‘Round the time my show started, someone tweeted a link with the new dress code at Morehouse. Here it is.
Much of the discussion on this has centered around the prohibition of customarily female clothing on campus. In the linked post, much is made of the “heteronormativity” of the code but, I must admit, I’m not qualified to discuss a term whose meaning I’m not totally familiar with. I can add the prefix, base, and suffix, but I’m sure there’s more to it than such a clinical interpretation.
Nope. My problem is with Morehouse’s refusal to let dudes be who they are.
That’s an important point if Morehouse continues to posit itself as the last bastion of the upwardly mobile black man. The tone of the linked post carries that assertion. I attended my nephew’s graduation from Morehouse, and I heard someone on stage (I believe the President) say the same thing. Saw it on the preface of this dress code, too.
It is our expectation that students who select Morehouse do so because of the College’s outstanding legacy of producing leaders. On the campus and at College-sponsored events and activities, students at Morehouse College will be expected to dress neatly and appropriately at all times.
So I’m assuming this dress code is being administered because this is how Morehouse believes leaders should behave.
What a load of bullshit.
Look, if you want to tell people how they can dress in class, I won’t agree with you, but I wouldn’t say anything about it. The disincentive to being underdressed is…being underdressed. That’s how it’s always gone in my life. If you’re willing to deal with people looking at you funny and all of that, it’s your world. That’s where the punishment typically comes from. But if you want to foster a certain climate for classes, I can kinda roll with that.
But the cafeteria?
1. No caps, do-rags and/or hoods in classrooms, the cafeteria, or other indoor venues. This policy item does not apply to headgear considered as a part of religious or cultural dress.
10 a.m. on a Saturday morning, and I can’t wear a do-rag? Explain to me what that has to do with leadership. I’d like to know.
Let’s keep going, shall we?
3. Decorative orthodontic appliances (e.g. “grillz”) be they permanent or removable, shall not be worn on the campus or at College-sponsored events.
Decorative orthodontic appliances? Go ahead and laugh at that one.
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Welcome back. Again, not in class? OK. Nowhere on campus? Why not?
Oh yeah, let’s not forget the gender/sexuality thing.
9. No wearing of clothing associated with women’s garb (dresses, tops, tunics, purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus or at College-sponsored events.
Now, this trips into the elephant at Morehouse — homosexuality. I won’t comment much on it, other than to say that I went to my alma mater because I thought it had great looking women, and I certainly understand how gay men would be drawn to a school full of dudes. It only makes sense. Regardless of how much some would prefer this not be the case, gay men will apply to Morehouse in droves as long as the doors are open. If you’re looking for a man, you might as well meet a leader, right?
I won’t speak much on it because, beyond respecting everyone’s human rights, I could care less about how many gay men do or don’t go to Morehouse. I will say, however, that everyone has the right to be comfortable in their own homes, so long as that comfort does not actively interfere with someone else’s. And if you’re comfortable in a sundress, you should be able to wear a sundress in your home.
College, for so many of us, was home. Why should those cats that want to wear dresses be asked not to? Simply because you think it’s weird? Suddenly, I think that “heteronormativity” thing makes sense.
I was discussing this dress code on Twitter with someone I don’t know. He’d said that this dress code, hopefully, would keep “the riffraff” out. I asked him what the “riffraff” was. He said it was people that don’t go to class and that these provisions would have made Morehouse less attractive to the people that didn’t go to class.
He then told me this was not elitism. I mean, what else could it be?
What’s undeniable is that Morehouse, unlike any other black college, seeks to indoctrinate its students into a certain type of behavior. Any Morehouse grad that denies this is a liar. Things like this dress code are a part of that indoctrination.
Bad news — I would never attend a school with this dress code. Not because I wear golds or sag my pants or think I have a God-given right to wear my do rag. It’s because I think anyone this concerned with how people dress is a moron, and I’ll be damned if a moron can turn me into a leader. That doesn’t make any sense to me.
I know plenty of leaders. I was raised by a couple of them. I’ve met them in the streets. I’ve seen them in action.
Conformity did not make them leaders. Aligning with a prescribed notion of how they should or should not behave on their own times certainly does not make leaders. An obsessive concern with how you look and “defying stereotypes” doesn’t do it, either. That makes worker bees. Nattily dressed worker bees, I’m sure, but NOT leaders.
