Jackson Free Press

Over the last week, we heard from two people upset that editorial cartoonist Mike Day wrote "Tigers" on the cap of a teen in last week's cartoon. Why? Because the kid was wearing saggy pants, and they didn't think that sent the right image about the Jackson State University Tigers.

Of course, Mike wasn't referring to JSU; many teams and schools—from Detroit baseball to University of Memphis to Jim Hill High School—use Tigers as their mascot. And as Mike told us in an email: "If I had meant JSU, I would have put JSU on the cap." No doubt; Mike is a professional and, thus, precise.

We regret if anyone took the cartoon as a slight to Jackson State; it wasn't referring to a JSU student, but a young teen (note his height) being yelled at by Hinds County Supervisor Kenneth Stokes over, well, showing his ass.

The point of the cartoon was that it's Stokes and others who are showing their who-know-whats over an offense that most young people (and many older) commit from time to time: unfortunate fashion choices. To Stokes and too many other adults, though, saggy pants seem to symbolize everything that's wrong with young people (where have we heard that before?). Kids wearing them look like "thugs," they'll tell us, and what if they hide a weapon in a floppy pocket? So, what if they go to a prep school and hide a gun or knife in their backpack?

The point is that bashing kids over fashion is missing the point—and trying to get the government to enforce clothing bans is a waste of resources and a violation of those children's rights. Not to mention, many smart young people indulge in fashion older folks don't like from time to time and then go on to be very successful in life, while never getting in trouble along the way.

Perhaps this is why it didn't occur to us that anyone would take the nondescript "Tigers" cap as an insult; to us, the saggy pants themselves are not cause to stereotype and insult a kid—or a university. That was the whole point of the cartoon and the editorial next to it. The perception itself stinks.

What we'd rather hear is Mr. Stokes and other adults speaking out against horrendous treatment of young people, especially children of color, such as the U.S. Justice Department has discovered in Meridian. (See our story at jfp.ms.) Kids are being jailed under zero-tolerance practices for offenses no worse than many of us committed in school: like saying something disrespectful or even getting into a fight on the playground. The cradle-to-prison pipeline is very real, and is built upon false perceptions about certain kids, what they wear, where they live and the color of their skin.

This pre-criminalization of young people before they do something wrong is not acceptable and is setting many kids back before they ever get a chance to prove themselves. We call on every adult to get as outraged over these harmful stereotypes as they do when they see a teenager wearing a pair of saggy pants.

Oh, and go JSU Tigers! We're on your team.