via:nypost.com
Saying low-slung pants give their wearers a bad image, a state lawmaker is making the point with some images of his own.
Brooklyn residents awoke yesterday to the sight of two “Stop the Sag” billboards. The signs show two men in jeans low enough to display their underwear. The billboards were bankrolled by state Sen. Eric Adams, who also made an online video to send his message: “You can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants.”
Adams is the latest in a series of politicians and other public figures to lambaste the slack-slacks style that has been popular in hip-hop circles since the 1990s.
Bill Cosby caused a stir by blasting baggy pants, along with other things he considered missteps by black youths, at an NAACP event in 2004.
President Obama, as a candidate, came out against low-sitting trousers in 2008.
“Some people might not want to see your underwear. I’m one of them,” Obama told MTV News.
Adams, a black retired police captain first elected in 2006, tapped his campaign coffers for $2,000 to put up the billboards. He elaborated in a YouTube video that juxtaposes images of minstrelsy and other racial caricatures with shots of sagging pants — all fuel for troubling stereotypes, in Adams’ view.
“I don’t want to criminalize young people being young people,” he said. “I’m trying to make sure we stand up and correct the behavior.”
