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Superstar
On most weekends, Scott Pegram is a jeans and sneakers kind of guy, typical of any American male in his late 20s. But these days, he never pulls them out.
It’s safer that way.
While other men are out jogging in sweats, casually navigating the streets of New York City sporting a hoodie without second thought, Pegram is rarely seen without a button-up, fitted trousers and fashionable boots.
That means business casual whenever he’s in public, trimming his hair to a shorter length so he’s always presentable and covering up the many tattoos on his muscular arms.
Suppressing his sense of self.
As a young black man living in America in 2015, he knows how he is perceived: angry, aggressive and dangerous. At worst, “hood” or “thug,” two pejorative terms that have been unfairly and casually coded as of late to describe young black men.
Pegram has witnessed what happens to people like him, some of whom were targeted for their blackness and killed. Many happened to be wearing casual outfits. There was Trayvon Martin who was shot and killed while wearing a black hoodie; Michael Brown, Jr. sported baggy attire when he was shot in Ferguson one year ago Sunday; Freddie Gray wore a gray windbreaker attached with a hood when he was arrested in Baltimore.
In 2013, the website Killed by Police documented 770 police related deaths. That statistic spiked to 1,104 in 2014. So far in 2015, there have been 699 reported deaths with countless others that have not been reported or made public. According to statistics, the percentage of blacks killed by police is much higher than other demographics. There are roughly 4.2 out of every million black people killed, compared with 1.6 per million for whites.
To avoid becoming yet another statistic, black men across the country, like Pegram, have adopted a dress code to deflect negative attention as a conscious means of survival. They want to send this message: “I’m safe. I don’t pose a threat. You can trust me.”
Certainly, many black American men dress up simply because they like to. They don't necessarily dress fashionably to feel safer in their skin or to avoid police suspicion. One need look no further than style stars like Pharrell Williams and Kanye West, up-and-coming dandies like Jidenna, who are trendsetters in their own right.
Fashion bloggers like Sabir Peele say their own sharp sense of style comes from an innate desire to express themselves through clothing. “I’m normally dressed in suits because that’s my personal taste,” the 28-year old says. "I don't necessarily dress up because I want to deflect any attention from police, no. But I wonder if people would be questioning why a black man is at places, like a fancy hotel, and staring my way if I wasn't suited up like I usually am."
The former admissions counselor who resides in Philadelphia is now the creative director for his own business, Men’s Style Pro, a menswear blog.
Though he hasn’t had run-ins with the police in recent years, one incident still resonates. It was New Year’s Eve a couple of years ago when was walking to a party with a friend, in casual clothing: a t-shirt and a black leather jacket. He was stopped by authorities who drew their guns.
“They pulled their guns out on us saying that we fit the profile of a couple of guys who recently robbed a house,” he says. “It was extremely upsetting.”
It's not a unique experience to Peele, rather, one that many black American males have faced at one time or another.
“There’s this notion of African American males who have chosen to dress in a way that disarms the blackness and the potential for being seen as more black than human,” says says Emmett Price, author of Hip Hop Culture and a professor at Northeastern University.
“In society today, dressing up has become a life or death choice.”
The story is one that is hardly new to the black American saga, Price says. Black Americans have been adhering to this notion of the “politics of respectability” throughout history.
“It’s black men catering to the external expectations to present themselves as respectable and more so human,” he explains. “Once we convey that we are human, then there’s an opportunity for a relationship and not one that is based upon who is dominant and who is subservient.”
The notion of utilizing dress to deflect prejudice dates back to the 19th century, explains Calvin Warren, assistant professor of American studies at George Washington University.
“The strategy of using fashion to gain recognition of one's humanity has been a strategy we've used since the 1800s,” he says. “There was a school of thought that if black people presented themselves as more respectable it would translate to equal treatment.”
In the book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, author Monica L. Miller describes the history of black men throughout American history as having a contentious relationship with clothing.
“When a captive African was enslaved, when they decided to run away, one of the things they did was they stole clothing,” Warren says, referring to the book’s findings. “Part of being a slave was not having the luxury of fashion. You were given a particular degrading uniform so you could be identified as a slave. If you wanted to leave the plantation, you needed a new set of clothing. So one of the things that distinguished free blacks from slaves was clothing, which is when the black dandy movement began.”
