The Next Big Bling
Lately I've been wondering what an Obama White House might mean for the future of bling. For the fate of heavy gold, medallions, below-the-butt denim, the whole hip-hop gangsta fashion habit. What if January 20, 2009 turned out to be not just a cultural and clothing pivot point for adults -- a return to the minimalism of sleek, 60s-era sharkskin suits, the containment of golf-ball sized Barbara Bush costume pearls -- but a watershed fashion moment for teenaged boys? Picture it. On Inauguration Day next year, thousands and thousands of young men and boys from city street corners to suburbs, look up from their X-Boxes and catch a glimpse of the impeccable President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama climbing the steps of the Capitol and suddenly feel... unfashionable. Out of it. Old. What if they are overcome by the same stunned, something's-happening-here feeling that teenagers in the early 60s, their closets full of sock hop regalia, felt when they first laid eyes on The Beatles in 1964, on the nationally televised Ed Sullivan Show. For adults, this kind of moment is, at most, something to take note of. To a teenager, it's a gale force warning of imminent social tsunami, an urgent prod from the eyeballs and the amygdala that to everything there is a season, and now is the time to change, change, change. Ask not what you can do for your closet, but what your closet, if ignored, can do to you.
This week in the nation's capital, Washington Post's Metro columnist Courtland Milloy wrote about the street scene in the mostly African-American, inner-city neighborhood of Trinidad, where D.C. police have set up a Balkans-style traffic checkpoints in and out of the neighborhood in an effort to stem a recent spate of drug related murders. Sitting on the front porch of 67-year-old Willie Dorn, a retired corrections officer, Milloy noted the antics of a group of teenaged boys "shirtless, pants below their behinds," who, as Milloy and Dorn watched, launched a plastic bottle at a passing scooter, nearly causing an accident. "Maybe a President Obama could help restore some pride in the black community," Dorn said.
The relationship of clothing to behavior is real. Clothes may not "make the man," but they shape the mind in ways large and small. Ask any stay-at-home parent, freelance writer or invalid who has spent one too many days in baggy sweats and stained T-shirts and begins to notice (in a semi-alarmed, detached sort of way, of course) a dwindling of discipline and energy. The well-known Rx for this condition is a shower and a change into grown-up clothes, the kind with seams that may pinch the body, but can help focus the head.
Until Barack Obama came along, the most visible pop culture exemplar of 1960s suit-and-tie style was the tightly-wound Rev. Louis Farrakhan. But Farrakhan, for all his former high visibility, was never mainstream. It's no surprise that he failed to inspire a national craze for slim suits and buffed oxfords.
Barack Obama is different. Barack Obama is the suit next time.
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Since when did teenagers take their style cues from adults? They didn't and won't. It was teens (from their various cultures) who gave us zoot suits, jeans and leather jackets, white flannels and bucks, jeans and tie-dye, dashikis and Nehru jackets, platform shoes and bell-bottoms, mohawks and spandex, oversized haning down jeans, skinny jeans and whatever fashion fad awaits us next.
Like many of you, I didn't get the point of this piece. If Ms. Battiata is "afraid" of the hip-hop culture, she need only look at her sururban mall -- or any mail order catalog -- to see the melding of cultures and influences.
Better that Barack Obama inspires young people of all colors to see that work and dedication to your dreams pays off.
It ain't about the clothes, Mary.
thank you, jade!!!!!
Try to see the bigger picyure folks. Many large changes are taking place. This happens every generation whether it scares us or not (usually lotta fear).
No one says its gonna be easy, but we are far mor organized at a grassroots level that we will be there to suport the fearful, as Americans always do.
Help end the War in Iraq and get us some healthcare. For the children.
Then why is every teenager in my neighborhood dressing the way my friends and I dressed in the late seventies and early eighties.
Huh. I had noticed that the three-button suits in my closet, which I loved so much a couple years ago were looking SO dated. I'm not a huge fashionista, but I like to look sharp. Sen. Obama goes with a sleek two-button. Makes sense now, I guess.
Ten buttons. the kind with the fabric covering them
Has she looked in the white suburbs, because those are the kids that buy those hip hop clothes and music, not the inner city kids because they can't afford it. Has she looked at the Hip Hop moguls, their clothing line are high fashion suits, like sean Johns etc, so she is way off base. She is looking a few hip hop rappers and applying it to the wrong young people. Again, check out the surburb kids, they are the largest buyers of the clothing and the music.
I guess I don't get it. This is the first - and I mean the first - article posted here that made me stop and think that the symbolism of Senator Obama being elected President might be a good reason to vote for him.
Most of the posts below are negative. I really don't get it. Maybe it is subconcious racial stereotyping - on my part. However, I was touched to relate this concept - the Black President - having a positive impact on inner city youths, even if it is on the somewhat trivial issue of dress.
I'm not saying it is enough for me to vote for the man. I'm still very skeptical that Senator Obama's policy stance is the best for the Nation. If he can win me on that issue, he'll have my vote.
But I believe the heart of this article is good, and true.
Kids dress hip-hop style to imitate their heroes. If Barack Obama becomes a hero, maybe we'll se an end to those god-awful sagging pants.
