Otherness: Cut the $hit
“Who drank my apple juice? Oh, y’all don’t hear me, han?”
If you know then you know, ‘The Barbershop’ is the place where black brothers go to get their “juice” haircuts, their swaggy bald fades, and their fresh line-ups. #BeardGang is winning!
In black communities, the barbershop has also been a cultivated space for black men to celebrate and embrace their sense of blackness all while escaping society’s false depictions of black manhood and harsh challenges in their everyday lives. Historically, the barbershop has been a force for economic empowerment in the black community. Black barbershops have without a doubt painted a positive image of the black hustle which has thrived on morals and traditions. The barbershop has taught us to challenge perspectives and to not be afraid to resist any ideas whether it pertains to politics, sports, or music.
Just like black Baptist churches and Hip-Hop/Rap culture, black barbershops serve as a safe haven and a political structure that fuels liberators to resist America’s injustices and prejudices. The coolness birthed in these marginalized spaces ignites style, presentation, and innovation. From extraordinary church hats to precise high top fades with a crisp part, black culture is crowned as THE CULTURE.
Yet these political structures too often reinforce and glorify hypermasculinity and heteronormative traditions in black culture.
Cut the $hit!
The barbershop celebrates visible black men of diverse social classes (low-income, working, middle, and upper classes) as well as diverse educational backgrounds (high school dropouts, GED graduates, high school graduates, college dropouts, and college graduates). However, sexual orientation and gender are excluded, which marginalizes gay men and women. The discourse in barbershop does not always strive for the betterment of black culture. In fact, the dialogue habitually projects homophobia and sexism to deflect any insecurities about one’s own masculinity or heterosexuality.
Cut the $hit!
The exclusion of diversified consciousness derived from the experiences of black + gay + men and black + women suppresses liberation and authenticity in barbershops. Brother W.E.B DuBois explained double consciousness as a journey of self-reflection and self-acknowledgment that derives from being a man and a “negro” in America. Race as a social construction consequently overshadowed DuBois’s identity as a man in America. As he was outcasted as the “other” by whiteness, DuBois unveiled his truth without competing for white dominance. Still today, black people are deemed as darkness, failures, and often outcast as strange in America.
Without the bubble of privileges, black people are blessed with insightful perspectives. Our black experiences make us resilient with a powerful and strong culture to overcome new obstacles. On the “other” hand, the practice of outcasting within black culture reflects the same wickedness projected in the stolen world.
The negro, black people, may share common narratives bounded by society’s dislocated perceptions of blackness, and black people also may share the common “American Dream” placed in the eye of the stolen world. However, we are UNIQUE, ‘all skinfolk ain’t the same folk’.
As James Baldwin suggested, to encounter oneself is to encounter the “other”, which I consider to be gay men and black women in black culture. As a black individual, I am menaced as terror, too. But I am aware of my divine purpose to enlighten my brothers and sisters while disregarding the perception of innocence and purity associated with whiteness.
As a gay individual, there’s a perception that it makes me less black, but it adds flavor the juice. I understand living in my truth will bring peace to black brothers who do not walk like me or talk like me.
Furthermore, Malcolm X stated, “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” As a man, I will continue to resist society’s perceptions of what a man is “supposed” to be all while honoring, uplifting, and respecting black sisters of diverse social identities.
See here’s the flavor, in this visual presentation, Lyric Harris, a working-class, heterosexual, college graduate, embraces self-acknowledgment as the “other” in the struggle to resist black cultural and beauty norms. Regardless if she’s scrutinized for shaving her head in a swaggy buzz cut, not conforming to style and presentation norms among black culture and black womanhood reflects on truth and beauty. And it challenges perceptions.
I can not be boxed in by any societal perceptions. Harris can not be boxed in by any presumption. We will not prosper as a united people with the acceptance of blissful ignorance. Brother Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “there is nothing in all this world more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Without actively unlearning these patriarchal and homophobic mechanisms of control, the cultural politics that dictate how we view sexuality and gender performance will mirror white America’s rejection, prejudices, and discrimination against black people.
So, you may ask yourself, who drank the “juice” or “got the juice” now? Believe me when I share we can (all) can have the “juice”.
Otherness: Cut The $hit credits:
Muse: Lyric Harris
Photographer: Kennedi Carter
Creative Director | Producer | Stylist: Melquan Ganzy
VISIBLEHOOD: Change The Narrative article edited by Tori Grass
Special thanks to Changing Faces Barbershop (@CFB4LIFE), the Urban Country Club, founded 2006, which offers services on a daily basis at 908 Fayetteville St in Durham, N.C. One aim is to create a fast environment with efficient barber services for all customers. Thank you @CFD$Life for allowing us to create in your space.
