As a newly formed female black business owner, founder of a new nonprofit organization, and prodigy of the Natchez community, I was appalled to discover a picture surfing on Facebook of the black Chief of Police of Laurel, MS and another black city leader holding up a sign with the illustration of an African American male with the words “Pull Up Your Pants, No One Wants to See Your Underwear.” The horror of it all advanced to complete outrage as I responded to my offense on the internet with others. As a highly trained social worker, small business owner, community advocate and founder of Citizens Advocating for Social Equity (C.A.S.E.) in the Greater Houston area, through my expertise and experience I know blatant racism when it is staring me in the face and this sign is the ultimate portrayal of racism of the ugliest sort. As I make retirement plans to return to the Natchez community and hear chatter of a similar ordinance in the works, this event is telling that the need remains since I left 20 years ago for community mobilization of the black community. “We the People” have to elect leaders that not only reflect our ethnic/racial identity but the black experience.
I know that racism flares its ugly head on black America regardless of the “skin one is in”. Our black leaders are spewing blatant racial bias and prejudice based in the comforts of race identification but mostly shame. Shame rooted in the realities that the black experience in Laurel and Natchez carry a hard truth and a constant reminder of poverty, illicit drug use, high school dropout rates, joblessness, and criminal justice involvement. Criminal justice involvement is epidemic and the hip hop culture has a tight grip on black youth but instead of competing for federal and state grants for programs like “My Brother’s Keeper” to create opportunity and positive cultural influence, black city leaders want to legislate what some would call a symptom of these social ills and others would call one’s basic human rights for cultural expression. Sagging has been a long time cultural practice of some black youth inspired by fashion and hip hop trends yet we are ashamed. No one is mandating the cowboy to take off his hat, the hippie to cut his hair, a person of Muslim faith to take off her covering or a biker to take off his Harley Davidson jacket. Sagging is believed to have an origin from prison culture in which an inmate would hang his pants low on his waist to lure and attract sexual interest and the black community is confronted with the shame, the reminder, and over-identification of the black struggles day to day. A city ordinance of this nature hides behind this shame by criminalizing the practice of sagging based on exposure of underwear in public places. If exposure of underwear was the driving force behind the ordinance why is there an illustration of a black male on the sign? Why does this ordinance not pertain to a larger audience? Why isn’t it addressing other types of underwear exposure such as breastfeeding in public, cleavage/breast exposure, underwear revealing mini-shirts, underwear revealing sheer skirts, bra straps, bikinis, and more? The answer is simple. It is because the ordinance was designed to target a specific racial/ethnic group, black males, which is unlawful. Undoubtedly increased public harassment, police and criminal justice involvement, hate crimes and financial burden of low socioeconomic black males will result.
Black on black racism exists and often times it can be most dangerous because blacks imposing their values and views believe that they get some kind of racial pass to discriminate against other blacks because they check the same box on the U.S. census. This sign with the picture of a black male figure along with the slogan is a violation of one’s civil rights. The City of Laurel and City of Natchez will undoubtedly pay the ultimate price in legal action and legal fees for its unlawfulness. Let’s start a protest, a petition, and make an outcry to the Department of Justice and Department of Civil Rights if this ordinance goes into effect. Let’s file a federal lawsuit to put a stop to the discrimination before it starts and cause irreversible harm to the black community. The racism fueling the Laurel and Natchez community is monstrous for this sign to exist because it took a collective majority to push it forth. I am asking anyone sharing my perspective on this issue to make a stir and a fuss and let black people in power know that their shame will not oppress our rights and pursuit of justice. Please contact me at caseonthemove@gmail.com if you are interested in starting a petition and making some noise! Let’s serve notice to black leadership in Laurel and Natchez that their race based shame and discriminatory action have serious consequences.