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To most Blacks in this nation, funerals are occasions of respectability and seriousness, regardless of the nature and personality of the deceased's transition. Indeed, that is how a funeral is generally viewed, as a transition from this life to the next. It is believed that the soul moves on to meet its maker. It has never been that funerals are characterized by the person who is being buried. And the traditional Black Funeral Home, as they are apt to be called, has honored that tradition and carried it on. Yes, they have modernized many of the services--added crematories, advertisement and prearrangements by the to-be-deceased clients, and great flexibility and options, but always with an eye on historically black trends in burial and with the religious aspect in mind. But there is a new move and way of funeral homing that is moving from the white funeral parlors and finding its way into the traditional Black Funeral Home business. It is called Theme Funerals. This type of funeral service is usually outside the church; it is tailored in accord with individual families' desires, and most families who use them are not religious or attend church regularly. In the San Francisco Bay Area, over the last 10-years there has been a trending toward personalization of funeral services among Black funeral homes. This personalization is not of the deceased but of the funeral directors or owners. Like the Black church, Black funeral parlors have been some of the oldest Black owned and run businesses. The modern Black funeral home is one that has been handed down from father to son or from parent to child, regardless of gender. The young have either sold the businesses or modernized them. One of the major ways of modernizing is the younger owners are becoming more visible owners who take a role in the advertisement beyond the church fans that have been traditionally the major stay of their advertisement. The fan is still in, but it is not the main source of advertisement. Now the advertisements feature the young own in his/her best pose, calling the prospect client to come in and select burial arrangement now. In the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, some Black funeral home advertisements seem like promotions of sexuality, with young owners flashing their seductive smiles and viral bodies for all to see. Their advertisements are on the bus stop chairs, on TV, in newspapers, and also on the few fan some still offer churches. They also attend community gatherings and position themselves prominently. They try to become personalities unto themselves. For
Black funeral homes, the personalized way of becoming personalities
in the community is their new theme way, but they are offering some
specialized theme services as well. So even in this traditional stagnant
business things are a changin!
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