BROWN NAILS DON'T LOOK GOOD ON BROWN SKIN

Nail Salon

 

I spent the first couple posts talking about the racial discrimination I received from people who are white, but I don't think that I discuss enough about discrimination I've received from other races. I just want to put it out there that racism can come from any race, and can discriminate anyone. However, it's more common for minorities to be discriminated against.

I think a good example comes from the treatment I received at a nail salon. At the time, the person I was seeing suggested going to get my nails done in Erie, PA. So many of my friends had gone to this salon before and loved their experience their. I ended up deciding to go to this salon and booked an appointment for that weekend. I knew that this salon was pretty expensive, and super high end. This excited me and after seeing the work my friends had received on their nails, I was hopeful mine would look just as good.

I went up that weekend, and when I arrived I peered into the salon. It was beautiful and looked very clean, which is a change from the previous nail salons I had went to. My appointment wasn't set with a specific nail tech, so they placed me with the first available nail tech. It was a young Asian man, and I already had a weird feeling about the appointment. 

To start, he was on his phone a decent amount yelling at someone. He already saw me as an inconvenience. He then asked me what nails I wanted. I showed him a reference picture; they were light brown nails with darker brown swirls. He looked at the picture and then looked at me. He proceeded to tell me that brown nails don't look on brown skin. To you, this might not sound racist. It was the way he said it however, laced with disgust and a sneer. I quickly just got quiet and just said okay. He then told me he wasn't doing brown nails because it was going to look bad. He took it upon himself to change the colors completely.

I've always had a hard time standing up for myself when it comes to racism, so the whole appointment I just let him do whatever. I ended up paying $80 for nails I really didn't like. When I got in the car I just cried. Not only did I hate my nails, but I was upset at myself for not standing up for myself. I was in a nail group on Facebook where everyone posts their different nails. I ended up posting the situation I was in and asked the group what to do.

So many different women (black women and white women) came to me in the comments and talked to me about how important it is for me to stand up for myself against discrimination. They told me if I don't stand up for myself, it gives them a window to continue acting the way they do without any repercussions. Their behavior is not normal and isn't okay, and they need to know that it's not something they can do freely. This was an eye opening conversation and I promised myself that I would be front-up with people who chose to continue this type of behavior.

It is still a struggle for me today with racial confrontation, but it continues to be something I work on. I think making these blog posts helps me confront these situations.