Was Mike the barber a racist, or just a guy trying not to embarrass himself or give the Negro a bad hair cut?

Poor Mike Aldrich. The guy lives in an outpost called Bellows Falls, Vermont, and he rarely sees black folks except on television. And now, as luck would have it, some dude comes into town and wants him to cut his hair. (First of all, no self respecting black man goes to a strange town and asks a white barber to clip his chrome. This post really should be about the dumb ass Doctor, but I digress.)

So anywhooo, to get out of what he thought was an embarrassing situation, Mike told a little white lie (no pun intended) and it came back and bit him in his clippers.

"BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. -- A Vermont barber who turned away a black customer says he was trying to avoid embarrassment for both of them because he's no good at cutting black people's hair.

Mike Aldrich, who is white and runs Mike's Barber Shop in Bellows Falls, told the would-be customer when he stopped in last month that the barber wasn't in.

The man, Dr. Darryl Fisher, of Taos, N.M., walked by the shop later and saw Aldrich cutting the hair of a white customer and realized then that Aldrich was the barber.

Fisher, whose cause was taken up Saturday in a sidewalk demonstration outside the shop, says he thinks the incident was racially motivated. Aldrich says no, it was because he has trouble with black people's hair. " [Story]

"The way he looked at me -- and this is just my opinion -- and the way he just said, 'No,' when I asked if the barber was there and wouldn't tell me when the barber was coming in, and then 15 minutes later he's cutting somebody else's hair. Through my experience with racism, I thought it was racially motivated," Fisher said Monday in a telephone interview...."

Sorry Doc, I agree with Mike the barber on this one. My racism meter is not budging. There is just no static on the racism antenna. I swear if Rev. Inc. gets involved with this one I will personally go to New York and knock the perm out of Al's hair.

Mike was not guilty of racism, he was guilty of being a liar and a wimp. He should have looked the good Doctor in the eye and said: "I am sorry sir, I would do a really bad job on your hair, because I have never cut a black person's hair before. Hey, I live in Bellows Falls, Vermont...."Let me stop. (Watch I am going to get some angry person from Bellows Falls writing me and telling me how ignorant I am.) Hey, I am sure Bellows Falls is a nice place with wonderful people.

Doctor, you might want to consider getting your dome done up like the fields. This might save you from these types of embarrassing and sad episodes in the future.

Anyway, here is more from poor Mike:

"Aldrich says that he gets only about one black customer a year at his shop in Bellows Falls, which lies on the Vermont-New Hampshire border and is 97 percent white. He tells them up front that he struggles with cutting their hair.

"I'm sorry," he said he tells them. "You can sit in the chair if you want, but I've tried cutting it, and I have problems. Whether I don't have the right equipment, I don't know." [Source]

Mike, invite the Doctor over for some cider and apple pie and have your own little racial summit. Bring a black barber down to your area to teach you how to cut black hair while the cameras roll, and hug the Doctor and tell him that the next time he comes to Bellows Falls the hair-cut will be on the house. Oh, and don't forget to tell him that you will have gotten some of the "right equipment" by then.