Letter from a college student - SAGGIN' PANTS

Letter from a college student to Young Black Boys and Men Who Wear Saggin' Pants

The other day, a friend of mine visited me in the lobby of my dorm
just to chat while her laundry was drying. As we were chatting, two
young freshmen came by. One of the 2 boys wanted to 'talk' to my
friend (as in date). She asked him how old they were, and both of
the boys replied 18. My friend and I both laughed hysterically
because we are both 22 years old.
After my friend left, the young men were still hanging around and
one wanted to know how he could gain her interest.

The first thing I told him to do was to pull up his pants! He asked
why, and then said he liked saggin ' his pants. I told him to come
over to my computer and spell the word saggin'. Then I told him to
write the word saggin ' backwards.

S-A-G-G-I-N
N-I-G- G-A-S

I told him the origin of that look was from centuries ago. It was
the intent of slave owners to demoralize the field workers by
forbidding them to wear a belt as they worked in the fields or at
any other rigorous job. In addition, men in prison wore their pants
low when they were 'spoken for'. The other reason their pants looked
like that was they were not allowed to have belts because prisoners
were likely to try to commit suicide. And, saggin' pants prevents
you from running.

We as young Black people have to be the ones to effect change. We
are dying. The media has made a mockery of the Black American. Even
our brothers and sisters from Africa don't take us seriously.
Something as simple as pulling up your pants and standing with your
head held high could make the biggest difference in the world's
perception of us. It is time to do right by ourselves. We need to

love and embrace each other. No one is going to do that for us.

It all comes down to perception. What people perceive is what
reality to them is. We have to change not only the media's
perception of us, but we need to change our perception of ourselves.

Remember all eyes are on you Black Man. All eyes are on you Black
Woman. All eyes are on your Black Child. People point the finger at

us and expect us to engage in negative and illegal activities, to
manifest loud, boisterous behavior, to spend our hard earned money
in their stores, buying goods we don't need, or really want. We have
allowed not only the media, but the government and the world to
portray us as a 'sub-culture. ' They have stripped our culture down
to the point where the image of Black people is perpetuated as
rappers, athletes, drug users, and consumers of junk food, expensive
tennis shoes, expensive cars, expensive TVs, cell phones and not
investing in homes for our families.
We are so much more!!!!!!!

To all our Black Men : It's time to stand up. There are billions of
Black Women who want to do nothing more than worship the ground that
you walk on. We are so in love with your potential. We want to have
your back, we want to love, support and cherish every ounce of your
being. But with that you have to show that you are willing to be the
head of our households. You have to prove yourselves worthy of our
submission. We need you to be hard working...Not a hustler. We need
you to seek higher education, to seek spirituality. We need you to
stand! And trust us; we will have your back. We know that it gets
hard. We know you get weary. Trust and believe that there is nothing
that a Black Man and a Black Woman can't handle with GOD on their
side.

To all our Black Women : It is also time for you to stand up. It is
time for you to stop using our bodies as our primary form of
communication. It is time to be that virtuous woman that Proverbs
spoke of. You cannot sit by the wayside while our men are dying by
the masses. You are the epitome of Black Love. It starts within you.
You need to speak with conviction to let not only our Black Men
know, but the world, that you are the Mothers of this world. You are
so powerful. You are so beautiful. You need to love and embrace
every blessing God has given us physically, emotionally and
spiritually.

For all our Black Children : We need to love them. We need to teach
them. We need to stand up for them. We need to protect them. We need
to show them that there are no 'get rich quick' schemes. We need to
tell them that they WILL die trying if they submit to a life of
crime and deceit. We need to teach our children that no one will
love them the way we can. And being a basketball player, a rapper,
or a drug dealer is not reality. It's not realistic and only a small
percentage of people ever make it as a rapper or professional
athlete. We need to teach our children that we can be more than
rappers and athletes. We can be the owners of these sports teams. We
can be the CEO's of OUR fortune 500 companies. We need to believe in
literacy.

Q&A: Wyclef Jean on Bill Clinton and Haiti's New Revolution

Q&A: Wyclef Jean on Bill Clinton and Haiti's New Revolution

A portion of this interview appears in the August 2010 cover story, "The Country That Never Was," on Bill Clinton's looking for hope in the dirt to rebuild — no, just build — Haiti as the de facto CEO of a leaderless nation. But Jean, an influential leader in his own right, struck as so smart — so honest ("It's the rising, and what I mean by the rising is destroy to rebuild") — that we'd thought we should share a bit more.

