Comments on: Interview with documentary filmmaker Aron Ranen on the takeover of Black haircare business

By: Oyan

Oyan — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:27:13 +0000

Your documentary talks about the Korean takeover of the black haircare market. Did you ever get to the bottom of WHY this happened? I mean, why Korean immigrants? And why black haircare? How did blacks lose their grip on their own market? Where did the breakdown begin?

AR: In my film I trace it back to 1965 when the Korean Wig merchants targeted the US Black consumer, and lobbied to have the Korean government ban the export of the Raw hair…giving the Koreans a lock on manufacturing human hair wigs and extensions. In the documents exposed in my film, it only describes the black market as it’s target..not why……..”
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Why did the Koreans target the Black community? This is when Blacks were deeply engaged with yt America in the Civil Rights Movement; while ‘we’ were waging a valiant battle at home, another group was planning an economic attack on Black America, from abroad. Sucker punch. We never saw it coming .wow!

By: Jolie-LDN

Jolie-LDN — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:01:55 +0000

This looks like a well formulated strategy by way of acquiring all their competitors in order to gain the competitive advantage in the market…. and all the black owned businesses need to do is sit strategize and ACT! they can easily wipe them out… pricing strategies, distribution strategies and targeting …

By: perfectly human

perfectly human — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:59:11 +0000

I still cant get over why this would not be interesting to Oprah but the Chris rock documentuary, which did not do much in educating or finding a solution, made it to Oprah. I am interested in this documentary because this is truely madness. In Brooklyn on every block is a beauty supply store, nail salon and chinese food. Yes it’s cheaper but the quality of the food and the way the food is handled, is enough to turn your stomach and the same with the cleanliness of the nail salon. They do not care about us as customers, they treat most of the people bad and speak to them however. I agree its hard to support small bussiness because some products are overly expensive like Miss jessie, which has mineral oil and other ingredients is not worth 50 bucks. But their are products that are all natural and uses the best ingredients like Oyin, just to name a few. I dont think is just black business thing, but it alot of small business that over charge. I want to get away from always making assumptions and not giving voice to the black companies that are affordable. The company Beauty 4 ashes have geat products that I tried and really loved and they were so natural that they had a shelf life, but a bottle of conditoner was like $35. I think that way too much and its not a black company. I personally make alot of my own products and buy from some companies on products that are reasonable but I try my best not to go to the beauty supply store if its own by korean. I found two Beauty supply stores own by Africans. So I support them if I need something or go to the drug store for other things. I am not trying to be racist,but wrong is wrong, We have been building these people empires for the longest they are sending their children to college off of our insecurities, with their beauty supply sotes and their nail shops. I go to the panamanians in my community to get my nails done and not only is it cheaper for colorful hand designs but I feel good helping people that actually live in my community. I am so sorry sistas for all of the mispelling and errors I am at work and am sneaking to wirte this response cause I could not wait to get home to do it. JC, I love the informative topics, keep them coming sis!!!

By: Adlyn

Adlyn — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:13:41 +0000

So true Jc!

I’ve studied a bit of economics myself and companies/entrepreneurs will charge as much as the market will allow. There are of course other contributing factors to price: If the product is high demand or the ingredients are in abundance the prices go down, if there isn’t much of the of the item in question or the demand goes down the prices go up.

By: Brandy

Brandy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:57:12 +0000

WEALTH. Wealth is the only reason to support a “Black” owned business. The amount of money put back into a community indicates the amount of money that stays in that community. To achieve this it means that the community will have to pay higher prices and receive poorer service for a certain amount of time. I saw a doc about 10 years ago about this.

If you have to buy greeting cards and 1 card costs 60 cents at hallmark but your sister is selling greeting cards too but hers cost 1.00 and are not as nice you would do better to buy from your sister because that money is staying in your family increasing your sister’s wealth and thereby your family’s wealth.