Supercuts employee fired for alleged racist comments

Racism Score: 1.0

A Supercuts employee in Boston (ahem) was fired for their alleged racist comments about Black people’s hair. We have more questions to this story, and we have been unable to find the answers.

On the surface, denying a customer due to the color of their skin is racist. Where we question the details of this story is the limited information about the hairstylist/barber’s skillset.

Indulge us if you will. Black people are very particular about their, that should not be breaking news. If the facts of the story are true; a mother wanted to get her daughter’s haircut and when they arrived, an employee advised they do not cut Black people’s hair.

That comment was supposedly made in front of her children…heartbreaking. People may disagree, but the intent of the employee’s comment is important.

Did the employee mean they (the only stylists/barbers present at that time) were not skilled enough to cut Black hair, or did the employee refuse because the customers were Black?  

All barbers and hair stylists are not created equally. The texture of Black hair, even mixed-Black hair is different, it is unique. People who are not experienced with Black texture may decline out of fear they may damage the hair or completely botch the cut.

We shared this story with our all-Black focus group and the reactions were consistent with needing additional context. Some members of the focus group advised they would not want someone who lacked Black hair experience to cut their child’s hair. Another person mentioned the Chris Rock documentary Good Hair and how important hair is to Black woman.

Supercuts terminated the employee and released the following statement:

Either way, we need more details. One comment that took us by surprise from Boston News was the following comment by the mother:

“For the first time I had to explain to my daughter that there are some people that have a problem with you just because you’re tanner than everybody else,”

Wow! The focus group was shocked that was the first time a conversation about being different took place. How is that possible with the current climate??