There are greater evils in the world than baggy trousers

There’s something about baggy pants that really ticks people off.
I got a call about a month ago from a man who, while driving through Pageland, called me to complain about kids he saw with their “pants hanging down.” He was really, really angry and suggested the town adopt some kind of ordinance banning this look.
Baggy pants were the topic of discussion during last week’s Stop the Violence event at the Pageland Community Center. A.V. Strong, director of Project Gang Out, told a few funny stories about haranguing kinds in department stores and offering to buy them belts.
In June, officials in the Louisiana town of Delcambre made wearing “overly-saggy jeans” a crime punishable by up to six months or fined $500.
The whole thing seems kind of silly to me, possibly because I’ve seen this same story played out so many times before. (It was even parodied in Back to the Future: Part II, where it was the fashion of kids in the “future” wear their pants inside out.)
It’s a tale much older than me, in fact, and I suspect it will continue long after I’m gone. It will be a different fashion statement, a different sort of values, another conflict — and will again be a totally wasted effort.
Consider this cautionary, ridiculous and all-too-true tale. In June of 1943, Los Angeles was ravaged by “Zoot Suit Riots.” The name suggests the Zoot Suit was somehow to blame for the violence, but it was actually a race war between soldiers, marines and sailors against the city’s growing Latino population.
During the conflict, one Los Angeles newspaper even printed a guide on how to “de-zoot” a zoot suiter — “Grab a zooter. Take off his pants and frock coat and tear them up or burn them,” the editor suggested.
The day that story was published, 5,000 civilians gathered in downtown Los Angeles, in addition to the unofficial military from bases as far away as Las Vegas. Police who waded into the fray armed themselves with homemade “zoot sticks,” razor-barbed 2x4s used to shred Zoot Suits.
Knowing an opportunity when they saw it, members of the mob headed straight for Watts (which was and still is a predominantly black section of LA) while another headed for Latino-heavy East Lost Angeles.
Once there, the racist mobs did what racist mobs usually do. Curiously, no one was reported killed in the riots.
The Los Angeles City Council blamed the Zoot Suit, which was the fashion among lower-income (i.e. “not white”) residents of the city and banned the outfit. After the riots, wearing a Zoot Suit was punishable by 30 days in jail.
You won’t find anyone today wearing a zoot suit, not because of government prohibitions or outright acts of violence, but because they look silly. That’s the thing about fashion statements — they have a short lifespan. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Zoot Suit, bell-bottom trousers, skinny ties, neon shoelaces or saggy pants. Those who favor fashion eventually move on with their lives.
So please, lighten up. If you want to have a positive impact on the community, there are plenty outreach programs in the county in need of volunteers.


Wallace McBride is editor of The Progressive Journal.