Florida Preacher Fights Hip Hop Fashion
For Christ's Sake, Pull Up Your Pants!
From zoot suits, to greaser jackets, to bell bottoms and beyond, teens have always dressed in ways that adults have found offensive. You might even say that the more offense the fashion causes, the more likely they are to wear it. Inevitably though, those very teens will grow up, become parents and somehow believe that their kid's outspoken outerwear crosses a line they never dared approach. I suppose in some ways that's how "the whole durned human comedy perpetuates itself."
But in spite of this oft-repeated folly, one preacher in Jacksonville, Florida is so steamed about baggy pants and low-hanging waistlines that she has launched a campaign to crucify the look. According to Pastor Diane Robinson, "every time she sees a young man wearing sagging pants, she is personally offended." So, to counter the fashion offense, she started a belt collection for young men called "Pull Up Your Pants! Need Help? Here's a Belt." Her goal is to collect 200 belts and distribute them June 4 at "A Safe Day, A Safe Way, a community program to discourage violence." (Let's hope she doesn't cause a jump in whippings.)
One of Robinson's supporters, Levale Ellis, explained that the campaign is "not trying to demean anybody," but rather to inform them "it doesn't look good." But the motivation may be more than just aesthetics. As Ellis went on to say, "[w]e're trying to get these guys to pull up their pants and act like young men. You don't have to curse. The rap music [and] killing everybody and selling drugs, that's not life." Other organizers admit that the belts are "mostly symbolic" (especially since you need one to wear pants that low) of "something much deeper and more serious."
But this anti-sagging campaign isn't limited to Florida's clergy. State Sen. Gary Siplin is also tired of seeing youngsters walking around town with their underwear showing, which he feels hinders hygiene. The Orlando area Democrat is "sponsoring legislation that would ban the popular fashion statement at public schools." Students caught "exposing their underwear by wearing their pants or shorts below the waist" would face suspension (no word whether commandos would be exempt).
While the intentions of these campaigns are most likely admirable, a link between the breadth of a teenager's trousers and juvenile delinquency is at best unfounded and at worst prejudicial. If not, how do you explain the street gangs of the 1950s whose constrictive jeans were brought to life in "West Side Story?" Moreover, would a murderer in ministerial robes be any less of murderer?
The reality, of course, is that criminals can rock any style they want. It's not what they wear that makes them criminals, but the fact that they commit crimes. The reason teens want to wear sagging pants has a lot less to do with crime than it does with the fashion industry promoting the look as criminal, a marketing technique fueled in no small part by the contrarian cache of campaigns like "Pull Up Your Pants!" You don't need to be an advertising genius to know adolescents will be attracted to things that their parents tell them to avoid. It's been going on for generations.
Perhaps the best and most innovative thing Robinson and Ellis could do to help America's youth would be to preach, instead, against hard work, eating healthy and studying. If they fight hard enough, maybe those could become fashionable someday.
By Emil Steiner | April 9, 2007; 11:08 AM ET | Category: OFF/beat Politics
Posted by: Gabby | April 9, 2007 11:35 AM
I am sick and tired of seeing pants hanging around kids knees. My hat goes off to Pastor Robinson for her efforts. It may not be the only problem out there but it never hurt to try and make a difference.
Posted by: Paula | April 9, 2007 1:24 PM
Interesting that the kids want the "Plumber" look.
Actually, these can be kinda fun. When the kids have the "hangin' off their ass" look at the mall you can casually step on the pant leg as you go by. Lots of times the trowsers hit the floor, to the amusement of many of their age group in the vacinity.
Profuse apologies ensue, but the look on their face is classic. Some of them pull their drawers up higher, at least for a while.
Posted by: SoMD | April 9, 2007 3:22 PM
It's just a temporary youthful rebellion. They'll grow out of it, so who cares?
Posted by: Omega Wolf | April 9, 2007 8:24 PM
It's not the clothes themselves but what they stand for. Do we want to raise our children to think selling drugs and killing each other is ok? Not me. UP WITH BELTS!
Posted by: Cristol | April 9, 2007 8:35 PM
Sorry Cristol, you have to be mentally slow to really think kids commit crime cause they have baggy pants.
Posted by: Rena | April 9, 2007 8:57 PM
Cristol:
"It's not the clothes themselves but what they stand for. Do we want to raise our children to think selling drugs and killing each other is ok?"
Hey, why not? They could go work for Pfizer and Merck when they grow up!
Make a lot of money selling killer drugs like Vioxx, Tylenol and FenFen, and collaborating with right wingers to prevent anyone from suing the drug companies for killing us!
You know - what they call tort "reform"?
Posted by: Marcia | April 10, 2007 7:15 PM
Hey Marcia,
you are completely rude and stupid! I have a family member who's life we have managed to preserve thanks to Mercks drugs. Sure the pharma company's may not be perfect but they do produce something which helps many folks live. What have you done to help society you darn liberal commy? You complain that big businesses are the problem but you are the real problem! GET BENT
Posted by: Cristol | April 10, 2007 11:27 PM
It's their choice if they want to look like morons... Preacher lady needs to get a life!
