Wesley Morris’ s article “The Rise of the NBA Nerd” is an
accumulation of well thought-out examples that make an attempt to uncover the
reasons as to why black males of stature are dressing in a certain manner. In
the beginning Morris makes an example of Kevin Durant and the way he dressed
during a press conference and makes a wholehearted attempt to explain that
people 10 years earlier would have been degraded or ridiculed for dressing in
such a manner. However the way Morris tries to explain this phenomenon is
really confusing, especially from a white female perspective because the
majority of his examples are people that I personally am not familiar with
aside from Kanye West. Morris goes onto say that this fashion statement is
evolutionary and is a huge change since the days when black males wore slouchy
clothes and could careless. However I believe that this “fashion revolution”
has a deeper meaning than Morris is getting at; black males are now being given
the opportunity to excel to a height that is equal to white males and that is a
huge ideal, he even mentions this in the article “Kids knowing they can be president of the United States, it might be
more crucial to the expansion of black identity” with this statement Morris
allows for his focus on sports to be broadened to a political level which I
praise. This equal opportunity for success calls for an “upgrade” in
appearance in the eyes of the world. It is human nature for people to judge a
book by its cover and these successful black men are becoming more aware of
their social and political appearance and making people respect them in ways
more than just as an athlete. These men are setting themselves up to be looked
at as intellectual individuals and they could not be setting a better example
for the future generations of America. Some may deem this a type of cultural
assimilation however to be equal I do believe we all must take advantage of the
opportunities that present themselves in equal ways; such as the way in which
you dress. I do believe that what we wear can be an argument in many ways
however I do not find this situation as visual rhetoric because these men know
exactly what they are doing and they are taking advantage of social image to
present themselves on top of others. The only possible visual rhetoric in this
situation is a societal image being construed and mixing the image of a “nerd”
or a super white person with the vision of an athlete and in the eyes of the
world it may feel wrong but these guys are completely aware of what they are
doing; and raising the bar for future generations. I strongly believe that their
fashion “statements” are a big shootout to the younger generations to get their
shit together and so far it is making a statement beyond the conference room.
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