Thug! So it seems to the public eye. Should the title really suggest positive aspects of the individual or should it say "WANTED: Criminal"? If "Criminal" is what you thought, then you thought wrong...
This young man is a senior in high school. With a 3.1 GPA, he is on his way to Morehouse College on both an academic and athletic scholarship. Yes! He is a "WANTED: Athlete, Scholar, Future Educator," and "Role Model"!
Self-preservation is everything in the American world. Some will say the baggy pants, white t-shirt, Timberland boots, a head scarf, and dreadlocks are all apart of one's fashion statement while others may argue that it is just a despicable look and resemblance of a thug. So much can be said about an individual's personal look.
Police find it their duty to target males, mostly Latino and African American, with this kind of look. To them, this type of dress suggests suspicion, suspect of criminal activity, criminal background, or perhaps a future criminal. There's a number of things we can say about the individual's look simply because a person's way of dress speaks more than his/her personality.
Coming from an emotional aspect, people should be entitled to the way they want to look. How one carries themselves is their own business and no one can interfere with that. America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave so why aren't all living citizens free to be who they want to be and brave to carry themselves the way that they please without being attacked by authority and/or society?
In the real world one's true color doesn't reflect what's on the inside, instead it sadly identifies what's on the outside. Yes, it seems prejudice, but this way of life isn't always a bad one to go by. For instance, a descent-looking handsome young man in his private school uniform knocks on an old woman's door and asks her to purchase his mother's home-made brownies. He tells the elderly woman that he is a member of his school's chess club and that they are raising money for next year's tournament in California. One the other hand, an identical situation occurs but the differences are that the young man is wearing a pair of baggy and overly decorated Ed Hardy jeans, a recreational football jersey, a pair of all white Air Force One shoes, has his hair cut into a mo hawk, and is raising money for his football team to pay for their trip to California for the playoffs.
Who do you think she'd rather trust buying home-made brownies from?
Yes, some people associate that type of outfit with the word "thug," because when you turn on the news, or when you watch America's Most Wanted, a lot of the thugs are indeed dressed like that. And then you have the whole rap culture that gets associated to that type of outfit, which can cause a lot of people to associate it hoodlums.
ReplyDeleteYour claim about Police targeting "mostly" black and Hispanic who dress like this is a silly claim with no evidence to back it up. And yes... you can wear whatever you want without getting "attacked" by society and/or authority.
It's funny to me how this starts off about clothing, then halfway through you slip race into it, and then at the end it's about clothing again.
Who do I think the old lady would "trust" to buy brownies from? Probably whoever came to her door first. Maybe her grandson dresses like the private school kid and she'd be more likely to buy from him. Or maybe this old lady is like and old you and she'd prefer buying from the kid with the football jersey. Who knows?
"WOOOOOO Kimosabe..." Take a chill pill Dude. LOL! It’s so not that serious. First off I stated both the pros and cons for dressing in this manner! So you need to read the article again young sir! And last semester in sociology my instructor showed a documentary to the class and that is when I learned that police often target the two races... I'm most definitely not narrow-minded which is what you're trying to say in so many words but HEY....... you're entitled to your own opinion but this is so unnecessary and foolish because it seems like we're from two totally different worlds. Anytime you are ready to step into my world let me know buddy.... I can take you to my hood so you can see this for yourself! Thanks for the comment anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd oh yea… you mentioned something about most criminals wear that type of clothing. NO Honey, seems like to me that you’re wrong because all crimes aren’t reported if you know what I mean. It’s just so funny how you got all caught up in the race thing when throughout my entire article I talked about race in one sentence. Silly this debate is so overrated.