Crews 
Personally ever since I was a child going to the barbershop with my stepdad or mom, I have never been one for the barbershop chatter and overly aggressive/testosterone infused dialogue about sports, politics, gays, women, etc. etc. As an adult my feelings on the matter remained the same, I prefer to get my hair cut and keep it moving.
I feel like a barbershop although is a community institution, its still is a BUSINESS where you should be able to speak but also be mindful of your customers and who you might be offending. So basically keep your opinions about certain things to yourself. However I just came across something quite positive and involving the barbershop that I am so here for and certainly co-sign. A few NYC barbers have taken out the chatter and distractions and are focusing on the kids that frequent the shops. Via NBC:
A local teacher is partnering with barbers in a unique venture to get young boys in his New York City neighborhood reading more books, one haircut at a time.
Alvin Irby is a former school teacher and he’s changing how young black boys read with Barbershop Books, a non-profit that aims to close the reading achievement gap among black boys.
“Many young boys of color don’t interact with a lot of adults males who look like them, as it relates to reading,” he said. And another major challenge Irby said he’s seen: “I believe that a lot of young black boys don’t identify as readers, and a lot of that deals with limited access to engaging materials.”
So he decided to bring books into the barber shops.
They’re “one of the few places left in black communities where people, families of different socioeconomic levels interact,” according to Irby.
Each participating barber shop has a list of carefully chosen books that target boys between the ages of 4 and 8 years old. Denny Moe’s in Harlem is one of six barber shops in the city so far participating in the program, and owner Dennis Mitchell has gotten rid of video games in the shop to make room for books.
“Because I don’t have the video games in here anymore, I’m not making the money I was making,” he told NBC 4 New York recently while clipping the hair of a young boy engrossed in a book in the barber seat. “I still feel like I’m a whole lot richer because I’m enriching the community.”
According to The Nation’s Report Card from the White House, reading skills among male and female black students trail those of other races by the fourth grade: 86 percent of black boys aren’t reading at proficient levels by then, compared to 58 percent of white boys.
One young customer at Denny Moe’s, Cameron Anderson, said his favorite part about reading in the barber shop is that he never gets bored. That’s exactly what Irby is hoping to see.
“It creates an opportunity for modeling to happen,” he said. “A boy sees another boy engaged with books and he says, ‘Oh, I want to check out that book.’ A father sees another dad engaging in a book, let me get a book and read with my son.”
