Gangsta

One of the three schools I work at is this high school whose population is about 75% black, 15% Hispanic, and 10% white. I didn't notice this as much last year, but this past school year it's been impossible not to notice. The majority of the black guys (and some white dudes) wear baggy, oversized white T-shirts every day, oftentimes ones that come down to their knees. I think I might've seen on the news last fall that this is a "gang" style. Although most of these guys most likely are not in gangs, anything "gangsta" is deemed cool.

Jay-Z had a baggy white T-shirt on in some of the pictures in his album, The Blueprint...but that was from 2001. So I wondered if maybe the white T-shirt thing was hitting North Carolina 2-3 years late and that NYC was past this trend. So I asked this 16-year-old recently transplanted freshman from Brooklyn what the deal was with these white T-shirts, because he wears one most days as well. He said that it's just the style these days...especially when most people don't have much money to spend, they just spend a few bucks on white T-shirts. But that reason doesn't make any sense to me since most of these kids also wear these really expensive throwback jerseys, and the white T-shirts that they wear don't look cheaply made, like a Hanes or Fruit of the Loom. My guess is that these kids buy these shirts for at least $20 each from the same stores that carry the throwback jerseys. I personally think they look stupid, especially when they come down to the knees. It'd be cooler if they all had flat tops and dressed like Dwayne from A Different World.