A new assertion has come out regarding sagging pants. Councilwoman Judy Green of the 1st District of Louisville, KY asserts that "the trend has a history in slavery, when masters wouldn't allow males to wear belts as a way to degrade them." (The quote is from the Louisville Courier-Journal 12/7/2008. The council woman is paraphrased in the quote by reporter Dan Klepal.)
The councilwoman's assertion about the history of sagging pants seems to be entirely fabricated. Pants were not often worn with belts in the U.S. until the end of the 1850's when, in 1857, a buckle was added to the back side of men's trousers in order to make the trousers taper in at the top (this information comes courtesy of Joan Nunn, the author of "Fashion in Costume" printed by A&C Black Publishers in 2000). Even that buckle however was not a belt, but merely an attachment to the gentlemen's drawstring. Images of that same time period (readily available for study at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division website) show slaves and poor whites both without belts of any kind, except some in the Irish Immigrant population who wore wide belts and were, and continue to be, caricatured for their belts (think Lucky Charms guy). For centuries people have been holding up their pants with drawstrings, and perhaps that's what she meant, but I find no record of a punishment by removing one's drawstring, and the few photos we have of slaves at work show their pants tightly cinched to their waists, probably with drawstrings. Furthermore, it would be unproductive to force slaves to work without drawstrings, as trousers in the 19th century did not stay up in any way with the drawstring, not even to the extent that sagging pants stay up today. Without further evidence, I can only conclude that, if such a punishment existed, it was rare and hardly a symbol of the degradation of black slaves at large. There were some other underclasses that wore belts to carry their gun holsters, such as trappers and soldiers. The trapping profession was not to be admired. Soldiers wore a belt across the waist and a sash across the chest to keep the belt up because of all the weight carried on the belt. These were clearly not the kinds of belts that kept up one's pants. Indeed, according to USHistory.com, the union uniforms in 1862 had a chord sewn into the trousers to keep their pants from falling despite the belt worn outside the uniform. While many military officers (both north and south) wore sashes, again they didn't keep up one's pants, and sagging would not have been a symbol of having one's sash removed. It is true that black men, even serving in the north, were not allowed to be officers (and therefore wear a sash), but they could still keep their pants as high as they wished by tightening their drawstrings. If we wanted to show how far black men have come, maybe it would be a better symbol to wear brightly colored sashes outside one's clothes, but that is not a common fashion trend today. According to Levi Strauss' website, belt loops, to hold the kind of belt that we think of today, were not added to Levi's until the 1920's. The myth that sagging pants came out of prison is difficult to prove or disprove, but much of the evidence leans against Councilwoman Green's assertion that slave owners denied slaves belts in order to demean the slaves. It baffles me that people make so many assertions about sagging pants without cite or proof. Why would so many people do that? What is Councilwoman Green attempting to get out of asserting that sagging pants are derogatory?
Anyone who is interested in racial and gender equity in our nation is understandably frustrated. We who wish for our society to make progress are casting blame around. Despite the fact that we have just elected the first black president, schools are more segregated now than they were when Justice Marshall successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education. Despite all the loss of life and arrests throughout the last five decades of struggle, there is still great disparity in wages between whites and all other people who self-identify as "minorities." The wealth gap between blacks and whites is even larger than the wage gap, and is getting larger, unlike the wage gap which is shrinking. In other words, blacks are getting poorer, whites are getting richer, and for all of our talk about how much has changed, very little actually has changed, and much that has change is for the worse.
Councilwoman Green wants to make more black men into success stories. She sees black men in suits, carrying briefcases, and wearing their pants at their waists as success stories, while black men in gangs and out on the streets wearing sagging pants are unsuccessful. She then tries to tie this dichotomy to the historical subjugation of black men by tying sagging pants to slavery. In doing so, she may be casting a wider net than she intends. Many black men wear sagging pants, not because they want to join a gang, or commit crimes, but because it's a fashion trend. Some black men wear the business suit in the day and then put on other clothes at night to go to the nightclub. Some black men work at the night club and hold successful careers in the entertainment industry. These black men wear sagging pants, clean jerseys, clean white pairs of kicks, and a tilted pro back Yankees caps over do rags because they don't want to look "neutral." What is neutral?
When Catherine MacKinnon insinuates that we are all either rapists, or the raped, she is trying to make a factual, not a normative statement, but because the statement is universal, we must ask ourselves, "would I rather be the rapist or the raped?" Similarly, Councilwoman Green's myth about sagging pants put us in the position of asking, "would I rather be like the slave, or like the slave master?" If those who wear their pants low are like slaves, then who are the rest of us supposed to be like? In a society where we all aspire to the American dream, aren't we really aspiring to the white American dream? When some black men wear sagging pants they are saying, "I don't believe in that American dream, I want to create a society that has a place for me and my history." Maybe those who are wearing their pants low aren't make themselves "slave-like" as Green insinuates, but they are trying to be "un-master-like." They are attempting to become successful, without becoming a part of an "American Dream" that is always already raced and gendered. By tying these people to those who are unsuccessful, the Councilwoman is undermining their efforts at equality, while at the same time she is tying equality to a vision of the successful American male that looks a little bit more "neutral," which is to say, a little bit more white.
On the other hand, many groups have been able to attain a piece of the American Dream. That is to say that we call some groups merely American, when we used to include an adjective. We can no longer fill out Irish, Italian, or Jewish on our driver's licenses. Despite the fact that Irish were once considered black and commonly demeaned with the "n"-word, they have made the transition to whiteness, and therefore they fit neatly into the neutral American Dream. Maybe black males can eventually become white just as their Irish, Italian, and German brothers did before them. Maybe, however, the closest they can get to the raced and gendered American Dream is the glass ceiling felt the most significantly by Asian Americans. Despite educational opportunities, and generations of business success, Asian Americans have not managed equality in business, or in political representation. Scholars refer to the problems involved in being the "model minority." A place of adoration, in which one has limited opportunity for greater success. Green's vision of the black male who does not sag, may be an excellent first step towards equality, but it ignores the difficulties of Asian Americans and South Asian Americans who cannot gain the equality that earlier European immigrants did. Maybe it's because our society is changed and is more exclusive that Asian Americans have hit such a substantial glass ceiling, or maybe it's simply because Asian Americans are easily identifiable and simply will never be white enough for the American Dream. In other words, maybe it is the American Dream that has to change, not the height of a man's pants.
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