone to cut your hair who doesn’t understand the complexity of your tresses?
When I was in college, one of my roommates was black. Her hair was important to her and, as such, she spent almost as much time on her ‘do as she did on her schoolwork. Our room was full of products that I had never seen in my local Rite Aid — oils, lotions and home relaxers that made our tiny cell of a room smell like the set of Queen Latifah’s Barbershop franchise knockoff, Beauty Shop. Occasionally my roommate’s mother would drive three hours from her home to set up a mini salon on our room. When she left, everything in the room was covered in a fine layer of spray sheen. I couldn’t talk on the phone without the handset slipping from my grip.
If I ever suggested to my roommate that she save her mother the trip and just get her hair done at my salon, she would have looked at me like I had horns, a tail and cloven feet. White people don’t know black hair, she would have said to me. And she’d be right. We don’t.
Similarly, if my roommate suggested that I get my locks lopped at a black salon, I would most likely have balked. It’s not to say that the hair dresser wouldn’t have been able to muddle through and give me a halfway decent cut. But, honestly, I want to get my hair cut by someone who has experience cutting hair like mine — you know, a messy red mullet. If you want to get a wedding dress made, your first stop is not going to be a tailor who makes bespoke suits, right?
The “ethnic hair” industrial complex is a $9 billion business. There are products for silky hair and products for natural hair and products to give you more hair (in the event that you lose some from all the chemical treatment). There are weaves and perms and and braids and locks. Oh, my. Thorny cultural and aesthetic issues aside, clearly this is a specialized industry where some expertise is needed.
So, assuming Aldrich is an upstanding human, it sort of makes sense that he would plead ignorance regarding black hair. And maybe it’s just as well for Fisher. I’m sure he didn’t want some whitey brush cut, anyway.
This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2010.
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not to mention, do we really need to be divided over these tiny matters like hair, in the bigger picture? Let’s blend, people. Let’s blend.
Who is this silly chic writing for SEVEN DAYS? Saying “the barber isn’t here” when he was the owner/barber is a clear snub, mistreatment of a customer, and VERY similar to segregationists tactics of the old south. In the 70’s, AFTER integration, my mother was told that there was “lots of room” to register children at the neighborhood catholic school over the phone. Once she arrived, the same day, she was turned away because her ‘white-sounding voice’ didn’t match her race on the registration forms. Suddenly, there was NO MORE ROOM to register her children. And Miss Writer Lady, don’t think we couldn’t catch the condescending tone you used to describe your feelings about the hair sheen in your dorm room, your slippery telephone, and the amount of time and care it takes to deal with the “complexity” of black hair. Not to mention your deep concern for the loss of hair due to chemical treatments, and the ‘thorny this,’ and the ‘cultural that.’ Your mouth full of fluffy quips and unbaked commentary has done nothing but show how ill-equipped you are at discussing something as COMPLEX as RACE. Get to organizing the ‘I Spy’ section next time, and leave the bigger discussions to the bigger dogs.
As a former hairstylist myself I beg to differ from the folks suggesting that getting one’s hair done by a member of a different race is a non issue. Their experiences likely point to the exceptions, not the rule. There are, as the post points out, entirely different lines of products, tools, techniques and styles. Salons are usually pretty segregated, and not just in little towns either so this isn’t something the author pulled out of her butt. Should we all be equally trained and competent doing any head that comes in the door? Sure. But in reality, with most training and experience coming within the confines of one’s own race it can and does present a challenge sometimes. From my own experience as a white person I can only say I’m incredibly grateful for the graciousness, kindness and patience of my first black client who literally had to guide me through doing her hair. And for my black colleague who admirably sought out willing white clients to branch/break out of the whole segregated hair business-well, it wasn’t always a picnic for him either but kudos to him for trying. I don’t think it was racist for either one of us to be so unfamiliar with each other’s hair and that was in a much bigger city. It’s hardly surprising to me that a white barber from Bellows Falls wouldn’t be familiar with cutting black hair. Whether the barber is actually a racist is an entirely different matter.
We’re all racist. Its confronting that internal racism that needs to happen more often and with public dialog. This piece is laughable, and only continues the excuse making and uncomfortable laughs when racism confronts us.
@YoursoguiltyYeah, except that…. if you read the article on the Reformer or GMD, it’s pretty clear that the barber actually was a racist. He’s quoted as saying, “What does he have to go stirring this up for?” he said, adding that he believes black people are more racist than white people.” Yeah, that’s pretty effing racist.
“Baby boomer?!?!” I BEG your pardon. Them’s fightin’ words.
MEMOTo: Dept. of Vermont Guilty Liberal White Baby Boomer Self-Flagellation:Um . . . now that we’ve pilloried and crucified ourselves and the author of this post, for the sin of being born privileged, white, liberal, and guilty, . . . um . . . maybe this was not a racist event in the first place?Oh, nevermind. Of course it was.
@Sam: We don’t dialog about race in Vermont. Bring it up and you’re either shut down (a la Ms. Ober above) or ignored completely.See, this is Vermont. We’re post-racial. Anybody who suggests otherwise breaks the Vermont mythology, and NO ONE breaks the Vermont mythology.That’s the whitest state in the union for ya.
This is such a missed opportunity. We could be having an open dialog about racism, but instead we’re talking about the quality of reporting in 7 Days. Some topics shouldn’t be given the treatment this was. There’s a time, a place and a subject matter for the fluffy/snarky/pseudo-opinion, whatever-you-want-to-call-it pieces. I would encourage everyone to talk to someone they know about this incident. What do you think about it? Just remember stick with the facts, we can’t KNOW if this guy is racist. Just discuss what happened. Here’s a good video about talking about racism too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc&feature=fvw
To the editors of Seven Days: at what point do you stop backing one of your employees and start admitting that maybe you’ve got an irresponsible and lazy writer on your hands? Or do you base your employment decisions solely on how many people comment on a piece?