"Alliance cracks down on teens’ sagging pants; Cable TV ad campaign seeks to discourage the rogue fashion" by Meghan E. Irons | Globe Staff, February 19, 2013
The target audience for a new cable TV ad campaign that aims to get them to pull up their sagging pants or face fines or prison time....
You see, kids? Putting on a banker's suit has its advantages.
Related: Mississippi Schools Put on Parole
You are no better than Mississippi, self-righteous scum of Massachusetts.
At least the kids are getting an education.
The Black Mental Health Alliance of Massachusetts, which launched the public service announcement in January, said that sagging is an obscene offense and an assault on common decency in the African-American community. It adds that sagging heightens thug-like behavior and contributes to how young men are perceived and treated by police, teachers, and other adults....
Played hoop with a white kid (teen) last week that had the shorts down to the knees, untied sneakers and everything -- and once he got acclimated he made a fake, up, and under move that brought the house down. Please stop it with the stereotypes.
The ad by the alliance, a trade and advocacy group of mental health professionals who treat minorities, is the latest in a nationwide war against sagging. While other campaigns have used courtesy and respect in their efforts to change behavior, the alliance is stressing the law....
Good Lord, another war! Haven't we had enough of those?
Oh, btw, the biggest thugs in AmeriKa these days are the guys in blue called police.
But the ad has hit a nerve in urban communities and is raising a discussion about what is the best approach to address what many concede is an annoying fashion statement.
“If the question is that you can change a person’s behavior merely by changing his or her wardrobe, [then this] is highly problematic,’’ said Michael Jeffries, a sociologist at Wellesley College who authored “Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop.” “It’s like saying you can change the story of a book by changing its cover.”
Critics cited racial profiling and said the ad has a misguided emphasis on hip-hop and men’s clothing that further maligns young black men.
And Boston does do stop-and-frisk, don't they?
“What people wear on the outside might be a manifestation of what is going on on the inside, but is not a cause of it,’’ said Mariama White-Hammond, who heads Project Hip-Hop, a Roxbury youth program. ”Young people don’t wear slouching pants and suddenly become gang members. That’s not what is happening.”
Among the younger crowd, teenagers like Dollar lament what they see as adults unfairly judging black men by their clothes and not who they are.
“It’s just a style,’’ says Dollar. “It’s not hurting anyone.”
But Tamara Bubble, a 25-year-old Brooklyn-born rapper, took on sagging on her latest album in a song called “Pull Them Pants Up,” a message she will soon be taking on a college tour.
In the song, which is on YouTube, she laughs at the suggestion of dating anyone who sags and openly mocks men for flaunting their boxers....
Rappers Lil Wayne and Jay-Z wear the style on the big stage, a symbol of their hip-hop authenticity. Justin Bieber is sagging. The pants are worn below the hips, exposing a portion or all of the buttocks. Even skinny jeans come with a sag.
“I think the definition of swag changed with sagging,’’ said 14-year-old Damone Clark of Dorchester. “Now sagging is part of the swag.”
Reid said the alliance launched the campaign after mental health clinics across the state were being besieged by parents who brought their sons in for behavioral treatment. The sons were skipping school, smoking marijuana, and acting thuggish — conduct the parents attribute to the saggy pants, Reid said....
While not approving of thuggish behavior, it really gets hard to take the Globe seriously anymore. Blaming those things on baggy pants?
Young people have long pushed the envelop when it comes to fashion — think Gothic, grunge, and boys with the bill of baseball caps turned backwards. And hip-hop has been an easy scapegoat for those who want to find links to what some call “ghetto pathologies,” some critics contend.
And a way for a certain group of people to maintain their power over their flock.
Even so, observers acknowledge that there is a fine line between teenagers’ fashion taste and adults’ urge to protect them from a highly judgmental public....
Hey, if the kid can play.
At the Dorchester Youth Collaborative recently, some teenagers scoffed at the idea of ever pulling up their pants, a waist-high concept they attribute to a long ago generation.
“It’s not comfortable,’’ said D.J. Feliciano, a 17-year-old from Quincy said of pulling up his pants. He stood up and danced to demonstrate how easily he can move with his pants sagging.
--more--"
Also see:
Now pull those bootstraps, 'er, pants up.
