10/26/2007
Dallas Launches Homophobic Campaign Against Saggy Hip-Hop Pants
In an effort to target the trend of saggy hip-hop pants, the City of Dallas has launched a homophobic billboard and hip-hop campaign that targets low-riding jeans wearers by pressuring them to stop the trend because it's a signal that you're gay.
The "Pull Your Pants Up" campaign features billboards donated by Clear Channel which read: "Pull your pants up! It's rude, not cool... Walkin'' around showin' your behind to other dudes."
If that isn't bad enough, the campaign has a signature song recorded by rap artist Dooney Da' Priest containing lyrics that say, "You walk the streets with your pants way down low/ I don't know/ looks to me you on the down low."
They continue: "If you stand up straight, bet your pants fall/ Might as well walk around with your pants off/
Pull 'em up, pull 'em up, pull 'em up/ Be a real man/ Stand up/ Is that your underwear, man? Pull your pants up."
Dooney Da Priest talked to FOX News: "Got a lot of partners of mine, they come out of jail, they let me know that means you're basically easy, you're lettin another man know that you're available."
Dallas Deputy Mayor Dwaine Caraway talked to NPR about the campaign: "The No. 1 mission is very simple: pulling up your pants. That's all we want. We don't want to throw folks in jail because they wear their pants low. So we're going to make it man's law and not city law."
Posted 9:52 AM EST by Andy Towle in Dallas, Dooney Da Priest, Fashion Men, Hip-Hop, Music, News | Permalink
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When I see guys wear their pants like this, I only think one thing LOW LIFE!
Posted by: joe | Oct 26, 2007 11:59:52 AM
Key words in Andy's post: billboards donated by Clear Channel. Clear Channel is the lapdog of right-wing Republicans.
Posted by: peterparker | Oct 26, 2007 12:05:55 PM
i don't find it any more homophobic then alerting someone who is wearing a handkerchief about the old handkerchief color codes.
i also don't have a problem with straight males NOT wanting to be gay... guess what? i'm a gay male who doesn't want to be straight. guys are guys, and we are insecure about certain things across the board - gay or straight (as the calling of this "homophobic" and the "stop showing your pants to other dudes" play on the same male insecurity...)
true, i think it's a REALLY ODD way of getting kids to pull up their pants (which are a tripping hazard anyway)... but hardly falls under the "homophobic" label.
Posted by: James P. | Oct 26, 2007 12:08:02 PM
Derrick. Derrick. Derrick. What is the "origin" of the baggy look? You're smarter than to look for racism under every bed, er, comment.
But your description of this as possibly a "godsend" is absurd. While there are cases of the right thing happening for the wrong reason [e.g., the potential of HRC's fall because of all or nothing ENDA lunatics] but they're rare.
Is a minor beating, say with fists instead of a baseball bat, like "a minor form of homophobia"? If those white kids you fairly mention were being told not to dress that way because it's "Black" [I can remember a white girl in my high school telling a white guy his shoes looked like "nigger shoes"], and the text went, "don't act Black, don't act Black, don't act Black/Be a real man/" would that be okay?
If this homohating/exploiting ad campaign is ok then it's okay for Obama to "use" McClurkin to "teach" about homohatred.
Posted by: Leland Frances | Oct 26, 2007 12:09:20 PM
Leland:
The saggy pants look comes from the "prison inmate" culture of the 1980s (inmates weren't allowed to wear belts). The look caught on with the gansta' rappers, and suburban white boys love their gansta' rappers.
And how many suburban white parents have told their blond haired 17 year old, "Don'tgo out of the house with your pants falling off your butt--honestly, Biff, you dress like a nigger."
Leland: I just don't see why Obama & Ms McClurkin had to come up on this topic.
The only thing I hate about young guys pulling their pants up is that if they do they can pull me to the automatic teller machine. As long as they walk around with their pants hangin' off their asses--lookin' like "THe Little Rascals"--they aint gettin' this queen's money.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Oct 26, 2007 12:27:08 PM
I agree that there are bigger fish to fry but how some don't see this as a homophobic attempt(and a ridiculous one at that)geared towards easily intimidated minds of young folks, baffles me. It's like someone said about wearing an earing on the right. It may have worked back in the day when people were still afraid and ashamed of being gay. But nowadays, the last thing we want kids to think is that ANY fashion style should be banned (no matter how stupid and ridiculous,or sexy to some), it looks to avoid being perceived as gay. My two cents.
Posted by: Shabaka | Oct 26, 2007 12:31:24 PM
Oh, come on. Listen, people. If every time heterosexuals assert their heterosexuality we call it homophobic, we won't be doing ourselves any favors. Kind of a Crying Wolf thing.
