Posted on 09/27/2007 6:12:14 PM PDT by Coleus
Have you heard about the movement to ticket and fine people - meaning, people like you - for wearing sagging, underwear-revealing pants? It started in a small Louisiana town, where you can now get up to six months in jail and a $500 fine for exposing your undergarments. Proposals have since popped up from Atlanta to Baltimore to Trenton, and last week even in Yonkers. It's only a matter of time before some enterprising City Council member puts it on the table here in New York.
And in every city, the most vocal critics of the saggy pants ban - groups like the ACLU - argue that it is a form of racial profiling that unfairly targets African-American males for what supposedly is just a type of cultural expression. Enough of this "cultural expression" argument. Those who want to ban sagging pants (who, by the way, in most cases happen to be African-American lawmakers) are onto something. And it's more than just about indecency. It's about your self-image as young black men - and our self-image as African-Americans.
Do you realize where the sagging pants trend started? It started in our nation's prisons - where inmates were not allowed to wear belts (or have shoelaces) for fear they would use them to harm themselves or others. Before long, the gangsta rap world caught on - and made the look a symbol of street life in urban communities across America, New York City included. So this is not your fashion trend, young black men. It's a trend created by and perpetuated by people who have hurt others. A staggering number of black men are incarcerated across this nation. You don't really want to celebrate that, do you? For far too long, we - black men like you and black women like me - have silently accepted the low expectations that have permeated our communities. That's led far too many torefrain from encouraging you to improve your self-image - and your true self. Everyone knows that academic achievement among black youth nationally is still scraping the floor of the basement. Everyone knows that far too many young black men are still in the thrall of gangs and street violence.
If we can't outright reject a prison fashion trend, God knows we will not be able to grapple with the really important stuff. And please don't tell me clothing is irrelevant. It matters. Go to any one of the exemplary all-boys, predominantly African-American schools in America - like Bedford-Stuyvesant's Excellence Charter School - and you'll find there are many ways they instill in their young people a sense of self-worth and respect. And that starts with how the youngsters dress. They dress to reflect self-respect. And that translates into discipline, leadership and scholarship.
Yes, I understand - it's a shame it had to come to this. It would have been better if we could have gotten our own house in order. But for years, we let pants ride lower and lower, exposing more and more of young men's undergarments. Hardly anyone did anything. Constitutionally protected expression? But there are limits to everything. You can't walk around naked, can you?
Instead of cursing the fashion police and going to great lengths to defend a style of dress, I say you should get outfront and endorse this movement. That's right. You, young black men, should be the first to say that you are rejecting a prison mentality. Stop this fashion trend dead in its tracks if you can. And if you can't - well, then, a new law may be on its way. Pants up. And stand up, young black men. You've got your self-image. Say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud.
Jenkins, a former Miss Louisiana and runnerup to Miss America, is an attorney in New York.
'cause the Silky Pony just said they will all end up dead or in prision?
If I’m wrong somebody please correct me, but the vast majority of young men who I’ve seen dress this way are black.
I used to see quite a few redneck boys who dressed like that, but not so much in the last couple of years.
Hopefully these kids are finally seeing just how stupid looking this fad really is.
At the school where I used to work it is almost exclusively the black boys who dress like this.
As a matter of fact, I can’t recall ever seeing a boy of another race dressing in that manner there.
The author is only half correct. It started in the prisons as a sign that one was willing to be another's "jail-house girlfriend", to put it nicely. Now blacks use it as a symbol of being one of the "niggas" (never confuse this term with the sound alike term ending in "er" lest you be shot). "Saggin" spelled backwards is "niggas".
There are now like 7 out of 10 black kids without Dads. This is their #1 problem. No Dads = chaos and dead end streets.
Coming soon: trousers with the waistband just underneath your armpits.
Hope this fine lady is black. Otherwise, she’d better be ready for the “racist” tarbrush. And if she is black, she’d better be ready to be “cosbyised” by her own race. Sad state of affairs in America’s dominant black culture. But, only they can clean it up ... if they ever want to.
At 61, I resemble (resent) that!!! LOL!
Stupid fad, sure. But do we really want the government to tell us what we can’t wear? Or how we wear it?
Seems to me inmates often wear jumpsuits or low-quality trousers with elastic waistbands or similar.
I had always heard an alternative explanation for the baggy pants thing:
-kids from poor families would often be given older brother's pants to wear as hand-me-down. Often such pants were too big.
-such kids correlate significantly with the kids who become "gangstas"
-thus, the baggy-pants look became identified with "gangstas", to the point where
-rappers began dressing like that intentionally so they would look the part, and eventually,
-rich white kids would intentionally buy pants like that.
To me this is a much more convincing explanation. It also seems to fit better with where fads like this tend to come from. What was once the shameful embarrassing predicament of a poor kid became the mark of coolness and strength.
Excellent article.
The problem is precisely that it is indeed an expression of their culture. The culture itself needs to be rejected, not just this particular expression of it.
I've tried to imagine what Frederick Douglass or Harriet Tubman would have to say about modern black gangsta culture. But I can't post it, as I'm afraid it would not meet FR language standards.
And I will bet you look just adorable. LOL
Depends on where you live and when.
Years ago, this was also a fad with white kids from the suburbs, but eventually it phased out with most of them but not all, however, among african americans it doesn't seem to have faded out as much.
That said, I do kind of chuckle that this is a law that on the surface is inherently aimed at african americans, is obviously targeting them, and ironically, isn't going to be attacked by any african american civil rights group or leaders.
You do have to kind of see the irony here.
I didn’t like the title of the article. Then I read it and really liked what she had to say about a rejection of the prison mentality and instilling the proper expectations and code of behavior for young people.
