Ken Hough’s restaurant gets shut down for a failing health inspection — rat droppings were found in the food, and roaches were present on the cooking utensils. Ken Hough’s logo was a green four leaf clover with the name “Ken Hough’s” written in bright yellow letters across the clover.
You decide to open a new restaurant on the same block, guess what you’re not going to name your business or use as a logo…
In the same way, the young black man, aiming for greatness in life, has to market himself in such a way to be better positioned for opportunity.
Therefore, he should use caution when choosing his attire if the attire is actively worn by cultural influencers who encourage and support deviant behavior — misogyny, drug use and or violence.
Methods of self expression warrant caution, and dare I say pause altogether, not because that expression in and of itself is inherently bad, but because it’s bad business, just like it would be a poor branding choice to have your new business logo be “Ken Hough’s” in bright yellow letters over a green four leaf clover if you decided to open a restaurant next door to the recently closed restaurant I mentioned above.
What, so you think you should be able to express yourself freely? You don’t want to be put in a box?
The truth is that no one is saying you can’t, by all means go for it if that’s your business/marketing strategy. Just don’t cry foul if you fail or it takes you significantly longer to rise than everyone else around you.
Honestly, the black community needs to lift up better examples of what it takes to rise to success so that our young black men will mimic good behavior rather than the garbage that sends us back to a place reminiscent of slavery where we dance in order for the king to be entertained.
They’re laughing at us, not with us.
