What the Natural Hair Industry can learn from Donald Sterling’s Racist Remark about Black People

I’m sure we’ve all heard about the latest controversy about the Former Los Angeles Clippers owner who accused his girlfriend of taking pictures with Black people and went further to tell her not to bring Black people to his games. Some of you might think this doesn’t make sense because the majority of the team which Mr. Sterling owned is made up of Black people whose hard work, loyalty and dedication continues to make him his millions, thus, his lavish and adulterous lifestyle. 

Mr. Sterling even went further to say that he “supports them (his team members), give them food, clothes, cars and houses”. In other words, Mr. Sterling made himself out to be a modern day slave master whose responsibility was to ensure the well being of his workers so that they are well enough to perform at their best and able to generate maximum profits for him. And so, like any slave master, the skin color of his workers matters very little, what matters the most is the income they generate for him. Infact, in 2011, a former Clippers general manager, Elgin Bayor, sued Mr. Sterling for harassment and discrimination because he accused him of having the vision of a southern plantation type structure.  Unfortunately, Mr. Sterling won the lawsuit and so he had the freedom to continue to manage his “plantation and field workers”; in other words, his basketball team.

12 Years a Slave

So what does this have to do with Black people outside the NBA, particularly us Naturals and the Natural hair industry?

Well you see, Mr. Sterling isn’t the only millionaire who has been made more rich and powerful at the expense of the blood and sweat of his “minority” workers. In many cases, these minorities might have no choice but to continue to work and live under senseless discriminatory conditions. However, luckily for us Naturals, particularly those of us living in North America, we have the option to decide where we want to spend our money.

I know there has been a few published articles in the past encouraging Black people to support other Black owned businesses and so you might think you’ve heard enough. However, I hope these current allegations and the contents in this article will get some of you to be charged up to take action.

I mean, why we should continue to give our money to businesses who profits on the insecurities of Black people about the nature of their hair? How long would we continue to give our hard earned dollar to businesses who believe we would look more professional and attractive in a different hair texture? How long are we going to continue to ridicule ourselves by purchasing “human hair” from ethnicity who wouldn’t buy our hair, let alone try hair products which are meant for us? How long would we continue to support businesses who wouldn’t support ours? How long are we going to sit there while we allow racist investors such as Mr. Sterling to profit from our hard labour? How long are we going to sit there and allow modern day “plantation” owners to continue to buy us out or buy us back rather?

I know many of you might think “well, the players are lucky enough to have a job and a league to play in, so let's not turn it into a big deal.” But Imagine how much more influential we could be if we have a particular industry to which we’re known for? Imagine the increased number of Black millionaires and billionaires we could have walking amongst us? Imagine the financial power and influence we would have in our community by minding our own businesses? Speaking of Black billionaires, I know that there are enough of them who are capable of investing in Black owned businesses, particularly the Hair and Beauty industry. 

We sure can!

Please note that this article is definitely not intended to spread hate against specific groups of people, it’s only meant to shed a light on a very important issue which many of us would rather sweep under the rug

So, to the Black millionaires and billionaires (current and future) out there reading this article, what are you doing to ensure that we regain the power which our fore-fathers and fore-mothers fought so hard for?

"The rich rule over the poor and a borrower is a slave to the lender" - Proverbs 22:7