Exactly. The article correctly outlines why "curly hair" is a large business market. It does nothing to explain why these people need their own dedicated social network, why was the whole point behind the offhand comment in the NY magazine.
Anyway, many social networks attempt meet pain points. Women with naturally curly hair deal with alot of issues. Lack of products, good stylists, societal issues (e.g., "is curly hair professional?"). It's the kind of thing you probably don't think about unless you have curly hair. Lots of bonding among curly-haired women is already occurring online. A central network is a great idea--I'm thinking it will be really popular. It's part of The Long Tail.
These people is a fairly neutral substitute pronoun for "people with curly hair". I don't think why you hear any hostility in the term.
I'm not interested in debating the validity of whether there is market for this group of people. Just that the article in question does little to support the claim. It argues that a lot of people have curly hair and buy curly-hair products. It says nothing about why these people want to congregate online in a specific social network.
In fact, your 2-sentence paragraph said more than the entire article.
