Yelp, please do not remove this review under any circumstances. I beg you. This barbershop is occupied by vile anti-semites. I am going to make as many people in the community as possible aware of the general moral composition of the employees occupying Daddy-O's barbershop. Allow me to explain the experience I had when I visited this barbershop yesterday.
I visited Daddy-O's barbershop yesterday and sat in the waiting area waiting for my turn to receive a haircut. As I was waiting, the barbers in attendance were conversing amongst one another, a very ordinary setting to be expected when visiting any barbershop in the United States. However, the content of their conversation had eventually become directed towards ignorance and evil.
Initially, as the barbers were conversing amongst one another I was not very attentive. I was browsing the internet on my i-phone. However, I overheard one of the barbers say something that immediately grabbed my attention. One of the barbers to the right side of the shop that I was facing had mentioned something about throwing people into ovens. I overheard this vaguely and immediately afterwards I decided to focus my full attention to what the gentleman was saying. Although I cannot quote the initial statement I overheard from this first barber verbatim, I can quote verbatim everything I heard afterwards from him and his comrades.
After the first barber made a comment about throwing people into ovens, a second barber from the left side of the shop that I was facing responded with laughter and said, "Throwing Jews into the ovens." It was as if he was repeating what he heard the first gentleman say and acknowledging that this was the source of his laughter. This seemed to confirm that the first barber was indeed referring to Jews being thrown into ovens. The second barber then continued in his reply to the first barber stating, "If anyone shouldn't joke about throwing Jews into ovens it's you." The first barber replied, "I know, right?" Then they both proceeded to laugh together. I don't know what the meaning was behind that response followed by mutual laughter. Maybe the first barber is of German descent and the second barber is aware of this.
Immediately after this exchange a customer, who had just walked in a few minutes prior, joined the conversation and stated, "Oh yeah. The Holocaust." When he said the word 'Holocaust' he made air quotations with his fingers as if it wasn't a true event. This customer, I'm assuming that's what he was, was obviously a friend of the barbers there as once he entered he walked directly to the barbers area and remained there after greeting each individual barber with a 'dap'. He was obviously friendly with these barbers and felt very comfortable to be in this barbershop.
Immediately following this customer's comment a third barber, whose station was directly next to the second barber, looked at the customer and responded to him in reference to the Holocaust, "It's all a myth. It's all a myth." It was at this moment that I knew that I most certainly was not going to be spending my money at this establishment so I decided to exit this evil establishment to which I obviously will never return to.
To reiterate, two of the barbers employed here were joking about throwing Jews into ovens, and a third barber employed here was a holocaust denier. I believe in our great US constitution and freedom of speech and I agree that everyone has the right to say whatever they like, however ignorant it may be. However, I also believe in people having to right to free speech to publicly expose those, especially public businesses, engaged in evil and hateful rhetoric and those entities who harbor views of hatred.
If you look at the first picture posted on this barbershop's Yelp page you will see a photo with four barber's standing side by side. The barber with the thick beard pictured to the far right was the one who initially made comments about throwing "people" into ovens. The barber with the long beard pictured to the far left was the one who laughed about and acknowledged "Throwing Jews into ovens." The black barber in this photo pictured second from the far right was the one denying the Holocaust stating, "It's all a myth. It's all a myth."
What is most frightening about this display is how they so openly, loudly, and casually were having such a discussion as if they all believed that these are generally accepted beliefs amongst the public. Furthermore, it was as if they weren't aware (or possibly just did not care) that there are Jewish people who exist in our society and in our local community and who may have been present in the barbershop. Have all four of these adult men never really met a Jewish person before? I find that impossible.
This barbershop was voted best barbershop in Volusia County in 2019 by the Daytona Beach News-Journal. I contacted them and shared with them my experience to let them know the type of business they were awarding. read more