Earlier this month, Mashable published an article about some Black men wearing suits as “armor” from the deadly perceptions produced from racism. Simply put, some feel the need to dress in formal attire just so police wouldn’t kill them. As a Black man who wears suits fairly often, this piece resonated for a variety of reasons.
I administer programs targeting Black males aged 14 to 24 with a focus on mentorship and empowerment. Part of this involves practice towards dressing professionally as a way to prepare for job interviews and beyond. This is a vital tool for success in the adult world, given professional norms in certain settings. Thus, my programs help provide blazers for our gentlemen to wear once a week and for special occasions.
Immediately, the compliments began once we started wearing them. “Your guys look wonderful.” “They carry themselves differently with those suits on.” This, on its face, may be true. It’s probably accurate that we do “look nice” when dressed more formally and it’s natural, I’d suppose, to walk with a different swagger when wearing fancier attire.
However, what goes unsaid is the adjacent assumption that dressing a certain way somehow highlights or bolsters their humanity. I sometimes wonder: Would these students still get noticed in such a positive way when they’re dressed casually like their peers ? when they are merely looking their age instead of walking personifications of Jidenna’s song “Classic Man”?
We know the “dress nicely and maybe they’ll see us as human and stop killing us” mindset as respectability politics.