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Yesterday, I visited my barber's shop to do some weekend clean-up. He shares the space with a female hair stylist. Most times, we engage in deep conversations with customers, and some of the topics are always quite insightful. So yesterday, as we were talking, the conversation drifted into business growth. At some point, it became more like a debate between the ladies present and the few guys around. Normally, I don't like certain kinds of arguments, so I quickly stopped contributing to the conversation and focused deeply on my phone.
The discussion got really heated, and it seemed like this particular lady was attacking the barber. One thing she failed to do was back up her claims with strong points, so it turned into a lot of shouting. When I finished barbing my hair, I stayed a little longer to charge my phone. You know, you can hardly win an argument with a woman, and if you try, you might end up with a lot of issues. So the lady kept talking endlessly, and my barber, along with another guy, seemed tired of the whole talk and quietly joined me in silent mode. Deep inside, I was laughing.
Then, one of the ladies made a statement that felt somewhat demeaning to the guy who was about to barb his hair. He is a Keke rider, and her comment really touched me. I didn’t want to stay any longer because the noise was getting out of hand, and the conversation was beginning to take a deep and uncomfortable turn. But I couldn’t just leave without dropping a word or two for them to think about or possibly use to continue their argument.
I unplugged my charger and turned to the lady, saying, "But sister, wait, do you know that there is a difference between being a hardworking lady and what we call woman privilege?" I cited a few examples using some of her earlier points. She looked at me and asked, "What are you trying to say?" I replied, "I’m not trying to say anything, I have just said something."
Then I posed a question to her. I said, "If we really want to be honest with ourselves, and based on what you were saying, let’s compare this your hairdressing business and this guy’s barbing business. Same location. Which one is surviving more through hard work, and which one is surviving more through woman or man privilege?"
At that point, it was as if the question brought life back into the conversation, and the shouting intensified. I simply smiled and left. I don’t know how they ended it, but one day, I’ll talk more about the two concepts I mentioned. You can also research them from different sources.