I have a friend who's a mechanic was recently hired at Jiffy Lube but he literally quit after being told to shave his beard during his lunch break! Seems like the Eurocentic ideal of "professionalism" clashed with his Afrocentric value that his beard was a sign of "manhood" and "strength"....What do you think of beards in the work place a fashion statement or is there underlining politics involved? State your case.
First let me start by saying....I'm mad u didn't tell me u had a blog. lol. but anyhoo....i do believe that there are political reasons as to why Black men having beards is considered "unprofessional". When we, as in Black people, men and women, enter the predominantly white workforce we are forced to assimilate to the white ideals of how they want us to look. I think many of them are threatened by our intelligence and as a defense mechanism they attempt to...attack the things they see as threatening, even something as harmless as a beard. That beard, on a Black man, represents so much more than facial hair, it represents how he identifies himself as a Black man etc. I think that's the main reason why people do not accept it...i could go on for days about this topic, but thats just my little tidbit. oxox
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