Baggy Pants, Prostitution & Uniforms

Statistically, there are more African American males who are in special education than there are in regular education. Do you know what type of data our government looks at to determine how much money is needed to build prisons? -- Third grade reading scores! Don't take my word for it, I teach this information from mainstream, standardized textbooks-look it up for yourself.

Young African American Men in the United States Fact Sheet July 2006 reports the following:

• The leading causes of death for all young men ages 15-29, regardless of race or ethnicity, are unintentional injury (e.g. car accident, firearm, or drowning), suicide, and homicide. For young African American men, more deaths are caused by homicide than any other cause.

• Fewer than 8% of young African American men have graduated from college compared to 17% of whites and 35% of Asians.

• The unemployment rate for young African American men is over twice the rate for young white, Hispanic and Asian men.

• African American men are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. The percentage of young African American men in prison is nearly three times that of Hispanic men and nearly seven times that of white men.

The prisoners with children report:

http://www.prisonerswithchildren.org/pubs/color.pdf

• African Americans represent 12.7% of the US population,48.2% of American adults in state, and federal prisons and local jails and 42.5% of prisoners under sentence of death.

• One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 live under some form of correctional supervision or control.

The sagging, baggy pants is the only pressing, important, newsworthy issue that society sees value in addressing that pertains to the well-being of African American males. I hate to see young males walk around with their pants in this manner; but what I hate even more is what is going on inside of his soul that makes him want to represent himself in this manner. What society is really saying is--we don't want to see your problems, so what that you can't read; you don't have a job, big deal-- until another black man kill you suck it up and look decent!

Young women wear daisy duke, booty shorts with words like juicy written across their ass, tops that reveal their stomachs and too much cleavage and I don't hear any one talking about wanting to ticket them. Why? Because the same men who want to ticket the African American males for wearing their pants hanging down enjoy watching and ogling these women who over expose themselves.

Do you think that the way a woman dresses reveals more about who she is on the inside or the outside? As a society we tend to judge people by their appearance, but when it comes to women exposing themselves such as how the waitress dress at Hooters Restaurants-the food would still be as good if not better--without the extra cleavage. But I am not a guy; I am just an insecure girlfriend who wishes that the only cleavage that her boyfriend could see was her own.

But this is not reality and I am not a prude. We don't mind that somebody else's mother, daughter, aunt, niece and sister is posing nude and spreading her legs-in pornography and prostitution as long as it is not our relatives. I find it amusing when I hear men complain about wanting someone to treat their daughter or mother with respect; I always smile and ask them-- do you mean the same way you treat other women?

Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations

by Melissa Farley PhD

http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/factsheet.html

• Estimates of the prevalence of incest among prostitutes range from 65% to 90%. The Council for Prostitution Alternatives, Portland, Oregon Annual Report in 1991 stated that: 85% of prostitute/clients reported history of sexual abuse in childhood; 70% reported incest. The higher percentages (80%-90%) of reports of incest and childhood sexual assaults of prostitutes come from anecdotal reports and from clinicians working with prostitutes (interviews with Nevada psychologists cited by Patricia Murphy, Making the Connections: women, work, and abuse, 1993, Paul M. Deutsch Press, Orlando, Florida...

• "About 80% of women in prostitution have been the victim of a rape. It's hard to talk about this because... the experience of prostitution is just like rape. Prostitutes are raped, on the average, eight to ten times per year. They are the most raped class of women in the history of our planet. " (Susan Kay Hunter and K.C. Reed, July, 1990 "Taking the side of bought and sold rape," speech at National Coalition against Sexual Assault, Washington, D.C.)

• In one study, 75% of women in escort prostitution had attempted suicide. Prostituted women comprised 15% of all completed suicides reported by hospitals. (Letter from Susan Kay Hunter, Council for Prostitution Alternatives, Jan 6, 1993, cited by Phyllis Chesler in "A Woman's Right to Self-Defense: the case of Aileen Carol Wuornos," in Patriarchy: Notes of an Expert Witness, 1994, Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine.

