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Left of Black:
Saggy Pants, Talking White and the Obama Bully Pulpit
by Mark Anthony Neal
One of the more interesting aspects of the Obama presidency thus far, has been the focus placed on some of the more mundane aspects of Black life in America. Simple gestures by the President and the First Lady, such as a fist pound and the bearing of bare arms have become obsessions for journalists and pundits. Nowhere has this been more pronounced than with the reaction to President Obama’s oft-cited complaint about young black men and their saggy pants and Michele Obama’s recent reflection about childhood friends who accused her of “talking white.” What passes as simple curiosity about a very popular elected official, I suspect has more sinister aims, when considered within the context of popular pronouncements like “no more excuses” in the aftermath of President Obama’s election. Thus casual commentary from the President and the First Lady serve as a bully pulpit for those desiring to police the lives and culture of Black Americans.
Within days of Obama’s pronouncement, numerous television news programs and newspapers ran stories about Obama denouncing saggy pants. Obama’s comments, taken out of context, could easily be read as an admonishment of young black men and by extension, the influence of hip-hop culture. In fact Obama, prefaced his comments by stating “I think people passing a law against people wearing sagging pants is a waste of time… any public official, that is worrying about sagging pants probably needs to spend some time focusing on real problems out there.” But as a politician, Obama also knew that his comments about saggy pants represented a “win-win” for him; he would gain traction with undecided voters who hoped that he would provide a moral center for a youth culture supposedly gone awry, while serving as a non-issue for the hip-hop community that he had so deftly recruited in support of his campaign. Quiet as it’s kept, the saggy pants style is largely passé with regards to hip-hop generation masculinity, as some of the most highly visible and highly compensated hip-hop figures such as Sean Combs, Sean Carter, Curtis Jackson and even the recently incarcerated Clifford Harris, Jr. are more often than not, seen in public wearing business attire.
Ironically only days earlier, President Obama appeared on ESPN to announce his NCAA Basketball bracket and in response to Andy Katz’s query about whether the President stayed up to watch an overtime game during the Big East Tournament, Obama dropped this ditty: "I can't be staying up until 2 in the morning…I've got work to do." President Obama’s “can’t be staying…” uttered in what linguists refer to as standard black vernacular (BVE), was much like his “nah we straight” response at Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington DC late last year. How can the man, who Nader accused of “acting white” be so adept at standard black vernacular? As Nia-Malika Henderson writes, Obama’s “language, mannerisms and symbols resonate deeply with his black supporters, even as the references largely sail over the heads of white audiences.” But President Obama is not unique; he is representative of at least three generations of Black Americans who have mastered the practice of switching codes—folk who move fluidly and fluently through multiple linguistic communities, with the understanding that so called mainstream American vernacular (talking white) was critical for putting Whites—at ill-ease because of their presence in the workplace or other places of business—at ease. Indeed, because we rarely see the “private” Michele Obama we have little knowledge of how adept her own control of BVE is, but her husband clearly has more pressure to navigate the tensions between making a nation of folk comfortable and being read as “authentic.”
Saggy Pants, Talking White and the Obama Bully Pulpit
by Mark Anthony Neal
One of the more interesting aspects of the Obama presidency thus far, has been the focus placed on some of the more mundane aspects of Black life in America. Simple gestures by the President and the First Lady, such as a fist pound and the bearing of bare arms have become obsessions for journalists and pundits. Nowhere has this been more pronounced than with the reaction to President Obama’s oft-cited complaint about young black men and their saggy pants and Michele Obama’s recent reflection about childhood friends who accused her of “talking white.” What passes as simple curiosity about a very popular elected official, I suspect has more sinister aims, when considered within the context of popular pronouncements like “no more excuses” in the aftermath of President Obama’s election. Thus casual commentary from the President and the First Lady serve as a bully pulpit for those desiring to police the lives and culture of Black Americans.
Within days of Obama’s pronouncement, numerous television news programs and newspapers ran stories about Obama denouncing saggy pants. Obama’s comments, taken out of context, could easily be read as an admonishment of young black men and by extension, the influence of hip-hop culture. In fact Obama, prefaced his comments by stating “I think people passing a law against people wearing sagging pants is a waste of time… any public official, that is worrying about sagging pants probably needs to spend some time focusing on real problems out there.” But as a politician, Obama also knew that his comments about saggy pants represented a “win-win” for him; he would gain traction with undecided voters who hoped that he would provide a moral center for a youth culture supposedly gone awry, while serving as a non-issue for the hip-hop community that he had so deftly recruited in support of his campaign. Quiet as it’s kept, the saggy pants style is largely passé with regards to hip-hop generation masculinity, as some of the most highly visible and highly compensated hip-hop figures such as Sean Combs, Sean Carter, Curtis Jackson and even the recently incarcerated Clifford Harris, Jr. are more often than not, seen in public wearing business attire.
Ironically only days earlier, President Obama appeared on ESPN to announce his NCAA Basketball bracket and in response to Andy Katz’s query about whether the President stayed up to watch an overtime game during the Big East Tournament, Obama dropped this ditty: "I can't be staying up until 2 in the morning…I've got work to do." President Obama’s “can’t be staying…” uttered in what linguists refer to as standard black vernacular (BVE), was much like his “nah we straight” response at Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington DC late last year. How can the man, who Nader accused of “acting white” be so adept at standard black vernacular? As Nia-Malika Henderson writes, Obama’s “language, mannerisms and symbols resonate deeply with his black supporters, even as the references largely sail over the heads of white audiences.” But President Obama is not unique; he is representative of at least three generations of Black Americans who have mastered the practice of switching codes—folk who move fluidly and fluently through multiple linguistic communities, with the understanding that so called mainstream American vernacular (talking white) was critical for putting Whites—at ill-ease because of their presence in the workplace or other places of business—at ease. Indeed, because we rarely see the “private” Michele Obama we have little knowledge of how adept her own control of BVE is, but her husband clearly has more pressure to navigate the tensions between making a nation of folk comfortable and being read as “authentic.”
