I was paging through a new magazine called "Cookie" this morning. It's a new magazine for the "hip" mom - containing stuff about parenting, news, fashion, finance, food, etc. Obviously for the more affluent types, though, by the high-priced kid's clothing and advertising in it. I laughed at most of it (how many people out there actually spend $300 on a sweater for a 3-year-old?!) but found a couple of ads very interesting and tore them out to show to Officer Jake.
One was for "Phat Farm" - part of the Baby Phat line, run by Kimora Lee Simmons of the reality show and hip-hop industry dynasty. The boys, approx ages 8-10, are posed on a beach in full "attitude" mode. Cocky poses, chains, logo shirts, handkerchiefs tied around their necks and wrists, large gold medals hanging around their necks, baggy pants toting a sag and basically screaming "thug life."
The other ad was a Hurley ad. Basically making a little boy, around 5 years old, blending in with the other "cool" grown up, totally tattoed out, skater thugs and wearing his cool Hurley clothes.
These ads are no big surprise, we've seen in all before, especially here in Southern Cali. This is a place on the edge of fashion and filled with many people who see children as fashion accessories and dress them up like miniature versions of themselves or what they think fashion is dictating as "cool."
Even here on our street we see this. We are lucky enough to live in a decently affluent suburb - and yet the white, 14-year old kid across the street dresses like a thug. Sagging pants with his boxers hanging out, black gangster-style baseball cap, etc. His parents didn't say a thing, let him "express" himself. He's been in trouble at school lately, we've heard, and dabbling in high-school drugs. He's been suspended and hanging out on the street here at home a lot, not allowed to go out.
What's bad is that a few of the younger boys on the block have started to emulate him. Jake was out in the drive the other day, and the two boys next door (ages 8 and 10) didn't know he was on the other side of the hedge. He could clearly overhear them talking about the older boys' drug troubles, throwing the f-word around a lot when they thought no one was around - and they follow him around like puppies. They also are dressing like him more and more. Their mom thinks it's "cute." "Look at my little thugs," she said the other day proudly to several of us.
It won't be so cute anymore the first call she gets from the police, Jake remarked to me later.
Here's the thing, I don't think we're unfairly stereotyping people on their appearance here. This goes beyond fashion expression, it's emulating a way of life that should not be emulated.
Imagine that your son is dressed in the current "thug" clothing. I don't care if you spent $500 at Baby Phat on these clothes, thug is thug. Now your son is at the mall, or gets lost driving around LA. Now he's in a neighborhood where he's way in over his head and looks like either the gangsters who live there - or even worse - the gangsters who are not welcome there.
Trouble can come from many different areas. They can be misidentified as rivals and hurt or worse. Police can see them and assume they are part of the local gang culture. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong look can add up to a whole lot of trouble.
Police sometimes have to judge people by the way they look - it's an officer safety issue. It's not racial profiling, Jake says, it's criminal profiling. Police can't arrest someone for how they look, they need probable cause of course. Being on guard because of how someone is dressed may not be politically correct, but it's often the only way that law enforcement officers can protect themselves when they have nothing else to go on. People who dress like gang members and are in certain areas are statistically more likely to be carrying guns or involved in some sort of illegal activity. If it walks like a duck....
Liberal critics will throw out 'freedom of expression" and "it's just a style, nothing more." But officers want to come home at night. And if they see a kid walking down Crenshaw toting a sag and with a red handkerchief around his neck, he's not going to think "wow, I wonder where I can buy that for my son," he's going to be on alert and ready for whatever may come his way.
I'm not going out and dressing my kids in the preppiest Gap-type clothes. I'm not saying that you must conform and everyone dress alike. Encourage kids' creativity - you should see the outfits my daughter puts together when I give her free reign to pick her own clothes. But I'm not going to encourage my kids to dress to blend into a criminal culture look just because it's fashionably and think it's "cute." It's not.
By the way, I was looking around the internet for a picture of the ad to show you here and found this on wikipedia: The name "Phat" comes from an acronym of hip-hop slang, meaning "Pretty Hot And Tempting." Again, not something I want my 8-year old son or daughter to be putting out there by the way they dress.
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