Pull Your Pants Up

Several years ago I heard Chris Rock say something during a performance that I never forgot. It was funny. It was sad. It was true. I remember him saying “Why would someone just getting out of prison get more respect than someone just graduating from college?” I can’t remember if he answered the question, but it is a question that anyone that is saddened by, disgusted by, or disinterested in the problems that are endemic to and generated by America’s poverty-ridden inner cities should consider.

I am very confident that most of us have observed young men walking around in public with their pants hanging halfway off their butts, intentionally exposing their underwear. Most of us have wondered why and how could such a disgusting habit become so commonly popular?

One plausible theory is based in America’s prisons. Prisons do not allow belts. (For obvious reasons) The theory is, since belts are not allowed in prisons the prisoner’s ill-fitting pants would hang loosely and slide down their behinds. When African-American men returned to their neighborhoods from prison they continued to wear their pants this way. Every culture has role-models. Children emulate adults.

As a high school principal I would often tell frustrated parents that children pay a lot more attention to what we DO than what we SAY. One of my strictest rules was a ban on visible underwear. That rule would have had no validity if my students EVER saw me or one of my teachers walking around with our underwear visible. However, one of my biggest frustrations was when one of my student’s fathers or guardians would visit the school blatantly violating the rule we were trying so diligently to enforce.

This principle applies if those role-models are farmers, politicians, teachers, factory workers, miners, or military officers. Culture is the most powerful determinant of human behavior. To change an individual’s behavior, remove him from his native culture. To change a corporation you must change the culture. To change a school you must change the culture. To change a neighborhood, you must change the culture.

Today’s young people living in our inner cities or beset by poverty have difficult choices to make. They must often choose between a sub-culture that is lacking resources, education, positive role-models, and high expectations, and another culture that encompasses all of the aspects of the American dream. To choose the latter often means being very different from those that you have learned to trust and depend on. Success usually depends on having a powerful support system in a very good school that will provide consistent support and academic challenges, as well as extensive guidance in planning that young person’s future. It is a leap of faith that not enough dare to take. America's achievement gap is not so much a lack of ability as it is a lack of courage.

To tell the truth, if the Temptations had performed in pants hanging half-way down their butts, I would have been tempted to do the same thing. Fortunately, the culture would not have allowed it. A few years ago a common myth stated that there were more Black men in prison than college. The popular media may make it seem otherwise, but progress is being made. Thousands of minorities and poor children are taking that leap of faith each year to transcend a culture of mediocrity and realize their full potential.

It would help tremendously if their fathers would pull their pants up.