• There are few if any programs which address the needs of children of prostitutes. In a recent study of 1,963 prostitutes, more than two-thirds had at least one child. The average number of children was 2. 40% of the children lived with their grandmothers, but 20% lived with a mother working as a prostitute. 9% of the children were in foster care. 5% of the working prostitutes were pregnant when interviewed. (Adele Weiner, "Understanding the Social Needs of Streetwalking Prostitutes," 1996, Social Work, 41: 97-106.)

So basically, we are more concerned with sagging, baggy pants from people of which society has no use for (they do provide jobs for them in prison where they can earn less than 50 cents an hour - but that's another story); whereas inappropriate dress for women is acceptable because pornography is a billion dollar industry where people can profit from women who degrade themselves. Whewww I got it! Not all women who wear revealing clothes are "prostitutes" or are sexually promiscuous and not all African American males who wear sagging baggy pants are thugs and gangbangers, which bring me to my next point about uniforms.

Since we are judging people by the clothes they wear it is important to point out how useful this information is in predicting human behavior. I am quite sure that when the priests raped and molested those boys they heisted their robes. If it were not for the robes the boys would not have remaines silent for so many years. The illusion of integrity can be pretty intimidating for a child -- most people.

When the police officer killed Malice Green, they had on their police uniforms. I wonder if they remembered to shine their shoes. I am not sure, but I don't think that Malice Green was wearing baggy pants that day-but I could be wrong.

When the people at Enron embezzled all that money from their company and destroyed the pensions of their employees, I am not sure-but I think that they were wearing suits and ties. Maybe if they were wearing baggy pants, people could have fined them sooner and they would not have been able to take as much money. I just had an epiphany; African American males can actually have access to more money and respect-without using a gun-- if they pull up their pants. Secondly, instead of going to the penitentiary they can go to an upscale federal prison where they can meet people like Martha Stewart. I get it.

Until we are willing to hire better teachers and create curriculums that help children identify and build on their gifts and talents to become productive members of society, I find these type of stories-amusing and that the leaders are well-meaning-but "un-evolved and un-educated" to say the least. This is just a quick way to avoid what is really important, and give some people the illusion that the world is perfect and fair instead of giving people the help that they need.

So what would I suggest?

I would start with conducting research comparing males from the same ethnic background and same age category let's say from 14-years-old to 28-years-old - those who wear baggy pants and those who do not wear baggy pants. I would interview one hundred males from each category.

The questionnaire would look something like this:

1. Age__

2. Ethnicity / race_______________

3. Are you currently a student? __yes or __no

4. If yes, what grade are you in______

5. What is your current GPA_____

6. If no, what is the highest level of school that you have completed______________

7. If not, what was your GPA upon leaving school____

8. What did you like most about school____________________

9. What did you like least about school_______________________

10. What is your dream job that you would do for free?_____________________

11. Were you raised with both parents? Yes or no

12. If no, how often do you see your father? ___once a week ___twice monthly __ once a month __Less than once a month

13. Do you have a job? __yes or __ no

14. Do you want a job? __yes or __ no

15. What types of books and magazines do you read?______________________

16. Who are your favorite music artist and why?__________________________

17. Do you watch television? Yes or No

18. If yes, what are your 3 favorite shows and why?

19. Do you smoke marijuana? __ yes or No

20. Do you drink alcohol? __yes or __no

21. Do you have children? __yes or __no

22. Are you happy with your life? Yes or No

23. If you could change 3 things about your life today-that only you could control-no hitting the lottery or anything that involve other people-what 3 things would you do to improve your life?

1._______________________________________________________

2._______________________________________________________

3._______________________________________________________

I would tweak my questions based on the answers I receive.

I would then analyze my data and develop an outreach program and positive reward system to encourage and support behavior that will help them have a deeper understanding of themselves and their contribution to the world as an ethnic group-but the last thing I would do is criminalize a group of people who souls and self-esteem is obviously shattered because why would they purposely want to reveal their underwear to the public? --For attention! I would like to hear from their mouths why they think it is cool to show their underwear to the public. I would also want to know from them why the number one cause of death for a young black is male is homicide by another black male; and what could they do about it.