sagging-pants_web.jpgCall me old-fashioned, but saggy pants are not in!

As a matter of fact, they never were, unless, of course, lack of self-respect has become the new trend. Wearing pants around your thighs portrays nothing but a lack of self-confidence and self-worth.
It shows that you’re not comfortable enough to wear clothes your own way instead of copying the style of a supposed artist who doesn’t uplift his own generation. By harping on the struggle of the “thug life,” hip-hop and rap artists give today’s generation nothing to look forward to and are thus trapping us with the ignorance and complacency that’s befallen our race.

Saggy jeans can easily represent this trap as our young men let their clothes fall as they may, not caring enough about themselves to break a stereotype. Instead, they are fueling one.

People want to say that legislation against baggy pants is imposing on personal rights. I can see how someone who wears their pants down low might twist that legislation into a form of oppression from the “man,” but that’s a sorry excuse now, seeing as how the man – President Barack Obama – is African-American.

I find it sad that the majority of our race is blinded by a past that so many great minds worked so hard to move us beyond. This isn’t just an issue about fashion and underwear; it’s about pride and self-respect, two traits that can’t come across if you’re tripping over the fabric wrapped around your ankles.

Brittany Hopwood, 18, of Lauderhill, is a senior at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She is also a summer intern at the South Florida Times.

BMH740@Hotmail.com