Are Korean Distributors Shutting Black Entrepreneurs Out of the Hair Business?
You can’t mention wigs and weaves without eliciting a chorus of snickers from our readers, but the reality is black women wear them, love them and spend big money to own them. The business of hair extensions is a $9 billion (yes, billion) dollar industry with black women doing much of the spending and little of the selling.
The disparity is borne from the Korean monopoly on distribution. It’s not that black female sellers aren’t there, it’s that they’re systematically shut out from acquiring product to sell in their stores by Korean distributors, according to The Florida Courier.
“Getting hair is a huge hurdle, because the distributors are Korean and most times they will only sell to other Koreans. White said, “I have to buy hair through exchange. It is rough, but if I don’t increase my hair game, I won’t be in business next year. It is a cold business in terms of the hair game.
Johnson said that some Korean distributors say they will not sell to stores within so many miles from their other clients, but when she tried to have hair sent to her Aliquippa location, which has no other beauty supply stores, they still would not let her purchase it. She said one distributor also told her the hair she wanted was no longer being sold, but when she went to a local Korean beauty supply store, that same hair was there. When she inquired about it she was told that a local store had told the distributor that if he sold to her, he would no longer buy from him. She said she agrees with location rules, ‘but there needs to be regulations. One Korean store should not be able to dictate the entire industry in one area.”
Whether you personally choose to wear weaves or not, you can agree that every industry, especially a billion dollar one, should be regulated.
And it also makes sense that black women, who make up the majority of consumers, are represented on the other side of the counter.
White has a solution for the current state of the weave business, that reads as a call action to black business owners:
White said Koreans succeed in the industry because they support each other, but the Black community does not. “They (Koreans) have the relationships and work within, we laugh at them when they are living together, then they break through and have four stores in our community. But we won’t help each other out. It is a culture thing.” None of the other Black-owned beauty supply stores work together to pool their resources.
To be honest, this sounds like every other nativist smear campaign. Other than hearsay and insinuation, is there any actual evidence that black people are being “shut out” of the business? I find it extremely hard to believe that any business person would not sell their product to a potential buyer – that is not how businesses succeed.
Personally I find it ironically disgusting that some African-Americans resort to using using racially charged unsubstantiated insinuation to stoke resentment. It makes you guys sound a lot like Don “Moose” Lewis.
Why don’t you call one of the 4 distribution places that service Koreans and find out. Better yet, a previous comment sate that extensions are not just worn by blacks. Show me where a Korean owns a white beauty supply store, or for that matter a white hair salon. Be for real!
There are Korean and other Asian-owned beauty supply stores everywhere you look – these cater to anyone black, white or yellow.
It does no good to tell me to find the evidence myself – the burden of proof lies with those making the claim, and so far I’ve seen little evidence.
As a black hair care distributor in the late 1980′s I witnessed the systematic takeover of the industry by Asian distributors. They purposefully took control of regional distribution networks, even exerting disproportionate influence on African American manufacturers. Upon securing control of the wholesale distribution channels, the local retail outlets were targeted. Often the Asian distributors, who controlled the distribution channels in a given market, would not sell products to African American distributors and retailers. These were African American merchants who had usually developed the market for these same products.
I do not begrudge anyone developing and taking advantage of a good business model. However, a lot of the advantage in this market was gained through nefarious practices.
That being said. It is incumbent upon each community to recognize their advantages and take care of their own.
I later brought to market a completely unrelated product line as a wholesale distributor. 95% of the Korean owned retail establishments I approached refused to hear my presentation before they knew what I had to offer.
This is no “nativist” fiction or race baiting. This is the sad story of race and business in America.
I’ve heard all of this many times over, but have yet to be presented with any substantial evidence. There’s a lot of emotionally-charged, inflammatory, and seemingly exaggerated, hearsay, but little actual evidence.
The problem is, that I never get to hear the Korean side of the story, only the hearsay of the African-American experience – and unfortunately, that is laced with race-baiting and barely conealed racial hostility. Even in Aron Ronen’s sorry excuse for an investigative documentary on the subject, not once are Koreans given the opportunity to answer the charges made against them.
Don’t forget that there is a history of racism between the two communities. For the most part, the Koreans have received all of the blame for this tension, but if we are honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that many African-Americans harbour racist attitudes towards Koreans (and possibly other Asians) independent of any economic issues.
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