The other day. while waiting for the pedestrian light to change on busy Adams Street, near its intersection with Willoughby and Fulton Streets, I saw a young African American man start to cross the street against the light. His pants were held to his body midway between his knees and his waist, revealing a considerable expanse of his printed boxer shorts. As the ongoing traffic approached him he increased his speed, and I held my breath wondering if his pants, which seemed to be falling down, would at last embrace his ankles. They did not. But when he gained the safety of the other side of the street, he stopped and hitched up his pants to their original position, with his belt below his hipbone.
What message did this young man want to convey by the way he wore his pants? That he’s cool? That he doesn’t give a damn for bourgeois convention? He was light skinned, and perhaps his way of dressing was saying, in effect, to other young African American males, “I'm Black like you.” But it’s likely he never thought about it at all but dresses that way simply because his friends do, which is as good a reason as any.
Why after all do I wear chinos, blue button down shirts, and navy blue blazers? Because that’s the way my friends dressed more than 60 years ago and I never saw any reason to change. Come to think of it, my instructors dressed that way too. My way of dressing isn't intrinsically better than that of the young man crossing Adams Street, just as Standard English is not intrinsically better than Black Vernacular English. But of course the general public judges them differently.
If so, why does that young man and the many others one sees on New York's streets dress like that? They probably do for the same reason that, despite their schooling's having been conducted in standard English, and despite the hours they've spent each day watching mainstream television, they find it difficult to speak Standard English for five minutes during a job interview. Just as their language is a marker of group identity and loyalty, so is their style of dress, just as my way of speaking and dressing are markers class identity. The group membership claimed by the young man on Adams Street is not that of African Americans in general but that of young, male, inner city African Americans. Older African American men don't dress that way. The young man on Adams Street will probably dress differently when he grows older. Before that, though, if he ever goes to a job interview, I hope he will first pull up his pants.
2010-2011 Anchises-An Old Man's Journal All rights reserved
When I was in NYC I was struck by the difference between black women and black men. Black women were elegant with tailleurs, the hair dressed in a way to challange the wind, the nails painted, high heell shoes. The black men were shabby, often drunk and looked desperate. (I am talking of Manhattan). Maybe it was a superficial tourist impression. The pants down are a sort of habit of Italian South American immigrants (not the black not the arabs who dress properly). I do not sympthise with down pants. Wally
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