For pete's sake, BEING straight isn't homophobic. Our movement towards equality, and coming out en masse, may have ushered in the age of "metrosexualism", but there's a big difference between heterosexuality and heterosexism, or homophobia.
Just because we want to "normalize", if you will, what we know to be our natural human condition in the national mindset does not mean we should therefore vilify natural expressions of heterosexuality. That makes us no better than them, and like I said, doesn't do us any favors.
Lighten up, people! Straight guys like girls and want people to know it. Sound familiar? Get over it!
Posted by: JeffRob | Oct 26, 2007 12:41:12 PM
Guys, it is CLEARLY homophobic, but therein lies its effectiveness. The demographic wearing their pants this low fears nothing more than being perceived as a homosexual and Dallas is using that fact to get the pants up.
Posted by: Dan B | Oct 26, 2007 12:50:41 PM
Wayne, I'm not sure what your point is. Are you saying that by shaming these "gangs" into pulling up their pants, they will then stop gangbanging and become responsible citizens? Maybe I'm not understanding your definition of "gang".
As for this song being homophobic, have ANY of you even listened to the damn lyrics?!
Pull Your Pants Up lyrics
Pull your pants up....
I'm your street priest, I'm not here to judge
This a letter to the streets, Talking to my thugs
From your ???Market jeans, to what you want to wear
I just sayin' man, I'm sick of seeing your underwear
I think I speak on behalf of the community
You look suspect, jail is where ya soon to be
Behind bars it's a code for the "n-word"
The word "saggin" spelled backwards IS the "n-word"!
You walk the streets with your pants way down low
I don't know, looks to me you're on the "downlow"
Some of y'all think it's gangsta to show your back
On behalf of real men, we ain't feeling that
We don't understand man, cuz it shocks us
Can you make us understand why you show your boxers?
If you stand up straight bet your pants fall
Might as well walk around with your pants off
Be a real man, stand up
If thats your underwear man, pull your pants up!
I'm a grown man on my grind, trying to shine
How you gonna grind, when you showin your behind
I think it's rude, but some of y'all think it's cool
Walkin' around showin your behind to other dudes
It looks retarded, degenerate and real odd
Yeah you're hard, but now it's hard to get a real job
Whassup little bro, I'm just trying to let you know
Put a belt around your waist before your pants hit the floor
You're 20 and above, and you STILL sag?
Man, you grown and you wrong, you should feel bad
A disgrace to your race, where you're pride at?
C'mon man, pull up your pants and get your pride back
I'm not saying don't show your swag with your baggy jeans
I'm just saying don't show your --- with your baggy jeans
Pull em up, whatsup wit it bro?
Pull em up before your pants hit the floor.
This song is no more homophobic than Timberlake's "Dick in a Box" was sexist. Shame on you, Andy.
Posted by: soulbrotha | Oct 26, 2007 1:03:37 PM
And for those of you who are sure to zero in on verse 3, tell me what the difference is between that and telling guys dressed in super tight leather pants that they "look gay".
Posted by: soulbrotha | Oct 26, 2007 1:12:15 PM
Soulbrotha- Thank you.
We need to be pissed off at the Monroe County, NY district attorney for not pressing charges against the savages that beat down two separate groups of gay people in one night. The VICTIMS are still on trial for disorderly conduct. The violent animals run free.
We need to be pissed off at Bill O'Reilly for putting a "Gay Agenda" sign over JK Rowling's head in front to 30 million viewers.
We need to be pissed off at Republicans, in general.
We don't need to be pissed off at straight people being straight.
Posted by: JeffRob | Oct 26, 2007 1:12:37 PM
Wayne, Cowtown is one word. Thank you.
Posted by: Blair | Oct 26, 2007 1:23:40 PM
Absolutely Ridiculous!
I have worked in the Prison system and Prison life IS NOT THE SAME as Civilian life. So you really cant compare the two.
This is an example of people trying to force their views and beliefs on others, sticking their nose up someones ass literally. Are the really trying to enforce public dress code!?
PEOPLE- Mind your business. Hell, let them walk around naked if they want- Why do you CARE!?!?!?!
>>>If your going to try and change something- How about try and stop the selling and buying of drugs, or promote education!<<<
Posted by: Mousey | Oct 26, 2007 1:33:15 PM
So.......... this is only noticeable because the campaign is anti-gay? but it would be acceptable if it remained squarely anti-black, as it does elsewhere?
Whatever.
Posted by: Nita | Oct 26, 2007 1:40:14 PM
Derrick from Philly, the interesting thing for me is how in a previous generation (the one which gave birth to author Anne Moody), sagging pants was the mark of poor white trash, because p.w.t. couldn't afford belts and had no asses to hold those pants up with anyway. Parallel developments, different geneses.
