Welcome to THEJNSREPORTS “BLACK MEN MAN UP AND PULL YOUR PANTS UP WHILE YOU’RE AT IT!

AS THE TITLE TO THIS POST STATES, TODAY WE ADDRESS A SERIOUS ISSUE PERMEATING BLACK CULTURE FROM ITS ORIGIN IN PRISON TO MAINSTREAM FASHION, AND THE COMMERCIAL WORLD AS WELL AS URBAN CENTERS.  THERE WAS A TIME IN OUR HISTORY WHERE A MAN COULD BE LOOKED AT AND RESPECTED ON THE BASIC PREMISE FIRST AND FOREMOST THAT AS A MAN, A MAN FIRSTLY SHOULD RESPECT HIMSELF.  HOW DOES A MAN SHOW THAT HE RESPECTS HIMSELF?  I TEND TO THINK THIS IS USUALLY MANIFESTED BY HOW A MAN CARRIES HIMSELF, AND FROM THAT, THE WORLD AND SOCIETY AT LARGE WILL VIEW HIM  EITHER RESPECTING OR DISRESPECTING HIM.

I ALSO ASSUME MOST PEOPLE HAVE HEARD THE PHRASE “CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN”, WELL THAT STATEMENT GENERALLY CAN BE UNDERSTOOD AS TRUE DEPENDING ON THE MAN IN THE CLOTHES, HIS CHARACTER, INTEGRITY, AND THEN HOW THE CLOTHES ARE WORN.  I’LL GIVE YOU AN EXAMPLE.  WHAT YOU WOULD THINK OF A POLICE OFFICER WHOSE UNIFORM HAS HIS PANTS SAGGING BEHIND HIS KNEES, AND HIS BADGE BARELY HANGING ONTO HIS UNIFORM SHIRT?  WHAT WOULD YOU THINK OF A DOCTOR  SLOPPILY DRESSED WITH ALL HIS  UTENSILS STREWN ALL OVER HIS OFFICE AND HIMSELF LOOKING DISHEVELED AND DISINTERESTED?  WOULD YOU GO TO THAT POLICE OFFICER AND TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY?  WOULD YOU GO TO THAT DOCTOR JUST BASED ON HOW HE WAS DRESSED FOR MEDICAL ATTENTION? OBVIOUSLY THOSE WITH ANY SEMBLANCE OF COMMON SENSE WOULD IMMEDIATELY I SHOULD HOPE, SAY HELL NO!!!  WHY IS THAT?  BECAUSE THE IMAGE YOU PRESENT TO THE PUBLIC IS WHAT THEY SEE AND IN MOST CASES JUDGE ONE BY.  THAT BEING SAID WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO BLACK MEN IN THIS COUNTRY IS SO DISTURBING I CAN NO LONGER HOLD MY TONGUE ON IT OR EVEN TRY TO DEFEND THE DECAY IN THE PUBLIC IMAGE AND PERCEPTION OF YOUNG BLACK MEN TODAY.

THE ORIGIN OF SAGGING

THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR THE YOUNGER BLACK MALES AND FEMALES WHO ARE HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY WHAT THEY SEE THEIR FAVORITE RAPPER OR ACTOR OR MAINSTREAM ICON THEY LOOK UP TO DOING, FROM HOW THEY DRESS AND SPEAK TO HOW THEY TREAT OTHERS AROUND THEM.  THE IDEA THAT IF THESE ICONS AND CELEBRITIES ARE DRESSING A CERTAIN WAY, AND ACTING A CERTAIN WAY MEANS THAT IT MUST BE COOL AND THEREFORE ACCEPTABLE TO EMULATE.

EARLIER IN HISTORY (AND I’M SURE IT PROBABLY IS STILL TRUE TO AN EXTENT TODAY) PRISON ISSUE CLOTHING CAME IN A STANDARD ONE SIZE FITS ALL.  NOT THAT IT MATTERS TO MOST PEOPLE ESPECIALLY IF SOMEONE IS IN JAIL, HOW THE FASHION AND FIT OF THE PRISON CLOTHING IS.  I IMAGINE MOST WOULD HOPE IT WOULD BE THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE AND DETESTABLE GARB EVER DESIGNED AS FURTHER PUNISHMENT AND A REMINDER FOR THOSE DOING TIME AS TO THE UNIFORM OF THE INHABITANTS OF PRISONS.  MANY YOUNG BLACK MALES SENTENCED TO PRISON TERMS WERE GIVEN THE STANDARD PRISON ISSUE AND WHEN THE PRISONER WAS  SMALLER THAN THE CLOTHES ISSUED THEY SAGGED.  THEY PROBABLY DIDN’T HAVE BELTS FOR FEAR OF THEM BEING USED TO EITHER HANG THEMSELVES OR AS A WEAPON OF SOME KIND.  THE LOOSE FITTING UNIFORM SAGGED AND IT WAS HOW THEY WERE WORN.

