Thursday, April 01, 2010

Raaaaacist! NY State Senator Tells Black Kids to Pull Up Their Pants


No doubt we can expect protest marches, federal investigations, racist reverend Al Sharpton to announce pickets and press conferences, Jesse Jackson will fly in to mumble something or other and general mayhem and calamity to ensue.

Oh wait. It's a black politician suggesting this. Never mind
Saying low-slung pants give their wearers a bad image, a state lawmaker is making the point with some images of his own.

Brooklyn residents awoke Thursday to the sight of two “Stop the Sag” billboards — and more were on the way, organizers said. The signs show two men in jeans low enough to display their underwear. The billboards were bankrolled by state Sen. Eric Adams, who also made an online video to send his message: “You can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants.”

Adams is the latest in a series of politicians and other public figures to lambaste the slack-slacks style that has been popular in some circles since the 1990s and amplified by rappers and other avatars of urban fashion.

The dropped-trousers trend has been debated in TV shows, city councils, school boards, state legislatures and courtrooms and even decried in song: Larry Platt became an Internet sensation earlier this year after he sang his original song “Pants on the Ground” during an “American Idol” audition.
When this idea was floated in Atlanta a few years ago those charmers at the ACLU sprang into action and called it racial profiling. Let's see how quick they are to act here.

I commend Adams for at least giving this a shot. I've had my disagreements with him in the past while he was on the NYPD, but it appears he's got the best interests of the black community here and this seems like a genuine effort. Let's hope the kids listen and realize how stupid they look walking around with their pants on the ground.

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