Soulbrother, thank you for the lyrics. The song does equate low slanging pants with a loss of masculinity, and being in the closet (the 'down low' reference). For myself, I don't care what kids wear as long as they dress appropriately when they head in for a job interview and, depending on the denomination, for church). Not all styles of dress are appropriate for all venues.
Still, the hysteria over low slanging pants is much more anti-black than it is anti-gay. Other places will use the gang angle. But it's still, at its heart, anti-black youth culture -- not anti-gay. They came for black women who wore naturals (or went bald) instead of yaki and perms, they came for dreadlocks, they came for baseball caps and baggy clothing which could conceal weapons and other stashed items; they need to come for Lindsay Lohan's handcuff necklaces and Sarah Jessica Parker's gold nameplate on a chain and whoever stole TLCs female slanging. How many people were scarred for life after inadvertant glances at muffintops and thongs on folks who shouldn't have been muffintopping with a thong? Tsk.
Posted by: Nita | Oct 26, 2007 1:57:16 PM
"looks to me you're on the "downlow" ...
On behalf of real men ...
Be a real man ...
showin your behind to other dudes ...
degenerate ..."
Oh, yea, so not homophobic/homohating/exploiting at all! And the F-word Isaiah used meant "friend."
And Donnie McClurkin [who is totally related to this as, per Irene Monroe, the "poster boy for African-American 'ex-gay' ministries"] is not antigay. Nor is George Bush. Nor Romney. Nor....
Posted by: Leland Frances | Oct 26, 2007 3:00:25 PM
Xtreme baggy pants is one ugly, innappropriate fashion statement that glorifies crime/thug life....and concern about it only comes out now??!! As if that's what the African community really needs- more faux pas to stereotype their people/culture. This should have been dealt with long ago.
Posted by: Nikko | Oct 26, 2007 3:00:55 PM
What's more primitive? Wearing saggy pants OR denigrating a person by suggesting that they might be gay in order to get them to do what you want them to do?
Primitive is as primitive does! Wearing saggy pants is simply a teen-agers expression of individualism and non-conformity. These primitive rappers just want to shame rebelious teenagers into dressing the way they the rappers think they should. It's stupid, plain and simply. But primitive people are incapable of discerning important issues from unimportant ones. And in primitive cultures, the one sure way to shame someone is to suggest they are **immature primitive childish giggles here** gay!
Posted by: dancob | Oct 26, 2007 5:11:31 PM
Look, I do not mean to be uncharitable about African-Americans, but the attitude about gays in the Afro community is similar to the attitude among African nations today: Primitive. African Americans are in a very unusual circumstance socially. Think of the immense challenges their society has undergone from being a primitive culture --much like from the stone age-- and within 150 years, they have been propelled into the social fabric of an advanced civilized technological society. And some of their attitudes and outlooks are still primitive. Period. I was once told by a black friend that murder is one way that blacks deal with problematic people in their lives. He was very matter-of-fact about it. And I am always amazed about how many of my black friends have immediate family members who have been murdered. It's just not big a thing in many black communities.
Posted by: dancob | Oct 26, 2007 5:22:52 PM
Derrick, you really need to listen to Uncle Leland on this one, and many other ones lately. He's right.
Posted by: jmg | Oct 26, 2007 5:36:22 PM
As Derrick, Matthew and Wes have pointed out, there is an obvious homophobic subtext to this campaign, as well as a direct link to the promotion of prison culture. Who benefits from the promulgation and promotion of gangsta culture aimed at minority youth needs to be exposed for what it is. It's almost ingenious in how the Dallas authorities have managed to fuse homophobia with racism.
This isn't new by any stretch; it harkens back to the causal factors behind the zuit suit riots during the Second World War.
Posted by: circuitmouse | Oct 26, 2007 5:36:46 PM
Dancob can't be real. He just can't. How can someone like that exist in today's world with access to the internet?
Posted by: sugarrhill | Oct 26, 2007 6:18:22 PM
Yes I see it now! If you take words and phrases out of context and throw them together instead of looking at the lyrics as a whole, you can see that this is complete and utter anti-gay propaganda. Yep, there it is. Wow, why didn't I see that before. Gee, it's so great to have really smart people on here who use words exactly the way anti-gay minsters do.
Posted by: soulbrotha | Oct 26, 2007 6:51:52 PM
Dallasite here. I call it the new CRACK IS WHACK campaign. And it's completely ridiculous. Racist, homophobic, call it what you will... the point is, it's not going to work!
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Hot all around, right?
Posted by: Jason | Oct 26, 2007 8:20:47 PM