7. No sagging–the wearing of one’s pants or shorts low enough to reveal undergarments or secondary layers of clothing.

– Morehouse College Appropriate Attire Policy October 2009

Yes, in true Bill Cosbian fashion, we learned that Morehouse College, the alma mater of Dr. King, recently revised its dress code policy—an 11-point list of “thou shall nots” that prohibits (among other ridiculous things) its-all male student body from not wearing their pants far above the waistline.

The new policy speaks to a pre-Hip Hop generation African-American orthodoxy—an unspoken set of cultural expectations that tries to preserve the black male image by simply policing it.

Many of us in the black community know this to be a hybrid display of class and generational warfare.  We’ve heard our grandparents bemoan the faculties of the lost generation—our music, hair, gold-tooth smiles, lace-less shoes, and belt-less jeans are to blame.  We’ve even heard the Creole grievances of gossiped church women who could all be silenced by the good use of a hot-comb and a nice pair of grey slacks.

Some prominent black scholars have attributed all of this to the world-renown American prison-industrial complex—where a one-piece orange jumpsuit and a mystery of man-made corn-rolls is all the rage.  We almost bought it, until we discovered that around the corner from our chagrin would be a so-called “post-racial generation” of suburban white boys who wanted everything but the burden—the Asher Roth types who would proudly wear their blue-eyed soul off their butts if it meant they could be honorary black and not be considered racist.  It would be the closest thing to blackface since “Birth of a Nation.”

But as we learned, Morehouse’s new policy is not some harmless breach of that unspoken coveted creed derived from the black barber shops, the one about never airing the dirty laundry in front of white folks.

No, this new policy is a real perpetuation of racism.  It is a signed 4th grade permission slip absolving the ethnically challenged colleges of America from their racial liability if they do the same thing to their 3.9% minority population.

In the Don Imus age where the black-on-black use of the “n-word” fools white kids into thinking that it’s okay for them to use it too, surely Morehouse would know better.  We’d all be outraged if the University of Georgia, Penn State, or University of Virginia adopted a similar “sagging” pants policy.  Charges of racism would run wildly through the media.

The NAACP would have a jurisprudential conniption, and it wouldn’t be long before these universities would be begging for racial healing from the RainbowPush Coalition.

A recent incident at the original Mother’s Bar in Chicago promises of this. The Huffington Post’s Tim Taliferro recently reported that “six black students [from Washington University] in a group of 200 seniors that traveled to Chicago were told they could not come into Mother’s because their pants were too baggy even though white students similarly dressed were admitted.

A former Lodge Management employee who worked the door at Bootleggers across the street told the Huffington Post that when he was being trained he was told not to admit groups of black men or anyone who ‘looked thug.’  ‘It was definite policy to not admit people who looked like trouble,” the former employee said. They never said ‘black,’ but they said ‘ghetto,’ and everyone knew what that meant.”

Similarly, the Morehouse College Appropriate Attire Policy reads “students who choose not to abide by this policy will be denied admission into class and various functions and services of the College if their manner of attire is inappropriate.”

A coincidence?

In a time where we pride ourselves on taking tremendous strides with race-relations, we must ask ourselves whether there is really a difference between Morehouse’ new policy and the racially charged incident of Mother’s Bar.

The six Washington University students have filed a complaint against Mother’s Bar with the Civil Rights Bureau of the Illinois Office of Attorney General.

As for Morehouse—well, so much for enforcing laws that prohibit the denial of opportunity based on personal appearance.  As it turns out, when you’re a college that churns out alums like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, there isn’t a lot any commission, department, or Office of Attorney General can tell you about justice.

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