Posted on 03/09/2019 12:19:37 PM PST by reaganaut1
Members access the space, located in Central Brooklyn, by having their fingers scanned and giving a passcode. Upon entering, they find a lounge, complete with couches, a barber chair and books on finance. The spiral staircase leads to an area with workstations.
Inside on a recent day, a man who works as a consultant helped five others get businesses certified. Another launched a campaign to run for City Council, engaging members to assist in outreach. An author presented research in a forum. The Gentlemen’s Factory brought them all together.
As one of the very few spaces in New York City exclusively for men of color, The Gentlemen’s Factory began as a middle ground between work and home for men who need a venue for networking and socializing.
“They’re going through a divorce, or they have mental health challenges, or they’re going on an interview but they don’t know how to ask for a salary increase,” said Jeff Lindor, the club’s founder. “There wasn’t an outlet for them to be.”
Mr. Lindor, clad in a custom-made Prince James suit (the designer is a Gentlemen’s Factory member) noted that members contribute to making the space their own, whether it’s the Malcolm X art above the leather sofa or the magazines near the coffee table.
Born in Petit-Goâve, Haiti, Mr. Lindor was raised in a Coney Island housing project. The son of non-English speaking immigrants, Mr. Lindor and his family were wedged between a wealthy, white community on one end of the neighborhood and an impoverished and predominantly black population on the other. He asked himself: Why does my community look like this? Why does blackness look like this?
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
White guys will not be the threat. Angry women will be the threat. The rule today is that women’s groups are fine; men’s groups are verboten. But you already knew that.
Born in Petit-Goâve, Haiti, Mr. Lindor was raised in a Coney Island housing project. The son of non-English speaking immigrants, Mr. Lindor and his family were wedged between a wealthy, white community on one end of the neighborhood and an impoverished and predominantly black population on the other. He asked himself: Why does my community look like this? Why does blackness look like this?
Though he had a similar racial background, he noted that the ghetto blacks in America, were very different from his own background.
It’s good that he’s able to see things wrong with America’s black communities, and try to do something about it.
‘For Us, by Us’ = racist
They could move into the former Toys R US stores.
“Spaces.” There’s that word again. The left is obsessed with it.
They should go back to Africa. Maybe even go to Wakanda...
The Haitian immigrant community in Miami had businesses owned and run by Haitians, a low poverty rate, and a crime rate no where near what American blacks produced. Even Africans shake their heads at ghetto culture. Separate but equal beat the hell out of what we see now.
wow - racial discrimination is so cool when black people do it. :)
“For Us, by Us” = FUBU?
Wasn’t that an old brand of HipHop clothing back in the 90s?
Beginning around 1965 with the Civil Rights Act, both the legal aspects, but also as an expansive social pressure movement, all-white and then all-male social organizations have been relentlessly targeted to integrate.
By now almost all have.
Suddenly race based social clubs are OK again?
Obviously if it was a new whites only social club the attitude of the Times authors would be very different.
Discrimination the NYT is good with!
“He asked himself: Why does my community look like this? Why does blackness look like this?”
The “Bell Curve” has the answer. It’s a sad reality, but a reality it is.
Yep.
I was told the 05 was for the five "us"'s who founded the company.
No idea if they're still in business or not but they were pretty big with the A-A's back in the day.
The more colored people segregate themselves, the better.
yes it was.
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