That’s because this isn’t about creating leaders. C’mon now. Were these measures limited to classes, convocations and ceremonies, it would be one thing. But once you start telling people what to do whenever they’re on campus, you’re forcing a standardized notion of what they should be onto them. Then you want them to lead? Yeah, that makes sense.
It’s not about what those boys do. This is about who they are, and Morehouse doesn’t want dudes that like to wear golds…unless they’re set to become someone else.
It’s divisive, bourgeois bullshit. If you think how someone dresses in the cafeteria is determining his path in life, I don’t understand how you were smart enough to get into such a fine academic institution (and I give that compliment to the school without sarcasm).
If you wanna wear your golds, wear ’em. If you love them so much that you don’t care about the condescending stares you’ll get from your classmates, do it. If you’re confident enough in yourself to know that, no matter how those folks look down their noses at you, you’re a bad man that happens to wear gold teeth, wear em. Make those take you for who you are and respect you. And if you wanna do the same in a dress, it’s your world.
That is what leaders do, especially when their on their own times. If you wanna make a leader, you take that person for whom he or she is, then you strengthen that person. You do not, however, tell him or her whom to be.
It’s well-known I’m not a fan of Morehouse. Nicest thing I can say about the place is it has one helluva neighbor.
I had to get up and leave the graduation in May. I did so because I found the elitism to be nauseating. The tone that they were better than them permeated the ceremony, and I couldn’t take it. That them sounds a whole lot like me and my friends.
Maybe we’re the riffraff, like that gentleman said.
The infamous Killa Cal said my problems with Morehouse seem personal. I guess they are, somewhat. Four years of being talked down to by guys that had no clue who they were dealing with was part of it (and I even saw them do so, as a small child, to my mother, who’s so much badder than most of them could dream of being). Part of it’s a natural byproduct of attending a rival school.
But think about this — I am, literally, internationally known, nationally recognized, and locally accepted in my professions, and I turned 29 a month and a half ago. And Morehouse tells guys they should not be like me or my folks. Yes, I take that a bit personally, for them and for me.
Now, Morehouse is a private school. It can do whatever it wants. And what it wants to do is dangerous. At the very least, it’s counterproductive to being a leader. Given that, I’m inclined to believe this dress code is really about something else.
And that something else makes me sick.
Tis true – it is a private school, so if they want, they can make these dudes wear uniforms everyday. It truly is their decision. 100%.
BUT – I’m gonna have to go with you with regard to the spirit of this. I really don’t agree this is the right way to go about this. Suppression does not breed greatness or strength IMO. They actually might have been better off going the uniform route rather than picking apart specific things in a list. I’m sure this started out as a good idea at some point, and it ended up with unsettling execution.
And it should really be entertaining to see what constitutes women’s clothing. Which jewelry is too feminine? Are those skinny jeans too skinny? Who’s stopping each dude to ask him which section of the store he got his gear? Whatever. I loved my time at private school even though the superiority thing was a lot at times. But I have my fingers crossed that Spelman would never tell women they could not wear men’s clothes. I’m gonna have to check out the full list of restrictions to see how I feel about the rest – but homophobia really annoys me.
one more comment though – I am really tired of seeing men’s asses with the sagging pants. just want to throw that out there. not sexy.
I debated this all morning on twitter, i got so good, someone decided to make it personal and bring how I raise my kids into the debate, which haa nothing to do with me disagreeing w the imposed dresscode. I agree w the previous commenter, suppression and mass thought is a poor way to make a strong society (holocausts ring a bell, pick one) . while implementing a dress code isnt that extreme, it continues the tradition of suppression in this society. i hate it. While I do disagree w the code, i agree that is partly their right to address it, only bcuz they are a private inst. Logically for me its not appropiate to enforce a dress code on paying students. But I digress there. wouldnt want another grown azz man questioning the standards i set for my sons because i dont agree w the suppression of self expression. ill say that however my sons decide to dress during down time as adults is their business, I can only guide them, I dont want them to feel like they have to be like everyone else or try to make others be like them to feel validated.
