Buying Black...what does that mean?

"We need to pool our resources. Your money is suppose to bounce 8-12 times before it leaves our race. Hispanics money 6-7 times. Black money doesn't bounce once. The sooner we get it, we run to the nearest race to spend it. Anytime you put your money in another groups hand, you are aiding them in wiping you out."
'PowerNomics' - Dr. Claud Anderson


I almost want to leave that as a stand alone statement and hear your thoughts.  It is quite the statement and it made me think about the financial state of Black people in North America. In the US 27.4% of all Black people live in poverty (the highest of all the races.) If we were to start buying Black would that help us lower these numbers?  

Micheal Baisden (for those who don't know, is a radio host in the states who brings up a lot of issues that are prevalent in the Black community) spoke about this issue on his radio show.  He asked why we don't buy Black and the consensus of the responses from the listeners was that 1) when we sell products/services they are too expensive and 2) we lack in customer service skills.  

Let's take a look at the hair industry, for example.  African Americans (even though we have the highest poverty rates) spent $507 BILLION (out of our total estimated buying power of $836 billion) on hair and hair products in 2009. And lets face it....most of that is not going into the hands of black owners.  Walk into most black hair stores in the USA and they are Asian owned.  Same thing with nails....always done (rarely by Black owned businesses).

I know we try to live in a 'can't we all just get along' age, but I wonder if that attitude is keeping us complacent.

Do you buy Black? Should we be making a greater effort to buy Black? Is buying Black the solution to helping us as a people? Or is this just a racist ideal?  

I am interested in hearing your thoughts.  

If you knew it could kill you would you still use it?

This is very interesting!  I came across this yesterday and had to share it with you.  There has always been a part of me that wonders what the effects that hair relaxers or 'perms' have on the body.

Researchers at Boston University have recently completed a study that suggests a link between hair relaxers and uterine fibroid tumors in women early puberty in young girls.

They followed "more than 23,000 pre-menopausal Black American women from 1997 to 2009 and found that the two- to three-times higher rate of fibroids among black women may be linked to chemical exposure through scalp lesions and burns resulting from relaxers."

Those stats are astounding!  To think that fibroids may be linked to something we put in our hair to relax it doesn't make me feel very relaxed.  To me that's a huge price to pay to have straight hair.  

Whether you choose to keep your hair relaxed, natural or dread....the thing to remember is to know what you are getting into.  Know what these products are doing to your not only your hair but to your body as well.  For the most part relaxers are not FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved so who knows what fillers or cheaper ingredients companies are using to inexpensively make the 'creamy crack'.

While these studies can only provide us with a suggested link between the use of relaxers and ailments like early puberty and fibroids, it's important for us to know that these risks exist and are very real. Studies of this caliber take years to complete and there haven't been too many studies of this kind (in comparison to other ailments). 

How many of you have watched Chris Rock's documentary 'Good Hair'?   He raises some good points and does some simple experiments with the ingredients found in relaxers.

Question for the relaxed ladies: Do you know what's in your relaxer?  Does that have an effect on your choice to relax your hair?

Question for natural ladies: Why did you go natural? Do the possible effects of the contents of a relaxer deter you from relaxing your hair?

Remember: this is not about relaxed vs natural it's about making informed decisions! 

read more here: http://madamenoire.com/139486/relaxers-linked-to-uterine-fibroid-tumors-and-early-puberty/#