Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
Ken and Gwen Rasheed of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, apparently find saggy pants to be a serious problem in their personal lives. The two are working diligently to fight for an ordinance banning teens from "saggin" and have a zero tolerance policy for this style of dress. In fact, this past Saturday, the couple had a rally against saggy pants.
"I was working in the recreation department in one of the recreation centers and about 95 percent of the kids that came in there had their pants saggy," said Ken told Fox 8 News in Winston-Salem. "To me, the sagging and showing your underwear is not showing any pride in who you are."
The couple have also created T-shirts to support their cause. On the shirts are the words, "What's the point? Thank you for not saggin.'"
While one can certainly appreciate the efforts of the Rasheeds to obstruct youthful creativity, perhaps there is more to discuss. I personally don't like "saggin,'" since the last thing I want to see is another man's underwear out in public (or in private, actually). I hope the Rasheeds achieve their goal of getting young people to stop being the social deviants that they are biologically wired to be.
But after the Rasheeds finish rallying over the way teenagers dress, they might want to consider rallying against black teen unemployment, which is currently at 50 percent. If a teenager is at work, then he won't be on the corner saggin'.
They can also rally against inferior funding for inner city schools, where the saggin' teenager is not learning how to read. They should also hold a rally at the court house, where black men are still being sent to prison at a rate that is several times greater than whites who commit the same crimes. They say that the saggin' tradition comes from the prison system, which is no surprise in a nation that incarcerates 5.8 times more black men than South Africa did during the height of apartheid.
The point here is simple: Even if we stop every urban teen in America from saggin', we are all saggin when it comes to our commitment to creating opportunities for the kids we are quick to criticize. Rather than fighting against them, it may make sense to go out and fight for them. If they see that we are their friends and not their enemies, they will surely dress with self-respect. A teenager with no job, no education and a criminal record has no reason to pull his pants up, so let's pull up our own pants and fight for something that actually matters.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.