Back in the early seventies when I was a teenager my step mom who was a school teacher was complaining about white male students who were stoners wearing their pants like they were " carrying a load".
Mary Battiata wrote an incoherent piece trying to tie Obama by position on her paper to bad dress, street gangs, and Louis Farrakhan. Her comments would define yellow journalism in most classrooms.
Dude! Come back down to earth. Although I agree that this is poor "journalism", this article is a pro Obama piece.
Over-reacting a bit, no? Re-read the article.
Nope. Nobody's overreacting. You need to read more thoroughly and thoughtfully.
I agree. I will use this article to teach my students about the crisis in journalistic ethics and the problem with writers who do not conduct thorough research, who do not address issues of social and cultural context, and who rely on stereotypes instead of evidence. Mary needs to go back and take journalism 101. She did not conduct any research on hip hop culture before writing this absurdly racist,ageist, insensitive piece of nonsense. Apparently she does not think that anything related to African American culture deserve the quality of research she would apply to any topic that focused on white people.
I agree. It's sort of felt like someone giving you a kiss while stabbing you in the back. I forced myself to believe that Battiata's intentions might be good, but it didn't work.
I tried to imagine if anyone would have ever placed the same burden on the Bush White House and say, cowboy fashion. But other than Bush actually being a cowboy, I don't recall anyone expecting him to do anything about it.
The more I kept reading, the more she lost me on the 'well intended, but badly written', front too.
This blog is wrong for far too many reasons than I have time to elaborate!
So, I'll just concur that it rubbed me the wrong way too!
I think "bling" and other symptoms of rap crap grow out of the profit-machines of the music industry, and are emphatically NOT political statements, despite craven opportunists such as Flavor Flav who pretend to be sending some kind of social message.
Large numbers of whites, Hispanics and others also imitate this mode of dress and listen to this garbage, which is a testament to our bad educational system and power of the music industry.
Therefore, Obama's election will have zero impact, I think -- except he will turn the nation toward a more positive course, which eventually will have cultural effects. Investment in education, expanded social programs and an economy that produces jobs are much more likely to float all our cultural boats higher.
I don't get it....
You are basically trying to say that by Obama becoming president that will have a positive effect on black people who wear their pants down and prompt a "gansta" lifestyle?
Huh??
That's like saying an mexican president will stop the mexican drug gangs or an Italian president will have a positive effect on the mob.....
Kinda of a silly analysis....people are going to do what they want to do.....Obama might give some people hope that they can achieve their goals if they work hard enough but I wouldn't go as far as laying at his feet the reforming of so called hip hop "ganstas".
I don't know if you were really serious when you wrote this, you might of had the best intentions but I think you took this to a level that really came off all wrong.....
I disagree. I'm African American and I wondered the same thing. She did not associate Obama with these styles but young inner city kids who do. The rap/gangsta/drug lifestyle has appealed to some children who have seen no value in education because it doesn't get them anywhere. Sometimes this is a generational belief. With the election of Obama--evidence that someone who is black can do ANYTHING--I hope there is a sea change among that hard core 1/3 of African Americans who have lost hope. I hope they look at their lives and ask themselves what they can do for themselves, return to school, and empower themselved.
I come from a family where one side has a working class mentality--finish high school and get a job, and the poorer side had the mentality get an education and do better. Unfortunately, many in the my generation of the working class chose a different path. I hope with the election of a President Obama, it will change how Af Ams and Hispanics--the most maligned groups of people of color in my view--see themselves as part of the American fabric.
Veneita,
Please, do not be bamboozled into believing that Whites are all college graduates. All you have to look at is the percentage of Whites with college education in Ohio, West Virgina and Indiana. The college graduation levels in these states are below the national average. As much as I agree that Inner City Blacks need to do better, do not believe for one second that Whites in rural areas are doing any better academically. The media propaganda, with the objective of denigrating Blacks, is pushing this idea that Blacks are illiterates while White are all college educated. Do not believe it for one second. As you correctly observed that "Af Ams and Hispanics-[are] the most maligned groups of people of color...", that is the whole idea. As long as Blacks and Hispanics are maligned, illiterate Whites are made to believe that they are better, which allows the most ignorant of them to make comments denigrating even the most educated Black person. The rich and connected Whites are manipulating the illiterate Whites, telling them that Blacks are illiterate and uneducated, even though these White illiterates are in the same academic predicament as the maligned Inner City Blacks. Don't buy the propaganda. Ask yourself: How many of White Hollywood actors and actresses, singers and models, such as the late Ana Nicole Smith and Brittney (sp?) Spears (sp?)etc, possess college degrees? Start with that, then go to the rural area and ask how many Whites hold college degrees.
This whole post rubbed me the wrong way! Is the reason you're associating 'heavy gold, medallions, below-the-butt denim' and 'hip-hop gangsta fashion' to Barack is because he is black? How insulting! I am black and I don't know anyone who wears that sh*t! Although I vaguely get your point, it's still insulting. Can he just run for president and happen to be black?
