I posted an article a few weeks ago that dealt with this issue, but from reading conversations among my brothers, I thought that I might hit on it again. To sag or not to sag, what the hell difference does it make? Let me first dispel a myth. Sagging did indeed come from our collective jail/prison experience. Sagging, however, most assuredly DID NOT mean that you were “advertising” your goods to other prisoners. Most people get that idea from ONE deviant who gave an interview on MSNBC’s bullshit series Lockup. This fool let himself be used by the powers that be to perpetrate this myth that if a homosexual (gump as we call them in Indiana) wanted to let others know he was available he’d sag his pants. I call BULLSHIT on that one. MOST prisoners sag and its not because they are homos. They sag because the first thing they take from you when you are locked up is your belt. When I first fell the prison had a clothing shop that made clothes for prisoners out of denim for the pants and heavy cotton for the shirts. In those days prisoner’s were given a belt. Then some enterprising white man convinced prison administrators that it was a danger to the public for prisoners to wear similar clothes as people in society in case one of us escaped. (In fact, at the Indiana Women’s Prison, they wore regular street clothes) So his idea was to create an industry that would make and provide uniforms for prisoners to wear. Think about it, whenever you see most documentaries about prison, the prisoners are all wearing orange, yellow, white and black stripes or pink (that closeted homosexual in Arizona Joe Arpaio came up with that novel idea). There are no belt loops on these uniforms.

Therein lies the issue. When you are locked up, you don’t get a brand new uniform fresh out the plastic bag unless you are either 100 pounds or 300 pounds. Anywhere in between, there could have been as many as 100 people who wore that same uniform before you. In some prisons, when you turn your uniform in to the laundry for washing, you don’t even get the same one back. So I’m a 32 in the waist, but the last guy who wore that same size uniform may have had a bigger gut or thicker thighs so the uniform is stretched at the waist. Voila! Sagging. Homosexuals would ask for and get a size 28 if they were a 32 to “advertise” their goods. That’s how it works in prison.

When I was 12 I wanted an afro, my foster mother asked me why you want to look nappy like those people over in Africa. (yeah she was not the most conscious of sisters LOL) I said Momma its the style. In 1979 I got a curl, Momma asked why you wanna look “fruity?” That was the term for homosexuals at that time. I said Momma everybody getting curls. As I became older and grew into a man I settled on a mode of dress and style that I felt fit me. It was a phase I was going thru. But here’s the thing. We scream about our rights as African-Americans but fail to realize that our youth have the “RIGHT” to wear whatever they like.

All that being said, I track closely the post I put on UI about this subject and I would add to this that we as older guys are quick to tell youngstas that they shouldn’t sag as it makes them look thuggish. We would say that’s disrespectful. I’m with that to a certain point but I disagree with the reasoning behind it. We as old heads have our way of dress, they have theirs simple as that. We as old heads (and some armchair/keyboard revolutionaries) are missing the point. We scream against the system and advocate its outright removal from our lives but we are urging our youth to dress just like them. We say, “you are never going to be a successful respectful man until you dress like a white man in HIS suit and tie and shined shoes.” Think about it, that’s EXACTLY what we are saying when we say that. That bullshit needs to stop. That’s a speed bump to meaningful conversation with our youth. I DON’T GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU GOT ON, JUST DON’T SHOOT ME, MY CHILDREN OR ANYONE ELSE THAT IS NOT THREATING YOUR LIFE. INSTEAD OF DESTROYING YOUR COMMUNITY, PROTECT AND PROVIDE FOR YOUR COMMUNITY EVEN IF YOU ARE BUCK NAKED. That’s what the message should be.

We are not the gatekeepers to what is or what is not acceptable in Amerikkka. If that were the case then why are so many of us OLD GUYS, looking for employment? Lets keep it real, for those of us who have had the opportunity to interview potential employees, how many showed up sagging or in a wife beater? We’ve had hundreds who showed up dumb as the proverbial box of railroad rocks with an extremely limited skill-set, which is most important, but they at least tried to show that they were interested in working. When I talk to guys about sagging I tell them this, next time someone tells you to pull your pants up or they’re not going to let you buy a half-gallon of milk in their store, tell them that you’re going to have to sue because they are infringing on your right to self-expression. Next time you go to get on the train and they say you can’t get on because you’re sagging (yeah they do that in Dallas) tell them to lawyer up because my dress is not violating any laws, statutes, rules or regulations that outweigh the first amendment to the constitution. Tell them that you sag in solidarity with all the brother locked up by a racist, amoral, unfair criminal justice system that won’t allow them to have belts. Tell them you’ll quit saggin when you quit forcing my brothers in prison to sag. BOOM!!!!