New Law Takes Aim At Black Teens That Want to Sag.

Lawmakers in Tennessee have passed a bill that would prohibit students from showing underwear or body parts in an indecent manner at school, myFOXmemphis reports.

The bill passed overwhelmingly in the Tennessee state Senate and House, and now requires the governor's signature.

Unlike a recent Tennessee bill that failed, the enforcement of this bill doesn't require a ruler or carry penalties of up to $250 and community service, but it does ban saggy pants and clothes that show too much skin on school property.

 Instead, this bill allows school districts to decide the punishment.

Reaction among Memphis high school students were mixed. Student Braden Brooks told myFOXmemphis he is happy the bill was passed, as he feels saggy pants are "degrading."

However, former high school student Ian Moss claims the bill will be ineffective.

"Just grown ups making more rules, gonna break em' anyway," he said.

If approved by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, the law would take effect on July 1.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/04/tennessee-bill-seeks-to-outlaw-sagging-pants-at-schools/#ixzz1r4w6QsWZ

The True Life Of Black American Youth

For a long time I believed that roaches, violence, and chaos were part of everyone’s childhood memories. In my neighborhood, Brownsville, Brooklyn, poor blacks and Latinos live isolated from wealthier minorities and other races. I’ve often been afraid to walk down my block alone for fear of being attacked.

As I got older, I realized that other people weren’t living in fear like I was. I began to feel like a statistic -- a black girl who lived in a place where mothers dote on drug-dealing sons and ignore the gun hidden under dirty laundry in the closet. I wondered if I had less of a chance to achieve the American dream because I had had less of a childhood. I wondered whether my race and the poverty I grew up in would hold me back from success and happiness. I had guidance counselors and teachers who sang the same old song about reaching for the stars and being determined, and I bought it enough to get good grades and plan to go to college. But those dreams were starting to sound like fairy tales.

Read More http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/race-and-class_n_1268956.html?ir=Education