I believe the saggy pants trend was actually a conspiracy by da man—it’s hard to run from the law when your pants are falling down to your ankles and you’re trying to keep them up.
A very sad irony.
In a high pockets sort’a way … ;-)
She says she is.
She made an excellent point, though -
the young men dress and act this way because the women allow them too.
If women simply refused to “hang with” young men unless the conformed to a standard of behavior - the men would VERY SOON comply.
Women are THE civilizing influence on any society.
When I was in high school, alot of white kids from the suburbs dressed like this with the baggy pants, it wasn't rare, and I went to a catholic high school that actually had a dress code (the kids just bought oversized pants, and the teachers hated the look).
The school, when I graduated hadn't changed anything.
I know for a fact that kids in my old high school don't generally wear baggy pants. I'll also tell you why.
I graduated high school in 1995, this "fad" has pretty much faded out everywhere, except with african american (and latino) kids.
Whiggers?
I had a chemistry teacher in high school (circa 1971) who could have been a poster boy for that style!
Didn’t we all. Sadly, now I are him. ;-)
Well maybe they should have made a law against going braless in the sixties, or wearing tattoos, or pink mohawks, or black fingernail polish, or nose rings or spike belts or......
Unfortunately, culturally, young women have given up this role.
True and sadly there have been other recent columns by people like Juan Williams, George Will, T. Soward, and others asking the black community to come back to the family values they used to aver and stop killing each other via gangs et al. The fact that their music is dissing their own folklore and women, is another reason for young black men to stop acting like cartoons they seemingly watch day and night and begin acting like Justice Thomas and people who achieve intellectual, moral and honorable positions of consequence in the USA. Playing sports and singing on the Idol are fine things but there are millions of black men who are going to have to be more realistic and forget the hype and go for the education, hard work and positions that many of their grandparents and parents achieved.
Any solution that addresses the black "community" is making things worse -- people need to be treated as INDIVIDUALS, so they can see themselves that way. Restore self-pride, and gangs won't seem so attractive to a young man.
The last thing we should say is, "Dear brothers" when they really need to hear "Dear brother" or "Dear friend".
What will you get by forcing young men to dress a certain way? MORE anger and resentment. I don't blame them one bit.
Wow! And I mean WOW!!!
LOL, is what they're called? I don't seem to see so many of them these days, but I ain't exactly looking for them.
Good thoughts there. Every man and woman is an individual. It is difficult to sacrifice one’s self in the service of others if you’re not recognized and respected as an individual in the first place.
I’m not that old, but I’m gaining on it!!
Why young black men could use a little kick in the pants
~~~~~~~~
Cause Old Black Men SAID SO !!
“Pull Them Damn Britches UP!!”...It’s The Law...;0)
So the big daddy Government is going to start enforcing dress codes.
They are not exposing themselves, just wearing clothes that send a “wrong message” and do not adhere to the wishes of the thought police. And don’t think the Nanny Staters will stop here.
This will be saluted both by those on the left and the right, unfortunately.
Relinquish your freedom, people.
I’ve also heard it caught on with the street gangs because many of them are dealing drugs and/or packing heat (and the rest aspire to), and you can conceal a whole of inventory and a big handgun in those huge baggy pants. Makes it hard for rival gangbangers to know just where to grab to try relieve the wearer of these valuables, and hard for police to spot who’s hauling around the big inventory and big guns, when every black guy in the hood is dressed like this. Of course, the ones whose pants are actually falling off are just the wannabes.
Dear Sirs,
I realize that being Caucasian (actually Jewish/Asian but we’ll save that for another day) I may be perceived as an intruder who is hectoring you without bothering to understand you first. Nevertheless, let me share my thoughts.
Ours is and has always been an unfair world. When my grandmother was loaded onto the trains to Poland, it was unfair. And when her children perished in the ovens that too was unfair. And when she returned and saw her house and possessions in the hands of those who cheered that train- that too was unfair. But we must endure, cope, survive and thrive.
I will freely admit that America had a disgraceful history with regards to its treatment of Africans and their descendants. No sane person would defend slavery or segregation or the Tuskegee experiments among many affronts. And even though I am an immigrant and never saw a Black person until the age of 11, I too have a moral responsibility for the past since by living in the country your forefathers partially built, I am reaping the benefits of your forefathers’ labor.
Nevertheless, many of your troubles are self-inflicted. Many of you come from broken families. Many of you are fatherless. Many of you shun education and its trappings, preferring the illusion of instant gratification. Many of you refuse to work hard for the future, preferring to lounge in the present. And many of you do all you can, socially and stylistically- from your manners to your dress and so much more- to self-segregate from the values of mainstream society as you continue your empathetic rejection of it.
You are angry and alienated from a nation that has treated you so shoddily and for so long. Yet, even as that nation moves forward and attempts to make amends, you continue to shun it. This may be emotionally satisfying but it is a dead end for you and for future generations. You must learn to heal yourselves, take responsibility for your own actions and live within the broadly accepted norms of the nation you were born into. Above all else you must learn to move forward. And live.
You know, I went black once and went back. And forth and back and forth and......
I was in 8th grade in 1960, in Bremerton, WA. There were two or three “tough (?)” white kids that wore their jeans down low. We called it “scrooching”, and it was very risque. Nothing to do wih prisons or jail or black culture. They just wanted to embarass the girls. Does anyone blush any more?
Nope.
Its pretty rare today with kids, though I am happy to say, it seems when alot of these kids get older, they do change.
I've stayed in touch with folks from when I was younger who I thought would wind up in jail, and who looked like thugs back then, and have seem them grow to be good folks with good jobs and good families.
“Jenkins, a former Miss Louisiana and runnerup to Miss America, is an attorney in New York.”
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