Derrick Middleton remembers the wave of discomfort that washed over him as a child whenever he entered a local barbershop with his father.
“I had to perform masculinity in these spaces,” Middleton told TakePart. “Black barbershops are some of the most hypermasculine spaces in the world; at times they can remind you of a locker room. This was terrifying for me as a young boy who already felt that I was different from other boys.”
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