Maybe if you'd just framed your post around fashion for men and boys - of all colors - it would have been a better piece. Include what you consider fashion mis-steps for all races. Frame the article around the idea of all men and women, boys and girls adapting a more sophisticated type of dress of yesterday. 'Reducing' Barack, who happens to be black, to 'heavy gold, medallions, below-the-butt denim' and 'hip-hop gangsta fashion' is just plain ignorant. He is half white you know. Why not include stereotypical fashions for white men: mullets, wife beaters, plaid shirts, etc. Why stop at blacks?
I'm waiting on your piece how maybe Hillary Clinton's fashion choices have made women abandon the pant suit...FOREVER!
LMAO! I *just posted a comment (pending approval) confirming that here's at least one woman who will never be able to wear a pantsuit again.
Just think of the impact this is going to have on retail!
If you are black and don;t know anyone who wears those clothes, please come to Baltimore, MD. We have been praying for a positive role model like Sen O for years. I HATE the whole thug life culture. It makes young men, black or white, think they are "selling out" if they go to college and make something of themselves...
jpcline004,
I live in Chicago. There's no reason for me to venture on to Baltimore.
Positive role models should start within the house, not the White House (although I get your point). You want to get rid of thug-life culture? Look to the parents. Obama can do alot for those who are disadvantaged, but if the family structure isn't there (which includes 'education is key' and 'be the best you can be' models) then it's hard for many to break through and break the cycle. Because, after all, isn't it unfortunate that the ONLY model the black youth may have is a president who is miles away from their home and neighborhood?
And, isn't also tragic that Obama has to be the one to tell parents to read to their kids, assist them with their homework, turn off the television and not feed them cold chicken for breakfast? It's not always the 'system' or racism that fails the black youth.
great post...thank you!
Many in the hip-hop world are already adopting a preppier style of dress, especially in the underground scene. If this trend becomes more widespread it won't be because of Sen. Obama. It will be because the bigger mainstream artists start adopting an already burgeoning trend. Secondly, you sound like some old fogy in this article; it's so "those damn kids and their devil rock and roll music." There has long been rebellious forms of dress and to think that some 46-year-old man is going to have a real impact is a bit of a stretch.
I do think, however, that Obama will influence African American males in a more profound way than their choice of wardrobe. An Obama presidency will enable many ghetto black kids living in deplorable circumstances to have pride in themselves. It will let them know that they count for something, and that they should dream big. This will cause a more substantive change in behavior than a 60s-style suit.
The fundament of your article is racist.
I agree. Young black males (and their emulators) aren't the only ones showing off their panties: I recall being in LA a few years back, staying with an ultra hip twenty-something blond; every time she bent over, she flashed her thong. I said, "Hey, your thong is showing." She thanked me. Good lord.
I've never been overly interested in political candidates' taste in dress (though I did laugh heartily at Sherman Alexis' joke about Nader: Who on earth would vote for a man who buys his suits at JC Penney). One thing I can say for sure: I have developed an absolute aversion to anything remotely resembling a *pantsuit, that's for sure.
At any rate, the influence Barack Obama promises to have on the habits and lifestyles of inner city Black males is guaranteed to be more substantial than this lamely sarcastic blog post suggests, and the post (inadvertently, unconsciously perhaps) makes light of the very real crisis these kids face on the streets of our cities.
Meh.
"Fundament" means butt, so I guess you mean that the baggy pants are racist? I think so too because my butt's too flat.
It may have some effect on more formal wear, but little to none on casual wear which is what you describe as being problematic. Obama can rock a suit, and I might consider that look the next time a buy a new suit, but I'm not going to go out and buy a suit to hang out in. Obama doesn't even hang out in suits.
Won't happen until criminals, rappers, sports figures, etc all start sporting three piece suits. The youth look up to their idols in entertainment, sports and the local gang big wigs. When *they* start dressing like the President, then fashion will change.
I'd like nothing better than to see kids abandon the fashion of the just released mental patient or felon on parole. I'm tired of looking at underwear with oversized denim pants that look like the wearer took a dump.
is this an audition piece for some morning news show?
LOL, jesselee26, LOL, no kidding!
A bunch of superficial crap. Today's hip hop garb is the same as James Dean's leather jacket, an expression of youthful rebellion. ur problems are much bigger than the way people whom we don't fully understand dress. Let's get back to real issues.
thank you!...I don't know what kind of stepford fantasies you may have, Ms Battiata, but this is part of American culture...and in case you haven't noticed, the urban hip hop style IS slowly evolving to a hipster style (re: Kanye West) not that it should make a difference in what hip hop implies with regards to feeling good, most of the culture is about bravado (perhaps too much)...you might want to see the latest Forbes Celebrity list...Jay-Z and 50 Cent are both on there...and for all his suits, even Jay-Z wears baggy jeans on the street.
Oh this is not superficial, no, no.
The next generation of fashion is not what the author describes.
The next generation of fashion will be ORANGE JAILHOUSE WEAR complete with
TESTICULAR ELECTRODES sticking out of pants, body tents, body bags and
all this wear--riddled with BULLET HOLES.
Now THAT'S new fashion for ya.
you have a macabre sense of fashion.
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