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The White Guy Who Uncovered
The
Korean Domination of the Black Hair Industry
Aron Ranen: The Black Hair Interview with Kam Williams
Aron Ranemn is a gifted filmmaker and professor who
has received a litany of accolades for his
groundbreaking documentaries, along with a couple of
fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Here he talks about his latest opus,
Black Hair, an
incendiary expose’ which is currently generating plenty
of conversation in African-American communities all
across the country. For his eye-opening investigation
revealed that Koreans have come to control virtually
every aspect of the multi-billion dollar, black hair
care industry, from manufacturing to distribution to
retail sales, while simultaneously employing tactics to
put African-American merchants and wholesalers out of
business.
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Kam: How did a
white guy like you develop an interest in the black hair
care industry?
Aron: I made a
TV pilot with an African-American host, comedian Chey
Bell who also happens to cut hair. She told me about all
the dollars black women spend on their hair. I was
amazed, and decided to make a fun film about that. But
when I began shooting in Oakland at a hair expo, I met
some black folks who told me of the Korean takeover.
Kam: How did you decide to make a movie about
it?
Aron: I knew that the
Black Hair biz has the
potential to bring dollars and employment to inner city
neighborhoods. I decided that if my skills as a
filmmaker can help, then that's my path.
Kam: Did you learn a lot about the history of
the industry as you researched the subject?
Aron: You should have seen my reaction when someone
first told me about Madame CJ Walker...I mean, come
on...this thing is fixable, doable and the film can
help. And I hope Oprah leaves her legacy, just like
Madame CJ, and opens up a thousand black beauty supply
shops with training, and product discounts for the
employees.
Kam: Were you surprised to learn the extent of
Korean domination of the hair care market?
Aron: No.
Kam: Why did you put your movie on the Internet in
several installments?
Aron: To comply with the rules of
YouTube.com.
Kam: Won't that hurt potential film sales?
Aron: Perhaps… Is there money in documentary?
Kam: Ask Michael Moore. He made over $100 million
with Fahrenheit 9/11. Is what the Koreans are doing, the
way they’ve gone about taking control of the
manufacture, wholesale distribution and retail sales of
black hair-care products illegal?
Aron: We would need help from the NAACP to determine
that. I am a filmmaker not an attorney.
Kam: Playing Devil’s advocate, let me ask you
if it’s a form of reverse-racism to suggest that black
consumers should only buy from black businesses?
Aron: Just think, it's a business in which 99% of
the customers are black, and 99% of the owners are
Korean... That just seems a little off...don't you
think?
Kam: Yep. What has been the response of
blacks, whites and Koreans to your film?
Aron: White people say it's one-sided, Koreans don't
like it either, but African-Americans give me hugs and
tell me to ignore the white people.
Kam: Do you think black people will now organize and
change their behavior after being educated by your
documentary?
Aron: I think it will take investment bankers like
William Lewis and Vernon Jordan, and major media figures
like Oprah, Ed Bradley, Spike Lee, or Sean Combs to take
this to the next step in terms of economic
development. I mean, these giant foundations give
micro-grants to poor Africans in the Sudan for pottery
businesses, why can't some of that seed money go to
develop black-owned, retail hair supply stores in
America?
Kam: Were you surprised when one of the black
distributors featured in your film was arrested for
arson for allegedly attempting to burn down a Korean
competitor who opened up down the street from him?
Aron: I have no comment, since I have not seen any
of the exact charges.
Kam: How did he get caught?
Aron: Are you trying to get me in trouble?
Kam: I’m just asking logical questions. Why do you
think the black community is so involved with their hair
that they could be 10% of the population but purchase
80% of the hair care products?
Aron: That's not my area of expertise. My
documentary is a simple story of the obvious truth that
is out there for everyone to see. By shining the media
light on it, perhaps we can spur some positive economic
changes in neighborhoods that could use some good news.
Kam: When did you get interested in making
movies?
Aron: At the age of thirteen.
Kam: Why do you also teach filmmaking?
Aron: It's fun, and I get to meet people from all
over the world who attend my workshops. I also learn a
great deal by teaching, and thus become a better
filmmaker. I teach "Organic Documentary" at my film
school in San Francisco. People interested in learn how
to make their own Black Hair-style expose’ should visit
my website at
www.dvworkshops.com.
Kam: What other projects are you working on now?
Aron: A history of LSD in the Sixties is also up at
YouTube.com I am looking for an investor to get it to
feature-length.
Kam: Is Black Hair officially finished, or is
it still a work in progress?
Aron: Black Hair will only be done when we get
stores open and effect some real change. Until then, I
will always release updates on the web and on DVD.
posted 7 July 2006
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.— WashingtonPost
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The White Masters
of the World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Enjoy!
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The
Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding
of Haiti
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update 17 January 2012
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