Does Dress and Hip-Hop Define a Person?

This piece is quite unique for the 21^st century. The idea a student wants to transfer to a college in his hometown, is remarkable. The student claims it is for money reasons, and one could speculate it might be because of the health of student, a loved one, or just a monetary decline in the family. For someone in college to continue their education, sometimes sacrifices have to be made.

The stereotype of the younger generation is certainly around, especially on college campuses across America. The older generation tends to have a lot of assumptions concerning the younger men and women. This is the exact case which happened to Jason Hinman when he transferred from Morehouse College in Atlanta to the University of Delaware. Most of his professors, who were mostly White, thought that because of Hinman’s dreadlocks, dark-hued, his being young that he was just a hip-hop thug, uncaring of being a respectable pupil.

“[You see students walking on campus reciting rap lyrics when they should be reciting something they’ll need to know on the next test,” says Dr. Thomas Earl Midgette, 50, director of the Institute for the Study of Minority Issues] (Evelyn, 2008).Certain rap musicians supposedly dictate students dress code, for example young girls look like “ladies of the night” and young males wear their pants half-way down their butt or even lower. Most of the professors and other faculty feel that all students dress this way, and have no desire to be first-rate students. One might contend that dress and appearance do not always decide hoe a student performs on the educational front. It is not fair for the older generations to group all of these students in the same category. This decision should be made on an individual basis, and centered on classwork done within that particular lecture. Students have every right to .ear the wardrobe they choose, however their attitude needs to be one of learning and doing their personal best.

Evelyn, J. (2008). The Miseduation of Hip-Hop-Discrimination in Education. In L. Gray-Rosendale, Pop Pespectives-Readings to Critique Contemporary Culture (pp. 559-565). New York City, New York, United States: Lisa Moore.