optometrictzedek:

redsatinsheets:

y’all love to mock asian nail salon owners so here’s a little background for your dumbasses:

during the vietnam war, many vietnamese refugees came to america, a lot being women and their children. an american actress, tippi hedren, flew to sacramento, ca. to visit a refugee camp. she wanted to meet the women who were living there and figure out ways to support them. many of them had lost their husbands in the war and were now left without an income and many had no knowledge of how to begin to provide for themselves and their children. while there, tippi noticed that many of the women were fascinated with her manicured nails. tippi had gotten the idea to fly her manicurist to the refugee camp to teach the women how to do nails, in hopes of giving these women a way to support themselves and their families. tippi had paid for 20 women from the refugee camp to attend beautician school and help them get their licenses & eventually find jobs. about 51% of manicurists in the u.s. are vietnamese and many of them are direct descendants of these 20 women who were given the chance to go to beautician school at the courtesy of tippi. so next time y’all want to mock and make fun of hardworking nail techs and treat them like shit, just remember that this is all because of the labor and the persistence of their ancestors who came here with nothing.

Here are multiple sources confirming: (1) (2) (3)

And if you read those links, you’ll learn that not only is this all true, but Vietnamese refugees revolutionized the manicure industry. Until Vietnamese refugees began opening their own shops, only the wealthy could afford manicures. In 1970, a manicure could cost $50, which is equivalent to over $300 in 2017 (via inflationcalculator.com). Vietnamese manicurists charged 30-50% less than their American counterparts, making manis and pedis more accessible to the middle class. In 2017, you can get a manicure for $20-30 at most Vietnamese places. Without Tippi and Vietnamese refugees, no one but the rich would be able to have their nails professionally done. Just something else to think about when you wanna mock hard working immigrants.