Pull Those Pants Up! Government as Daddy

One of the more laughable -- and the single most lasting -- contributions to America's culture by "hip-hop/prison/drive-by culture" is the ridiculous fashion of "sagging" -- wearing oversized, beltless britches so low that one's underwear, or worse, is exposed for the whole world to see. That this ridiculous practice is the rap world's lone contribution to Americana says volumes about the genre and the culture that spawned it.

A teacher in the inner city since 1991, there has not been a day go by that I have not had to tell some young man to pull up his pants, or, as I say, "Fix your hip-hop clown suit," or "Don't look like you're in prison, until you're IN prison." However I have said it, my words are often met with clueless looks and glances, as if I am speaking in German or of some foreign custom, like say, wearing a belt or the right size pants.

Teen fashions have always found a way to rile adults. It is part of the whole teen angst and rebellion phase that many teens get into. The sagging pants of 2009 is akin to the greaser look of the 1950s, the beads, sandals and general filth of the 1960s hippies, the bell-bottoms of the 1970s and the new-wave fashions of the 1980s.

However, sagging pants, a homage to America's prisons, has reached a point in the new millenium where lawmakers have felt compelled to intervene.

State Representative Joe Towns and State Senator Ophelia Ford, both Memphis Democrats (and both black, I might add, in case the race card is played), sponsored House Bill 2099. The Commercial Appeal in March 2009 that the bill would make it a misdemeanor to "knowingly wear pants below the waistline, in a manner that exposes the person's underwear or bare buttocks." While the bill does not mandate jail time for offenses, it does allow for fines to be levied ($200 to $1,000) and hours of community service to be served. Any proceeds collected from fines would be spent on school books and extracurricular activities.

During debate on the bill, Rep. Karen Camper, another Democrat from Memphis, said, "I am absolutely against this bill. I think it's targeting a certain group of people...My question to Rep. Towns is, what is the demographics you are targeting with this legislation?" Rep. Towns wasted no time in responding: "If the shoe fits. Black kids are not the only kids wearing their pants at a certain level...it's a culture in this country."

I agree with Mr. Towns. At my current place of employment, the most ridiculous sagger is a white kid.

Tennessee is just the latest state to find itself grappling with fashion. From Connecticutt to Louisiana, municipalities have been forced to deal with this fashion trend. In some states, laws were passed, complete with fines; in others, such attempts at legislating fashion failed. In June 2007, three towns and parishes in Louisiana passed ordinances against sagging. In 2008, Jasper County in South Carolina did the same. Efforts in Virginia failed to enact such laws in 2004. However, Texas and Florida are exploring anti-sagging laws.

The hip-hop community responded to the sagging issue with typical knee-jerk liberalism. Benjamin Chavis, the former leader of the NAACP, told The New York Times, "I think to criminalize how a person wears their clothing is more offensive than what the remedy is trying to do." Co-chair of something called the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Chavis added, "The focus should be on cleaning up the social conditions that the sagging pants comes out of. That they wear their pants the way they do is a statement on the reality that they're struggling with on a day-to-day basis."

Why is it that liberals believe the solution to every single problem in America is Marxism in some form or another? If we only had a government entitlement of some sort, size 30 Junior would not wear size 40 britches.

As mentioned, sagging has its roots in prison, where inmates are not allowed belts or shoestrings. The practice of sagging has also for years been a subtle hint to fellow inmates that the sagger is an inviting homosexual, much like the "tramp stamp" tattoo many young women wear on their lower backs screams "hit this!" to possible suitors. Hip-hop culture adopted sagging in the early 1990s, just as "gangsta' rap" became the de-facto face of hip-hop. That rap/thug culture would take their fashion straight from the jail-house seems only fitting, since incarceration is a badge of honor for thugs, as well as rappers.

Personally, I believe the entire movement to ban sagging pants is a waste of time; state lawmakers should not be worrying about some person's derriere. However, when one thinks about it, such a move on the part of lawmakers is merely a natural step in the progression to a total "nanny state." Maybe it should be the government's job to legislate dressing norms for young men, since it was Lyndon Baines Johnson's "War on Poverty" that eliminated fatherhood in the black community. And let's face it: this sagging issue is one of parental responsibility, and as it relates to boys, a father's realm. Sadly, fathers are few and far between in many neighborhoods. Fully 70% of black babies are born to single moms. For the white community, the figure stands at 25%, the very figure it was in the mid-1960s, when Daniel Patrick Moynihan issued his study of the black family that warned of a looming crisis.

When my brothers and I were boys, it was our father who made sure we were dressed appropriately.. Were we boys now, we would sag our britches once. Once. That would be all it would take for Pop to send a resounding message to the three of us. Unfortunately, fathers are now considered a luxury, which explains the growing number of out of control adolescent males.

Bill Cosby noted this cultural decline in 2004 at his now famous (or infamous, depending on your politics) speech honoring the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. Sagging pants, according to Dr. Cosby, is merely a sign: "Ladies and gentlemen, listen to these people. They are showing what's wrong. Isn't that a sign of something going on wrong? Are you not paying attention? People with a hat on backwards, pants down around the crack. Isn't that a sign of something or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up?"

In this day and age, it's not Jesus folks are waiting on. It is the government. It should be a father.