Dear Dez Bryant (re: Sagging Pants)

I'm gonna guess Dez was in the middle of the spectrum...

via NewsOK

Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant was ejected from an upscale Dallas shopping mall after a dispute over the sagging pants worn by him and some companions.

A Tuesday police statement says officers working off-duty Saturday as security at NorthPark Center encountered Bryant and three companions wearing the drooping pants.

According to the statement, when the officers asked the four to pull up their trousers, Bryant launched into a profanity-laced tirade that prompted the officers to escort the four from the mall.

Let's do a re-enactment, for old times sake!

-START RE-ENACTMENT-

- Enter any public venue, be it a mall, restaurant, AIDS clinic or what have you -

Security guard (probably white): Hey, you! Pull those pants up or you're out of here!!

Minority youth 1 (with sagging pants): I know you're not looking at me. I know my rights and you can't tell me anything about my apparel. *proceeds to continue discussion with friends about Libyan missile strike*

- Security guard walks away feeling silly and goes to bust teenagers riding escalators the wrong way -

-END RE-ENACTMENT-

 That re-enactment is how the above news story probably should have gone. Then again, this is the real world, not the ideal world where people handle situations with grace. I've always been of the school of thought that no one should or can tell you how to wear your clothes. For any legislative body to try and regulate how a man decides to wear his pants is an egregious violation of civil liberties. It's like telling a woman not to wear a tramp stamp or telling a redneck to cut his mullet off. How can you enact a law or enforce a regulation on a person's physical appearance? Regardless, Dez, you know you f*cked up right?

Dez, I am all for self-expression, and could care less about what you wear, but your sponsors and the media sure as hell do. When White America and their ultra-discerning eye looks upon black youth, they don't see the upstanding young men and women in college or the work force adding to the economy. They see you and your Merry Band of N*ggers, tattoos emblazoned on your bodies, adorning garrulous jewels, mouths agape with profanities and pants scraping the earth with your designer boxers and belts showing. That you represent the spectrum of black youth unable to contain themselves is indicative of your own immaturity and ultimately casts a shadow on the rest of us. Even if one of us does choose to sag his pants, AND responds to a challenge with an educated retort, we probably will get the same treatment, simply because we're lumped in with you.

Yes, the police officer (whose pants probably were up to his armpits) was probably overstepping his boundaries in his request. At the same time, you could have definitely handled it in a better way. How about letting the man catch a glimpse of your Black Card, or carrying a highlight reel of your rookie year, or handing him a card for your lawyer? Or better yet, engaging him in a battle of wits on the merits of individuality and the cultural divide between black youth and White America? Any way you parsed it, NOT cursing him out would definitely be a better course of action. At the end of the day, this probably won't make you bat an eye because you've got enough money to where it doesn't matter what mall you shop at. But for the rest of our sakes, try and find a different mode of rebellion other than anger. It will make for a better story and a stupid-looking security guard, rather than another news piece about 'those n*ggers'...