Digging Pants: Criminalization And Racialized Adornment By Simmel

According to Simmel, fashion is a form of social comparison within society. As time moves forward, fashion is able to differentiate time differences from one another. Certain social classes come together because of fashion, and on the other hand, it separates people in different social classes depending on their wealth. According to the America Journal Of Sociology, “Fashion does not exist in tribal and classless societies.”SImmel notes that fashion provide the best performing area for people who lack independence and who need support. He views fashion as developing in a society because it strengthens a variety of different social relations, it allows people to become aware of the different society’s around them, and be exposed to the styles

Mostly targeting black young men, they are often faced with the challenges and assumption of criminal behavior and other issues just based on this category they are put into. There have been new theory’s behind this issue and with that is individuals turning to legal actions to criminalize these people based on their clothing choices and skin color. This theory dates back into history, when the “ zoot suit” was introduced. It’s another example of a racialized adornment. In the 1930 and 1940s, the poor and working class Mexican- Americans around California, adapted this style of wearing oversized suit jackets with slimmer suit pants. Just like the sagging pants, these “ zoot suites” became a racial category for these black and brown individuals. In 1943 there was a zoot suit riot where white military personal attacked black and brown zoot suit wearers. Even individuals not wearing the suit, who were black and brown, were racially attacked, and this just proves the allowance for this racism to justify the white supremacy. Overall, in this article Pritchard claims that rather then this issue being something legal, it should be up to the black community, and church’s, to fix this issue. Not be a law, Individuals should be allowed to express themselves through their religion and spiritual expressions, without there being clothing politics telling them they cant do so. In the article Hong Kong High Heels by Pham, It is discussed how the heel was apparently designed solely for the “ Asian foot”. Pham explains how this puts this into a category as well as the violence that comes with it. The Asian high heel that is designed for the Asian foot, is more then just aesthetically pleasing for them, its not just about the “ Taste” one has in fashion, its about the internal side, the