The movement sparked free blacks to celebrate their newfound liberty by dressing in a more ostentatious manner and creating such a distinct style all their own. So much so that they were labeled with the term “black dandies.”
“If they dress up, they showed how grateful and sacred they saw freedom as, therefore showing white people that they could be recognized as humans,” explains Warren.
Clothing has since been used strategically throughout every decade, explains Jabari Asim, professor at Emerson College and editor at Crisis Magazine, published by the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People.
“During the Civil Rights movement men wore their black suits and women in white dresses all in their Sunday bests,” he says. “They were super dignified and they used clothing to show that they would be as productive of citizens as any whites, if given rights.”
In the years proceeding, black men used their sense of clothing as a means of empowerment, Asim explains. The height of popularity with jazz music created the perennially cool image of the black man, with stars like Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan, who championed that notion and became household names.
“Black men then used their style as a means of politics and of empowerment,” says Price. “The '60s were the dashikis during the political struggles; the '70s were about growing Afros out to show the individuality of black Americans; and the '80s about hip hop culture calling out injustices in rap music.”
“There was an almost bit of naive optimism to be free to be who we were, and that we [as black Americans] still had access to the bounty of what America had to offer,” says Asim.
But times have changed, Asim says. And people are hardly deluded with notions that equality can be a near-reaching reality. Asim admits that he, too, has become tired of the promise of equality in a post-racial post-Obama country he’s been told of.
“I have four sons and I hesitate when they wear hoodies,” he admits. “It’s less about respectability and has everything to do with fear.”
Indeed, said fear has been instilled in black men across the country for years. One of the many victims of intimidation is Alex Peay, 28, the founder and president of Rising Sons, a non-profit based in Philadelphia that focuses on empowering and supporting underprivileged minorities. Already, Peay has been arrested twice, both times on false accusations.
The first was when he was 16. He was falsely accused with a crime he did not commit and was handcuffed by authorities. He was only freed when the man accusing him stepped forward and admitted they arrested the wrong person.
more here...
Why some American black men are dressing in suits to survive
It’s safer that way.
While other men are out jogging in sweats, casually navigating the streets of New York City sporting a hoodie without second thought, Pegram is rarely seen without a button-up, fitted trousers and fashionable boots.
That means business casual whenever he’s in public, trimming his hair to a shorter length so he’s always presentable and covering up the many tattoos on his muscular arms.
Suppressing his sense of self.
As a young black man living in America in 2015, he knows how he is perceived: angry, aggressive and dangerous. At worst, “hood” or “thug,” two pejorative terms that have been unfairly and casually coded as of late to describe young black men.
Pegram has witnessed what happens to people like him, some of whom were targeted for their blackness and killed. Many happened to be wearing casual outfits. There was Trayvon Martin who was shot and killed while wearing a black hoodie; Michael Brown, Jr. sported baggy attire when he was shot in Ferguson one year ago Sunday; Freddie Gray wore a gray windbreaker attached with a hood when he was arrested in Baltimore.
In 2013, the website Killed by Police documented 770 police related deaths. That statistic spiked to 1,104 in 2014. So far in 2015, there have been 699 reported deaths with countless others that have not been reported or made public. According to statistics, the percentage of blacks killed by police is much higher than other demographics. There are roughly 4.2 out of every million black people killed, compared with 1.6 per million for whites.
To avoid becoming yet another statistic, black men across the country, like Pegram, have adopted a dress code to deflect negative attention as a conscious means of survival. They want to send this message: “I’m safe. I don’t pose a threat. You can trust me.”
Certainly, many black American men dress up simply because they like to. They don't necessarily dress fashionably to feel safer in their skin or to avoid police suspicion. One need look no further than style stars like Pharrell Williams and Kanye West, up-and-coming dandies like Jidenna, who are trendsetters in their own right.
Fashion bloggers like Sabir Peele say their own sharp sense of style comes from an innate desire to express themselves through clothing. “I’m normally dressed in suits because that’s my personal taste,” the 28-year old says. "I don't necessarily dress up because I want to deflect any attention from police, no. But I wonder if people would be questioning why a black man is at places, like a fancy hotel, and staring my way if I wasn't suited up like I usually am."