ESQUIRE: What changes have you seen in the way people are living in Port-au-Prince since the quake?

WYCLEF JEAN: Before the quake we had close to an 80 percent illiteracy rate. The population could not read and write. Before the quake you had a situation of child slavery. Before the quake you had a high prostitution rate. Before the quake, Cité du Soleil was in an inhumane situation — not even animals would walk in. Before the quake, Haiti got hit with back-to-back hurricanes, the city of Gonaïves was destroyed.

ESQ: That's a good breakdown of how it was before, but what's the change been like since?

WJ: One-point-two million homeless. There were homes then. No matter what kind of homes they were, they still were homes. Forget the fact that people live in tents these days. Now, no homes. That will catch up to them.

ESQ: Haitians talk about this being a new beginning.

WJ: Oh, yes. Haiti has an opportunity now to start from scratch, and what that means is, we can get real schools in there, there's a chance of getting real hospitals, of teaching a population how to read and write, where kids can get a degree, and actually do something with the degree right now. As far as investment and business, this is the best time to invest in business in Haiti.

ESQ: But let's say this is the moment people on the outside stop paying attention. Can that be reversed? Will Americans keep Haiti on their mind?

WJ: Definitely. I think it'll stay that way that with Bill there. An ex-president of the United States of America — I don't know too many stories like that in the case of history, where a former president goes and decides that he's going to be part of helping run another country. That's big. It don't get bigger than that. You know what I’m saying? That signal is, "Yes, the Americans are there."

ESQ: There's still a lot of energy in Port-au-Prince — you see kids in their uniforms going to school here. It feels like there's a certain reverence for school. Yet...

WJ: Let me ask you something: Is that really school? Or is that the façade of school? You and me, all of us here in the States, we know what school is. Nobody bluffs us. In Haiti, there is the façade of school. But this moment — the rebuilding — is an opportunity to actually provide real schooling for a mass population, which can turn things around in the next fifteen years.

ESQ: Should that be the focus of relief efforts?

WJ: Now the effort needs to change from relief to business, because if you don't have a country where you're bringing in business — where you're sure that if you put in a dollar, you're going to get three dollars back — no one will be interested.

ESQ: I don't know if this is a difficult question or what, but from my reading...

WJ: There's no question that's difficult for me. My daddy was a minister, my grandfather was a voodoo priest, my uncle was a mason, I was raised with a lot of studies.

ESQ: ...everyone agrees there's a small group of families that control money and commerce in Haiti. If that's so, how can you decentralize that structure in order to do things like reinvent health care?

WJ: The first question is not who they are. The first question we have to ask is, What are these families? They are capitalists. They believe in capitalism, in making money, right? We have to build an open system that doesn't stop them from making money, that will work for them, if only because what they're making could double, triple. Everything starts with policy. We just say, If you break the law, then you'll pay for it, because there's an enforceable policy in place. In America, we don't stop people from making money. If you've got a dollar, and you can make three with it, make three with it, you can make six, make ten, but — pay your taxes, dude. Don't do that and you're going to be in trouble. That's how I see it happening.

ESQ: Taxation. The Tea Party nightmare.

WJ: Yeah. Understand what I'm saying to you. I don't bite my tongue — some people may be scared to talk about families — but I grew up in the States, and the reality of it is: if they are in the mansion, and around them is nothing but huts, and a bunch of people who can't read and write, then it’s not a mansion; it's the façade of a mansion.

And I only speak firsthand, because my mama was a maid, and I'm from the hut — not a house, not an apartment, not a ghetto, a hut. After all these years, when these families have made so much money, why aren't people in schools? Why can't kids read, and why can't they write? Is this modernized slavery, in a way? Is this whole thing created to keep a certain class, with slavery? That needs to change, and it's going to change with the revolution. And the revolution this time is not going to be with arms. It has to be a revolution with policy, nonviolence, apply the Gandhi thing, and the Dr. King method. That's what I believe.

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF BILL CLINTON AND HAITI:
COVER STORY PREVIEW: Clinton on His Commitment, Health Care, and Much More
DEBATE: Is Haiti Destined to Be a Republic of NGOs?
TOM CHIARELLA: On the Ground, Haitians Ar Tired — and Angry
EARLIER: Clinton Talks to Esquire After the Quake
FLASHBACK: Clinton on Haiti in 1994

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/wyclef-jean-haiti-earthquake-interview#ixzz0t7ov8d9r