New Morehouse College Policy Bans Sagging

[AnotherKD]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Elizabeth Gates expresses my opposition to this better than I ever could. Frank Leon Roberts, too.

And no, just because it is a private college does NOT mean it can "do anything it wants."

Sorry to bust in on this thread, but I'd like some clarification from you guys. I am not in any way being snide or flippant- I would really like some opinions.

I read these articles and cannot understand the argument put forth by Roberts. I would like to know how simply because an institution is banning wear that, while somewhat popular and a "cultural fashion" (as Roberts puts it), it is bringing racism into question. The quote by Roberts: "The idea that young black men on college campuses are so developmentally arrested that the only way that they can distinguish between what to wear in the classroom vs. what to wear in "corporate America" is by prohibiting them from wearing sagging jeans at all times, is not only absolutely ridiculous, it’s also quite racist."

Why can't this policy be viewed as simply dressing appropriately? Why does it have to be about racism?

If the new trend for girls entailed some sort of shirt where there was a big shape cut out of the front of the shirt and the front of the girl's bra was in plain view, it would be rational for school officials to tell students to go home and change before wearing something that inappropriate to class. Or if they wore a skirt so short that their undewear was literally sticking out one way or another. I kind of view it as the same thing. I don't view it as conformity, but as an institution of higher learning trying to help their students along by introducing cultural aspects of the world known as "after college". I see it as Morehouse trying to get their students to put their best foot forward in everything that they do, including dress. While I agree with MLK Jr. about his comments that people should see others for what they are inside, and not the outside, unfortunately that is not the case. We will always harbor an injust view of a person (no matter how slight) due to the way that they look. However, I don't think that it is racist- I think it happens across every community. Maybe I'm just naive, but I guess what's why I'm asking for your views.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AnotherKD

Why can't this policy be viewed as simply dressing appropriately? Why does it have to be about racism?

If the new trend for girls entailed some sort of shirt where there was a big shape cut out of the front of the shirt and the front of the girl's bra was in plain view, it would be rational for school officials to tell students to go home and change before wearing something that inappropriate to class. Or if they wore a skirt so short that their undewear was literally sticking out one way or another. I kind of view it as the same thing. I don't view it as conformity, but as an institution of higher learning trying to help their students along by introducing cultural aspects of the world known as "after college". I see it as Morehouse trying to get their students to put their best foot forward in everything that they do, including dress. While I agree with MLK Jr. about his comments that people should see others for what they are inside, and not the outside, unfortunately that is not the case. We will always harbor an injust view of a person (no matter how slight) due to the way that they look. However, I don't think that it is racist- I think it happens across every community. Maybe I'm just naive, but I guess what's why I'm asking for your views.

I agree with what Morehouse is doing. It's enough that so many young Black men don't utilize the opportunity to get a higher education but it says something when an institution has to make a rule to TEACH them how to dress appropiately in order to be successful in whatever career choice they make.

And with them banning men from wearing dresses, well, if they don't like the rule, transfer.

...or sue for discrimination.

[Little32]

As someone on the other side of the desk, I can attest to the very real ways that student attire can be truly disruptive to a learning enviroment, and in that I understand the administration feeling a need to in someway construct some parameters that help create an environment conducive to learning.

Have debated this with siblings, one of whom is a Morehouse grad and very much in support of the dress code, and one of the points that I have made is that colleges across the board are facing issues, most in the disciplinary range, that most do not have the infrastructure to deal with. The infrastructure does not exist because in the past such codes (both dress and behavioral) have been unwritten and yet uniformally understood and enacted. Colleges are now having to devise the regulations to try to curtail behaviors that, very honestly, did not exist on such a broad scale even 10, 15 years ago. They are not always going to do this perfectly in the first attempt. I would not be surprised to see this policy fine-tuned both in language and in implementation in the future.