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SAGGY PANTS: hip-hop fashion statement or criminal act? According to
produced by the Black Mental Health Alliance of Massachusetts (BMHAM),
wearing your jeans below your waist is a "behavioral health issue in our
neighborhoods and communities that must be addressed." 
a public service announcement

The advertisements began running in late January and feature two
young Black men walking with their pants hanging low and a Black cop
disparaging the "hip-hop style" of saggy pants. "There's something you
may not know," the cop continues. "You can be fined up to $300, be
placed in the state prison for up to three years, or be placed in the
county jail for up to two years. You still think it's cool? Pull up your
pants. Respect yourself."

BMHAM cites an archaic Massachusetts General Law as its justification
for advocating the incarceration of those who commit the "crime" of
wearing saggy pants. The law is entitled "Crimes Against Chastity,
Morality, Decency and Good Order" and states that "a man or woman,
married or unmarried, who is guilty of open and gross lewdness and
lascivious behavior, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state
prison for not more than three years or in jail for not more than two
years or by a fine of not more than $300."

It's tempting to dismiss BMHAM's advertising campaign targeting saggy
pants as hopelessly (perhaps hilariously) out of touch with the real
needs of the community, but it's worse than that. This campaign does
nothing but further reinforce a climate where it is acceptable for the
police to stop, harass and incarcerate Black youth.

This message is particularly backwards coming from a Black
organization that says it is "committed to improving the quality of
mental health care among minorities and disadvantaged." How will more
incarceration improve the "quality of mental health care"? Massachusetts
is already one of 26 states in the country with some of the harshest
sentencing laws. Juvenile offenders in Massachusetts can still receive a
sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, and Black
youth are, of course, overrepresented among those receiving such
punishment.

Unfortunately, BMHAM is not alone in advocating the criminalization
of saggy pants. In fact, states, cities, towns and even private
businesses have attempted to pass laws or impose such policies in recent
years. In 2008, a 17-year-old in Rivers Beach, Fla., was locked up for a
night for going against a city ban on saggy pants. The ban was later
declared unconstitutional.

In November 2011, Albany, Ga., enacted an ordinance that fines people
who wear skirts or pants that hang three inches below the top of the
hips and expose skin or underwear. In 2012, a group of Chicago aldermen
called on Chicago Public Schools to mandate uniforms in an effort to
stop students from wearing saggy pants. And in 2011, people protested US
Airways in San Francisco for kicking a passenger off a flight for
wearing pants that were deemed too baggy.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SEEKING TO criminalize those who wear saggy pants is yet another
ominous expression of the pervasiveness of the criminal justice system
in the lives of Black people. And it's tragic that BMHAM's campaign
further legitimizes the idea that Black people themselves are the ones
to blame for their disproportionate imprisonment and other kinds of
inequality facing people of color.

According to its website: "BMHAM wants to educate our youth that when
offensive pants that are sagging are worn, it has such a profound
impact on their behavior as well as behaviors of police, school and
community behaviors towards them along with their own self-perceptions."

In essence, BMHAM thinks that police surveillance of Black youth and
the lack of good education in Black communities comes from how Black
youth present themselves. This is an argument made from on high as well.
In response to the January homicide of Hadiya Pendleton in Chicago,
for example, President Barack Obama gave a speech that could have been
delivered by George W. Bush, in which he argued that strong communities
"start at home" and that "there's no more important ingredient for
success...than strong stable families, which means we should do more to
promote marriage and encourage fatherhood."

As Conor Friedersdorf pointed out in the Atlantic,
white college students at Boston's Northeastern University have
annually dedicated a day to running around in their underwear, but it's
difficult to imagine that they would be targets of an indecency law.

In Massachusetts, Black people make up 6 percent of the state's
population, but 32 percent of those incarcerated. Unemployment for Black
youth ages 16-24 is at a staggering 39 percent. In Boston, Mayor Menino
is pushing for the rezoning schools, which in a highly segregated city
means resegregation.

In this context, it becomes clear that the criminalization of a style
of dress associated with African American communities amounts to a
racist double standard that attempts to deflect attention away from the
broader social and institutional means by which Black people's lives are
being destroyed. These ideas need to be challenged outright.

Various individual activists and organizations in Boston are taking a
stand against this racist campaign by asking their supporters to sign a
public statement demanding that BMHAM take down these public ads.
Groups involved in the effort include the Boston NAACP, the Center for
Church and Prison, the Boston Teacher Activist Group, the Boston
Students Against Mass Incarceration, the Hispanic Black Gay Coalition
and the Boston International Socialist Organization.
 http://socialistworker.org/2013/03/04/the-crime-of-saggy-pants