Maybe he quotes the misogyny of Kevin Samuels, relays some of Dave Chappelle’s comedy or tells a story that misgenders someone. What does a safe space for and by Black men look like and who does it serve? What does a space Black men love and go to for security provide to others in the community, and what does it lack? There’s a more compelling scene that could have been done in which a well-meaning man armed with his rules about equal treatment still makes that barbershop uncomfortable for a queer woman. There’s a real discussion to be had about barbershops - and operations run by cisgender heterosexual men in general - that purport to be safe spaces for everyone but ultimately fall short of those claims. The lack of nuance comes off as carelessness toward a place that many find as a sacred Black space. Often, what looks like standing up for women is men being loyal to other men. It’s an understood custom for barbers working together. The lewd barber in the scene is more likely to cut his vulgarity short to not run the risk of his partner missing out on a client. And any barber knows not to mess up another barber’s money. But even if individual barbers aren’t fully understanding of feminism and queer folks, they are ultimately driven by finances.
Soulless barbershop how to#
I can’t remember the last time I’ve been in a barbershop that didn’t post rules about language, hate speech and how to treat people in the shop. Barbershops have changed in recent years, especially as they have become more lucrative. At worst, the toxicity in such places has been a source of trauma.īut the problem with the Harlem scene is that it doesn’t reflect the way barbershops operate in their present incarnations. Ask anyone who isn’t a straight male and there’s a story of - at best - discomfort in a barbershop. If you were raised going to barbershops, then you’ve undoubtedly encountered men spouting misogyny or homophobia, sometimes in front of women and queer folks. It’s disingenuous for men to act as though barbershops have always been the safe spaces they’ve aimed to become in recent years. Two things can be true about that barbershop scene and what it means: The scene can be poorly written and badly executed, and it can be a valid attempt at getting to the truth that many folks have experienced in barbershops. Are the #EmmysSoWhite? It’s complicated.
Soulless barbershop tv#
Why the black experience is the main ingredient in TV success.‘Insecure,’ Lawrence and the limits of the ‘Good Black Man’.The answer is somewhere in the middle and requires a bit more nuance than social media debates tend to provide. Some see it as an attack on a beloved pillar of the Black community, and others see it as a way to shed light on the homophobia and misogyny in supposed safe spaces. The scene has been polarizing, to say the least. To which the foul-mouthed barber responds with, “Maybe the lady shouldn’t try so hard to look like a dude.” Tye asks her barber to tell the other barber to watch his language. One of the barbers, a Black man, goes on an explicit rant about a sexual experience with a woman. The scene in episode three features one of the main characters, a queer masc woman named Tye, who is in a Black barbershop for a haircut. But I doubt even the show’s creators could have anticipated the social media firestorm one 45-second scene created. The show about four single Black women in the titular New York neighborhood tackles gentrification, homophobia, higher education, dating and a million other topics.
Amazon Prime’s Harlem was always going to be a conversation starter.
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