DK Holland

The only popular culture black superhero I can think of was Hancock and he was a screw up. How amusing to laugh (in the tradition of the black minstrels) at this ragtag guy out to fix disastrous situations by making them far worse? I wonder what black superstar Will Smith thought of the role model of super black screw up that he was perpetuating? Was it a parody of the notion among high achieving blacks that they have to be ‘twice as good’? Can someone provide insights? I must say I didn’t see this movie.

Suddenly we have a black president elect who is anything but a screw up. And blacks are lifted up by the election of this great man, Barack Obama. He gets his hair cut once a week unlike Hancock who can’t manage to shave (he’s homeless). Obama wants his brothers to pull up their pants (ie stop complaining and make something of yourself) a message that can only come from another brother. The low-riding pant look came from prison where belts are not allowed.

In mid October, these shirts were hanging in a window in Fulton Mall – the world famous, predominantly black, Brooklyn shopping area. The tee shirt on left shows Martin Luther King Jr and Barack Obama and says “Change: The Dream We Can believe In. The one on the right says ‘Pull up your pants brother. You are disrespecting the father that (sic) made you the mother who bore you and the God who created you. The whole world is laughing.”

This tee shirt, with an image of Malcolm X, says emphatically “You’ve been tricked brotha You are not a nigga!!! Pull your pants up!!”

African Americans were branded upon entry to our country until the latter part of the 19th century, considered only 50% human. This fact and the color of their skin makes this race unique in America. If the new president (not descended from slaves) were stamped with Muslim or Native American or Jewish or any other cultural, religious or racial stereotype the response would not be the same because, if someone coming towards you is black you know it 50 feet away. I live near downtown Brooklyn. Many of my neighbors and friends are African American and many have bigger houses than I do. Have achieved more than I have. None of them speak in black slang, wear low riders nor are they screw ups. But this is not the experience of Americans who have no exposure to African Americans except through Rap, television or films or other forms of entertainment, the loudest most attention-getting of which are still too often reminiscent of the black minstrels (apologies to Oprah, Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman, Quincy Jones). One of Barack Obama’s greatest roles may be to help eliminate the acceptability of the black goof-up as the main icon of black America.

I’ll bet there has been a spike in sales of those Pull Up Your Pants tee shirts at the Fulton Mall since the election. I’ll go back and check and let you know. Until then, what do you think about all this?