Bomani my dear, u are a man after my heart w ur more open thought process. thanks for this
Morehouse alum here. From inner city, for what’s that’s worth.
You know you had and have more than a few good friends from MC, who went through the school and didn’t let the school go through them.
Dress code aside, let’s build, and not destroy. I love my CAU brethren, and their parties. I love my MC brethren, and their tailgates. (They suck at the opposite, if that makes sense).
I will call this whole situation the Slipperiest of Slopes:
If nothing is done, a good deal of quality applicants stop applying (due to fear of being branded as gay.) IE: do I want my son (who’s 2) attending in 16 years? YES, if some balance is found. And I’m very tolerant. However, tolerating and allowing to be over-run are diff’t things. I don’t want my alma mater over-ran by overly macho men, overtly/outwardly gay men, thug men, killers, theives, drug dealers, etc… Anything in moderation is to be expected. I want it overran by men who can get RIGHT out into the world and do SOMETHING, it need not be lead (contrary to the varsous credos). Be a lemming, be a leader, just be.
On the other hand, this is going to continue to be a HUGE PR kerfuffle, resulting in even less alumni support (financially, the only support that matters in the long run), bad news press, and more bright students questioning whether they should attend (for both reasons: too gay friendly and too anti-gay). Lawsuits will be filed, alum will be embarassed or emboldened, and Bill Cosby will say some dumb shyt at one point.
Ok I’m done.
If they’re truly cultivating leaders, then they’re cultivating men who know how to deal with it if another man walks by minding his own business in saggy jeans or even 4″ heels. I personally wouldn’t want to see either, but I can’t imagine it affecting me so much that my entire life and career are derailed by it.
By extension, if there’s a concern that prospective students will be turned away by what they see, then those students clearly aren’t the kind of “leaders” that they claim to want in the first place.
Preach!
i don’t get it. from elementary to high school, we send our kids to a private school with dress code because we say we don’t want them sidetracked by consumerism, or emulating gangs…If Morehouse wants to ban do-rags, saggy jeans or cross dressing, what’s the diff?
Elementary and high school students are children. College students are supposed to be grown men.
true…but what is the law in regards to a private institution, do they have the right to establish a dress code for students while on campus property?…If they do, why the fuss?
and at the risk of being branded a “homophobe” i have concerns about “grown men” insisting on their right to wear womens clothes…
ronnie, did you even read the post? if you did, go back and read it again, but slowly.
lol B, i read the post…just had a memory lapse in my response…my question: what is so “dangerous” about the dress code and what is the “something else” you’re concerned about?…The notion of a “leader” cuts both ways. If you don’t agree that the definition of a Morehouse Man includes a cross dresser in 4″ heels, one ought to be able to declare that as strident as one who feels differently.
i don’t get the beef?
This has been going on in colleges since, forever? Now, I would never go to an institution that implements such a dress code. Do i think it makes you less of a leader if you go to a school that does? Absolutely not. Like someone above stated, you are a “grown man” when you get to college, on top of that you select which college you want to attend. Don’t agree with the policies, don’t go to that school. Pretty simple. But I don’t see how you can say that because a school implements a dress code, they turn leaders into droids?
that duke video was real gay, btw. (not to offend any cross-dressing readers from Morehouse)
That Duke video never would have happened if they adopted Morehouse’s dress code.
I agree with the dress code, even #9. As someone from another website mentioned, you have job recruiters coming on campus to see whom the next bunch of prospective employees will be and do you really think it makes a good impression on them when they see young men walking around with their pants down to their Knees and grills in their mounth? No one is saying you can’t dress how you want, on your free time off campus, express yourself all you want, that’s fine, but when on campus you are a representative of the school so know that and follow the rules. The rules do not tell you how to dress, they mention what not to wear which means there is a whole lot that you can wear so it really isn’t as limiting as is implied. Lastly, not everyone who disagrees with no. 9 is a homophobe, I do not even care to defend myself and say how I know this gay couple or that gay person, but I bring it up because calling someone homophobic or any other name because they don’t agree with your point of view is simply childish and close minded. Different people have different opinions concerning different issues. I’m sure there’s a gay man or woman out there who agress with rule no.9 so just because someone is not gay and agrees with rule no.9 doesn’t necessarily have to mean anything.