NOW IN ADDITION TO MANY OF THE CLICHE HORRORS OF PRISON ONE IN PARTICULAR THAT STANDS OUT IN MY MIND IS RAPE AND PROSTITUTION.   THE LACK OF FEMALE INTERACTION FOR THE HETEROSEXUALS IN PRISON LEAD TO THE DESIRE AND NEED FOR A SUBSTITUTE AND IN PRISONS WHERE MALE AND FEMALE ARE SEPARATE, WHAT IS LEFT?  THE MORE DOCILE AND EASIER TO CONTROL MEMBERS OF THE SAME SEX.  A HO OR PROSTITUTE IN JAIL WOULD BE KNOWN BY HOW THEY DRESSED AND WALKED AND THE MORE EFFEMINATE WERE BRAZENLY AND SEEMINGLY RESIGNED, IF NOT FORCED,  TO DEMONSTRATE WHAT THEY WERE ABOUT BY HAVING THEIR PANTS DOWN SHOWING THEIR UNDERWEAR OR  BARE ASSES LETTING ALL THOSE WHO WANTED TO ENGAGE THEM SEXUALLY KNOW THAT THEY WERE AVAILABLE FOR CONQUEST.  THIS PRISON MENTALITY WOULD BE RELEASED  ALONG WITH MANY OF THOSE WHO SERVED PRISON SENTENCES BACK ONTO INNER CITY STREETS AND NEIGHBORHOODS.  ONCE OUTSIDE, THE PRISON MENTALITY AND FASHION BEGAN TO PERMEATE THE NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE THESE FORMER INMATES WOULD GO AND RESIDE.

KIDS SEEING THESE OLDER FORMER PRISONERS WOULD TRY TO EMULATE WHAT THEY PERCEIVED AS COOL DUE TO THEIR LIMITED LIFE EXPERIENCE AND GENERAL IGNORANCE TO THE FACT THAT, WHAT THEY BELIEVE TO BE COOL IS ACTUALLY A BY-PRODUCT OF A NEGATIVE ASPECT OF PRISON AND PRISON CULTURE.  THIS HISTORY AND ORIGIN HAS BEEN LOST AMONGST CURRENT BLACK YOUTHS WHO EITHER DON’T KNOW OR DON’T CARE ABOUT THEIR PERSONAL IMAGE AND THE PERCEPTIONS THAT ARE CONJURED BASED ON HOW THEY DRESS AND CARRY THEMSELVES.  THE PROBLEM THEN ESCALATES WHEN TRYING TO BREAK STEREOTYPES ABOUT INNER CITY YOUTHS WHO MAY NOT IN FACT BE “THUGS”, “GOONS”, “GANG-BANGERS” ETC, BUT MERELY YOUTHS WHO WANT TO REBEL AND THINK THAT THEY ARE BEING DIFFERENT OR “REAL” OR “DOWN” BY DRESSING “URBAN OR HOOD”.   THE TRAYVON MARTIN CASE IS ANOTHER SHINING EXAMPLE OF THIS STEREOTYPICAL THINKING THAT LED TO A YOUNG BLACK MALES LIFE BEING TAKEN.   IT ALSO SPEAKS TO A HISTORY WHERE BLACK MEN WERE DEGRADED, ABUSED, LYNCHED, AND EVERY OTHER HORROR IMAGINABLE THAT WENT ALONG WITH SLAVERY AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERAS.  COPS FREQUENT “RANDOM” STOP AND FRISKS AKA ILLEGAL SEARCHES AND EMBARRASSMENT OF MANY BLACK MEN INCLUDED HAVING THEIR PANTS PULLED DOWN AND THEIR UNDERWEAR  AND EVEN THEIR GENITALS EXPOSED FOR THE SIMPLE PURPOSE OF HUMILIATION FOR THE AMUSEMENT OF THEIR TORMENTORS MANY OF WHICH WERE COPS.  IT APPEARS AS THOUGH CONTEMPORARY “BLACK AMERICAN CULTURE” HAS INTERNALIZED THIS HATRED AND DISRESPECT TO A POINT WHERE THEY DO IT TO THEMSELVES AND THINK THAT THEY ARE BEING REBELS OR “REAL” WHEN IN FACT THEY’VE ACCEPTED THAT NEGATIVE AND ARE NOW DISRESPECTING AND DEBASING THEMSELVES WILLFULLY THROUGH THEIR OWN IGNORANCE OF HISTORY.

WITH A GROWING DISINTEREST IN EDUCATION, RELENTLESS BUDGETS CUTS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION AND AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS, COUPLED WITH MANY POVERTY STRICKEN YOUTHS ENTICED TO STREET LIFE HUSTLING (IN MANY CASES DUE TO  SERIOUS SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES), THE DRESS CODE OF THE STREETS BECAME POPULAR AND BLENDED SEEMLESSLY WITH PRISON MENTALITY.  SAGGING BECAME ACCEPTABLE.  IT BECAME RECOGNIZED AS THE UNIFORM OF THE STEREOTYPICAL DRUG DEALERS, EX-CONS, GANG MEMBERS AND INNER CITY YOUTHS.  MY POINT BEING ONE MIGHT NOT NECESSARILY BE A PROSTITUTE, BUT IF ONE CONTINUALLY DONS A PROSTITUTES UNIFORM MANY WILL JUDGE THAT PERSON TO BE AS THEY ARE DRESSED.  RIGHT OR WRONG THAT IS THE WAY OF THINGS.  THIS SIMPLE TRUTH ESCAPES SO MANY PEOPLE THAT ITS REALLY SICKENING AND FASCINATING AT THE SAME TIME.

TO BE CONTINUED IN BLACK MEN MAN UP AND PULL YOUR PANTS UP WHILE YOU’RE AT IT PT.2