EDITORIAL

 

Black youth sagging get fined or jail time; white anti-face maskers, no penalty 

by  Edmond Davis

Historically, what is more dangerous to Americans? Sagging jeans in public spaces, or not wearing a face mask in the age of COVID-19 in public places? 

How many Americans have compromised health issues from ‘Sagging Pants Syndrome’ (SPS)? What’s the CDC’s death count on SPS in southern ‘red states’? Thousands are criminalized for freedom of expression and the majority are African American males (6% of the U.S. population). Towns have orchestrated ordinances against sagging, but no statewide or national legislation yet. Wildwood, NJ; Jefferson Parrish, LA; Pikeville, TN; New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Miami and Jacksonville, Fla all have entertained similar policies disproportionately affecting Black males in ways that are MIA -or- Marginalizing-Ignoring-Avoiding them of their rights. Lawmakers in South Carolina wanted to fine people for wearing sagging pants with a House Bill 4957 Session 122. It would make it illegal for a person to wear pants “sagging more than three inches below his ileum,” according to the South Carolina Legislature’s website. Lawmakers have amended laws to include interpretations. Laws that criminalize sagging have long been considered racist and unconstitutional. According to data obtained by the Shreveport Times 726 arrests for sagging in Shreveport, LA. since the original ordinance passed in 2007. 96% of those arrested were African American males. Shreveport was one of many municipalities that banned sagging since the year 2000, but it was repealed. Mostly southern cities proposed such laws under the guise of regulating public decency of this rogue fashion. The opponents to sagging use ethnic intimidations and feed stereotypical fear-tactics like saying it was part of the gang way of life or prison culture. Cities in Georgia, Mississippi, New Jersey, South Carolina and other parts of Louisiana still have anti-sagging ordinances on the book. In Massachusetts, a law that’s been on the books for hundreds of years, amended in 1987 General Laws Chapter 272, Section 16 punishes the crime of ‘Open and Gross Lewdness and Lascivious Behavior’ with imprisonment in the House of Corrections for up to 2 years or in the State Prison for up to 3 years. It's Ambiguous yet can be used for sagging. 

Sagging jeans don’t equate to sagging morals but refusing to wear a mask can be deadly and is selfish. When an employee requests you to wear a facemask, the ‘KRAKEN’ Karen is released! The real social ills are committed by individuals who don’t wear masks, but they’re not criminalized. Sagging hasn’t put anyone at risk, but not wearing a mask is harmful and can be deadly to the immunocompromised (African Americans, Hispanics and the elderly).   

The death of George Floyd on social media showed Whites in real-time what African Americans have experienced for generations with systemic racism in policing. COVID-19 shows how white privilege weaponized coughing and smart devices have positioned privacy as a past commodity. From COVID Parties, vocal anti-maskers to the carnage of coughing Karens’, Houston, we have a problem! This overwhelmingly White demographic indirectly infects many, unintentionally kills some, and traumatized others without accountability. Responses to these seemingly pro-COVID tactics are unjustly delayed, unlike sagging. 

SOLUTIONS: (1) Incentivize masked Americans with discounts on various items (food, clothing, rent, movie tickets, automobile insurance, & gas) deemed essentials. (2) Fines for not wearing a mask should be the same for sagging ranged from $25 to $600. (3) Community Service hours from 32 to 40, and (4) even time served in a jail or prison up to 6 months depends on data from contact tracing. (5) As a health-based sociocultural lesson anti-maskers should be denied access into all public places with a sign saying, “Masks Only.” They can understand what African Americans during Jim Crow felt like when they saw a sign that said “Whites Only” when entering stores, restaurants, and parks.

I don’t like sagging, but I won’t criminalize it. I wear them to protect others and my family in the United States of America. Black men face a different kind of scrutiny even with masks, not sagging. The double-standard of racism is why the anti-mask patriots have no accountability in the Undisciplined States of America (USA).

Edmond Davis, College History Professor, Social Historian, Law Enforcement Scholar, edmondwdavis@gmail.com 318-243-9133www.edmondwdavis.com

Edmond W. Davis

Social Historian and Influencer

Phone: 318-243-9133

Email: edmondwdavis@gmail.com

Website: https://edmondwdavis.com/ 

You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP5n1yLzSE4 

@eddavisw @edmondwdavis