I see more white kids with the baggy look than black kids, though there are some of both.
Some of the black kids locally actually wear clothes that fit reasonably well. They look much less like hoodlums when walking down the street than do their sloppy, baggy white counterparts.
Also, I’ve noticed that the loud, vulgar rap you hear coming from cars, though both black kids and white kids seem to listen to it, the really loud offensive booming cars are more likely to be driven by white kids than black ones.
So, at least here, I don’t think this is a clearly racial issue.
The issue is ‘indecent exposure.’ There are African American
youths walking about butt naked, or nearly so. I see this
a fair amount. People in that state of undress are the ones
whom the law will target, I reckon.
These individuals themselves feel it’s indecent exposure.
That is, they feel it’s sexually suggestive and obnoxious, which
is why they do it. I’ve had some interesting experiences
on the street with young men so attired, or unattired,
who were peddling their wares.
The law is idiotic but the issue isn’t quite as silly as
people are making out.
In India naked men occasionally went by in public.
They were holymen. But intentionally lewd behaviour
in public is arguably another matter. It isn’t that the
human body is indecent, but things people do with it
arguably can be.
So probably a legal prohibition against public masturbation
or sexual intercourse, I mean right there on the subway
platform up front in front
of children, etc., nothing covert about it,
is arguably not a bad idea. Certainly such
a prohibition isn’t just something silly and intrusive, passed because we
have nothing better to do.
But if it’s false that anything goes in public, as long as nobody
is battered or robbed etc, then we have to draw lines.
What’s happening is that this business is becoming lewd
and offensive to the point that a lot of people are wanting
it stopped. The cities are passing the laws in response
to a public demand.
That doesn’t mean it’s a good law. But it isn’t entirely
stupid, either.
And why is it again that we don’t want to identify hoodlums?
If they make all the young thugs look clean cut it’ll just be harder for the cops to know who to watch. I say let the dumb little boogers profile themselves silly.
"Oh, look outside the window, there’s a woman being grabbed
They’ve dragged her to the bushes and now she’s being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun, I’d hate to blow the game
And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends"
Phil Ochs, c 1968, based on a notorious case, I think somewhere in NYC.
It is also identified now as a sociological phenomenon. All of them thought someone else would help and downplayed their own ability to assist her. Dozens of people heard her screams.
Group think has a huge impact on us. When a person perceives himself to be the only source of help for a distressed person, that person is highly more likely to feel an obligation to assist and to do so.