The former admissions counselor who resides in Philadelphia is now the creative director for his own business, Men’s Style Pro, a menswear blog.
Though he hasn’t had run-ins with the police in recent years, one incident still resonates. It was New Year’s Eve a couple of years ago when was walking to a party with a friend, in casual clothing: a t-shirt and a black leather jacket. He was stopped by authorities who drew their guns.
“They pulled their guns out on us saying that we fit the profile of a couple of guys who recently robbed a house,” he says. “It was extremely upsetting.”
It's not a unique experience to Peele, rather, one that many black American males have faced at one time or another.
“There’s this notion of African American males who have chosen to dress in a way that disarms the blackness and the potential for being seen as more black than human,” says says Emmett Price, author of Hip Hop Culture and a professor at Northeastern University.
“In society today, dressing up has become a life or death choice.”
The story is one that is hardly new to the black American saga, Price says. Black Americans have been adhering to this notion of the “politics of respectability” throughout history.
“It’s black men catering to the external expectations to present themselves as respectable and more so human,” he explains. “Once we convey that we are human, then there’s an opportunity for a relationship and not one that is based upon who is dominant and who is subservient.”
The notion of utilizing dress to deflect prejudice dates back to the 19th century, explains Calvin Warren, assistant professor of American studies at George Washington University.
“The strategy of using fashion to gain recognition of one's humanity has been a strategy we've used since the 1800s,” he says. “There was a school of thought that if black people presented themselves as more respectable it would translate to equal treatment.”
In the book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, author Monica L. Miller describes the history of black men throughout American history as having a contentious relationship with clothing.
“When a captive African was enslaved, when they decided to run away, one of the things they did was they stole clothing,” Warren says, referring to the book’s findings. “Part of being a slave was not having the luxury of fashion. You were given a particular degrading uniform so you could be identified as a slave. If you wanted to leave the plantation, you needed a new set of clothing. So one of the things that distinguished free blacks from slaves was clothing, which is when the black dandy movement began.”
The movement sparked free blacks to celebrate their newfound liberty by dressing in a more ostentatious manner and creating such a distinct style all their own. So much so that they were labeled with the term “black dandies.”
“If they dress up, they showed how grateful and sacred they saw freedom as, therefore showing white people that they could be recognized as humans,” explains Warren.
Clothing has since been used strategically throughout every decade, explains Jabari Asim, professor at Emerson College and editor at Crisis Magazine, published by the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People.
“During the Civil Rights movement men wore their black suits and women in white dresses all in their Sunday bests,” he says. “They were super dignified and they used clothing to show that they would be as productive of citizens as any whites, if given rights.”
In the years proceeding, black men used their sense of clothing as a means of empowerment, Asim explains. The height of popularity with jazz music created the perennially cool image of the black man, with stars like Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan, who championed that notion and became household names.
“Black men then used their style as a means of politics and of empowerment,” says Price. “The '60s were the dashikis during the political struggles; the '70s were about growing Afros out to show the individuality of black Americans; and the '80s about hip hop culture calling out injustices in rap music.”
“There was an almost bit of naive optimism to be free to be who we were, and that we [as black Americans] still had access to the bounty of what America had to offer,” says Asim.
But times have changed, Asim says. And people are hardly deluded with notions that equality can be a near-reaching reality. Asim admits that he, too, has become tired of the promise of equality in a post-racial post-Obama country he’s been told of.
“I have four sons and I hesitate when they wear hoodies,” he admits. “It’s less about respectability and has everything to do with fear.”
Indeed, said fear has been instilled in black men across the country for years. One of the many victims of intimidation is Alex Peay, 28, the founder and president of Rising Sons, a non-profit based in Philadelphia that focuses on empowering and supporting underprivileged minorities. Already, Peay has been arrested twice, both times on false accusations.
The first was when he was 16. He was falsely accused with a crime he did not commit and was handcuffed by authorities. He was only freed when the man accusing him stepped forward and admitted they arrested the wrong person.
more here...
Why some American black men are dressing in suits to survive
