Every person has come across some sort of dress code at some point in their lives. The goal of these codes is to have people present themselves in a respectable way. A common dress code for males is that it is prohibited for men to sag their pants. Outside of these public places that have dress codes, such as schools and workplaces, people are allowed to wear what they please. Of course there are rules against nudity, but other than that they can exercise the first amendment in whatever way they want to. However, there are places like Michigan and Alabama where the dress codes follow their citizens to the streets. The specific post that I will be assessing is from Flint, Michigan. Flint is known as being a predominantly black city with 53.3% of the population being black.
Despite the ban, many people continued to sag because no one really knew how intensely the police would be enforcing the law. Unfortunately, some students found out the hard way how serious law enforcement was taking the ban on sagging pants, in Tennessee four high school students were arrested and two of them were jailed for 48 hours for sagging their pants in school. While two days may not seem like much, the effects of an arrest being on their record is drastic. This effect is analyzed by Michelle Alexander in her book, The New Jim Crow, explaining the different ways that African Americans have been targeted in the past and now in the present. One of the new ways that African Americans have been marginalized is by systematically oppressing them by trapping them in the criminal system. While Alexander focuses on the systematic oppression of the black community through the war on drugs, this could be seen as another form that specifically targets the young black community. Even though adult African Americans sag, this trend is more commonly found among the youth because they do not have to be in places, other than school, where they are expected to present themselves in less offensive ways.
This ban has brought lots of controversy because people accuse it of being put in place to specifically target the black community. The signs posted in communities themselves can be called out because it portrays a black male dressed as the stereotypical “thug”. The image in itself says a lot about who it is exactly that police will be out in search for. Thus, it would add another reason for police to harass the black males.
Sergeant Malik S. King claims that the black community is the problem because they are adding on to the problem of racial profiling. He argued that by sagging their pants black males are conforming to the stereotypical image of African Americans, resulting in the contribution to racial profiling. It was almost as if he was blaming the black community for being targeted by the police, essentially he is saying that if you dress like a thug the police will treat you like one, this perspective is problematic. That argument is equivalent to saying that women wearing revealing clothing are asking to be raped.
Sergeant Malik S. King claims that the black community is the problem because they are adding on to the problem of racial profiling. He argued that by sagging their pants black males are conforming to the stereotypical image of African Americans, resulting in the contribution to racial profiling. It was almost as if he was blaming the black community for being targeted by the police, essentially he is saying that if you dress like a thug the police will treat you like one, this perspective is problematic. That argument is equivalent to saying that women wearing revealing clothing are asking to be raped.
The places that have put these laws in place are places that are highly concentrated with African American males. Just like all racial groups use drugs but black men are the ones being targeted, the same thing will happen with sagging pants. Black males will be the main group that gets penalized for sagging their pants.
No one really knows where sagging originated, all they know is that it’s now present and it has been incorporated into hip hop culture, which is predominantly black. Some say that it comes from prison culture because they were not given belts in prison or gangster lifestyle. While others see it originating from practicality, like brands lacking consideration for the body type of black males, or a result of hand me downs that eventually were transformed into fashion trends. Regardless of the origin, banning sagging is unconstitutional because it violates people’s freedom of expression.
Personally, I don't like sagging, it isn't ideal. However, it is a phase that some go through and most of the time males stop sagging as they get older. I do not think it should be banned or illegal, the simple solution is to make it socially unacceptable. I have noticed significantly less males sagging over the years and do not see it as that big of an issue. Not only that, but jail should be specifically for people whose actions have harmful impacts on the lives of other community members, seeing someone sag is not hurting anyone in any way it just makes them uncomfortable, so giving people jail time over sagging their pants is excessive.
Thank you for writing on such an interesting topic which doesn't get discussed much. I like how you tied this to NJC. Part of me wonders if the "sagging" trend stems from labelling theory: the idea that individuals notice how people label them and react to these labels. In this case, the fact that people still sag their pants even after it was made illegal may be due to the fact that those who do it perceive themselves as fitting the label and act accordingly.
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