Low hanging pants

This trend has been around a while. Guys walking around with their pants sagging and you may see a hint of boxers or briefs. This has been the style since around the time I was in high school. It never took with me to be honest. In fact sometime I was made fun of because of it with comments such as tight *ss pants.

Well in Virginia last week, there was an attempt by their House of Delegates to pass a law to impose a $50 fine against those whose boxers, breifs, or thongs peeked above their pants or skirts. This measure was voted down in the Virginia Senate.

Personally I feel this oversteps the bounds of what a state legislature does and thankfully this bill did not advance any further than being passed in the lower house. This can be considered one of many things that black leader have attempted to take on while not addressing the serious problems.

In his column (you may have to sign up to see this column) today Clarence Page takes on this issue. The pants sagging down is a part of the hip-hop culture. Unfortunately that style does, even for me I must ask, have a very negative stereotype. However hip-hop culture may not be the blame for the negative actions of a few.

He sees what I see here's quote:

One of my thoughtful readers had the right idea in a response to one of my recent tirades against certain toxic aspects of hip-hop culture: "When you see an individual who is experiencing multigenerational poverty and you see that they are involved in hip-hop culture, it's easy to say, `It's the hip-hop that's keeping him down.' But scapegoating hip-hop only obscures the real problem: poverty."

Similarly, we see legislators today, frustrated at youth violence, making scapegoats of the trappings of youth culture, like baggy pants and video games, if only because it is easier than pursuing real solutions.

So I've seen black leaders in the past several years attack the use by certain state governments in the south of the Confederate battle flag, but is that really what black leaders should be fighting against. A flag is a flag but the symbolism of that flag is much less important than education, health care, economic development, and perhaps some other keys issues in black America. Perhaps we should not try to stop these kids from wearing what they want but at least make an attempt to get at the root of that problem.