Deeper Than Manicures and Foo Youngs: Consumer Culture In The ' Hood

Morning all!

Hoping this message reaches you well. In my effort to address the sacred in the secular in this space...I couldn't resist droppin' a lil' secular on you this morning.

In my ongoing effort to continue to explore my new hometown, I contacted a sister-colleague to ask her if she knew of any manicurists that I could support here in J-Ville.

Now don't get me wrong, like most urban centers, Jacksonville is filled with plenty of Asian owned nail shops. However---call me crazy---but I just thought I'd put forth a concerted effort to put my ends in a brother or sister's hands (a fellow African American's hand) for a change.

And the reason I am reporting on this at all is because I just finished an errand and was getting into my car and a young sister came across my radar---pretty non-descript, jeans, beige jacket, sun glasses, hair pulled back, toting a McDonald's cup as she stumbled across the oppressively hot parking lot. My young sister deposited her Mikky D's cup in the receptacle, made a sharp left, and entered the Asian nail shop to the left of the receptacle. And that non-event triggered this entry.

Please be clear though that in that same shopping area there is a learning center packed nightly with South Asian children receiving tutoring and holding study session nightly. Thus immigrant families have mastered the art of consumer sales by day and using those ends to bankroll academic success for the next generation at night.

I know that we are in hard economic times (News flash: Black folks have ALWAYS been in hard economic time). And folks everywhere are trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents...so that immigrant spot may be cheaper than African American vendors.

However, I'm just tired of being sold gyros and wings and donuts and hair grease and braids (yeah, I teach African studies for a living, but gotta go there) and French manicures by folks that don't look like me and don't respect me...or they DO look like me, but don't respect African Americans. And, all the while, I watch African Americans bank roll immigrant kids' college funds to support our lust for faddish glamour or greasy goodness.

Furthermore, one of the reasons I weary of visits to Chicago so frequently is because my South Side community DOMINATED by immigrant vendors peddling goods from behind bars or bullet-proof glass...making me HIGHLY UNMOTIVATED TO SPEND MY MONEY UNDER THESE CONDITIONS. And don't get me wrong, I have a whole 'nother commentary on suburban shopping mall/big box shopping culture, but I'll just focus on the 'hood for today.

Now, before anyone goes labeling me a snob or reactionary or xenophobe, let me say this. I have lived on four continents (in Europe, Africa the Middle East and the US) among diverse communities that I have loved and understand well the global economy...as any descendant of slaves should.

My only request is this: Can we require something of our immigrant vendors? How about---IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR RELIABLE PATRONAGE--- asking them to fund a scholarship, donate some school supplies, beauty supplies or team uniforms, or cater an event FOR FREE at a local school, or park district, church, library, shelter for battered women, transitional housing etc.,. MONTHLY...or deciding to withhold our dollars until this occurs.

And some of us may well decide that we will follow their model: move to a community outside of their own, open a business and tap into the cashflow of the community where we make our daily bread.

However, until then, asking these vendors to invest in the communities WHERE THEY ARE LOCATED would make me feel a little better about supporting them...instead of always suffering from the vampire effect... as the hard earned dollars are drained from the Black community.

...OK, I'm better now...just had to get that off my chest...

Carry on..and be well today!

--Nicole