Posted by: Katie | April 11, 2007 9:19 AM
I don't get it? What do baggy pants have to do with crime? Isn't it harder to commit crimes with your pants hanging around your ankles? Sounds pretty racist to me
Posted by: donovan | April 12, 2007 9:05 AM
Plumber cleavage shouldn't looks good for the girls but on guys it is disgusting. I don't need to be seeing that
Posted by: | April 12, 2007 9:32 AM
nothin fabulous about the ghetto
Posted by: | April 12, 2007 9:42 AM
just because they wear baggy pants dos not mean they sell drugs
Posted by: nesse | April 12, 2007 11:49 PM
just because the blood was in my hand, doesn't mean I killed the man.
Posted by: loch | April 13, 2007 1:55 AM
If anybody thinks young men are going to start wearing their pants high because some wrinkly preacher lady told them to, they're in for a surprise.
Oh and baggy pants, believe it or not, do not cause crime.
Posted by: Azura | April 16, 2007 7:31 PM
Dear Emil Steiner,
What a great story you did on our belt campaign (Pull Up Your Pants Need Some Help Heres A Belt). We don't need anymore laws on the books, especially when it comes to telling our youth to pull up their pants. We are attempting to get young people to have some diginity and some self-respect.
Pastor Dianne Robinson has been a minister preachig on the benefits of working hard, staying in school and getting a good education, and becoming a productive member of society for the past 15 years. Pastor Robinson believes it is morally correct for young men and young ladies to pull up their pants.
Sagging started in prison. Just use your imagination to figure out why. Now it's everywhere you go. Its past the fad stage it's indecent exposure, and most states allready have a law for that.
We are doing our part to expose sagging. We know there are plenty of adolescents who do listen to their parents take heed to what they say, and act accordingly. Most young men we talk to cannot explain why they sagg their pants. Other than to say their friends are doing it, and thats not fashionable.There is a bigger picture here. would you hire a young man or young lady who came to a job interview with their pants below their waist and their underwear showing?
Sagging sometimes leaves one to believe some other activity could be going on, not necessary some kind of criminal activity. We know crime comes in all different races and ages, and we are not singleing out saggers. We do know that right follows right and right can never be wrong and it is right that young people pull up their pants. It's our way of letting the world know to pull up your pants need some help here's a belt.
Pastor Dianne Robinson Nana's and Papa's Rasing Grands Organization
Jacksonville, Florida
Posted by: Pastor Dianne Robinson | April 16, 2007 8:35 PM
There is a young man here in Jacksonville his name is MC Scott.His CD is titled Below The Radar.MC Scott is a Christian rapper,he wrote a song last year called Pull Em Up.He is quite talented and his song Pull Em Up expresses just what the title says.MC Scott is available for interviews and you can get a copy of his Below The Radar CD by contacting Sheri Powell (904-610-4947)
Posted by: Pastor Dianne Robinson | April 17, 2007 8:29 AM
To the Pastor: When you wrote "Sagging sometimes leaves one to believe some other activity could be going on, not necessary some kind of criminal activity," what exactly are you talking about? This has to be one of the stupidest arguments I have ever heard. Rather than pulling up pants, why don't you do us all a favor and pull your head out of that orifice from where you are spewing this crap!
Posted by: Till The Sweat Drips Down My Pants | April 17, 2007 9:18 AM
What is anybodys buisness (other than the teens parents) to comment on how a person wants to were their pants. For a teen its just how they want to dress they are not thinking about it as deeply as people in society chose to nowadays. Everybody from a goth to a person who dresses baggy pants can be a criminal. In the 60's there were mini skirts 70's flairs 80's leg warmers and leggins e.t.c the only thing i feel is wrong with anybody wearing baggy pants is middle age men (over 30's) that should have out grown that style. LET IT PASS and focus on how we can better the youth educationally and motivate them to achieve and become successful so that when they do grow up they can get a decent job that does not require baggy pants but a suit.
Posted by: | April 23, 2007 2:33 PM
I see nothing wrong with baggy pants as they were worn all the way from the 20,s to the 50,s as that can be seen in many old movies, But back then no one exposed parts of their anatomy or thier under wear, They wore belts and suspenders to keep the pants at the natural waistline, And thats were we sould draw the line, Make em wear belts or suspenders to pull em up as kids should be taught the word decent and proper.
The other thing that irks me and is also dangerous is the kids who buy the pants so long as to use them as shoes i have seen some news films were those long pants got caught in store escalators and ripped right off the person, This is not fashion its plaine stupdity!!!!!
Posted by: brian | April 26, 2007 5:01 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
That's great, pull your pants up. Sounds like this broad has too much time on her hands.