The New and Cool Black Male - The Obama Standard?

Thursday, January 22, 2009

For a while, the "thug" look has been the in-thing for many men across America, particularly black men, and it has crossed over states and nations (thanks to the music industry), encouraging men of all races to embody the idea that the "thug look" is in, thereby supposedly gaining respect from others (or perhaps, invoke fear) as well as the digits from the ladies - if you can pull off the "thug look" with at least an adequate amount of authenticity. I've never been into the look - but that could easily be due to the fact that I grew up as a very sheltered girl in the suburbs of Long Island, and never knew anybody personally that even cared to embody the "thug look" -I only saw it on television for the most part and found it to be the opposite extreme of what I normally found attractive - the semi-preppy look (think "Theo" from the Cosby Show or Dwayne Wayne from "A Different World"). Furthermore, since I've always been attracted to smart guys, I struggled with equating "thuggy" with "smart" - there has always been a disconnect between being smart and being a thug that the media had no problem perpetuating within the music industry as well as on daytime/nighttime television.

Now that Obama is President of the United States, will he become the new role model for black men, embodying a new "cool standard" that black men will adhere to and as a result create a new cool standard across the nation and the world? Will a college degree and a quick wit make certain men rise above the rest when it comes to winning a woman's affection? According to CNN, black men have already started adopting Obama's hairstyle (originally called the "Caesar" in black barbershops, and has recently been relabeled "the Obama"). I wonder to what degree will this Obama fascination extend beyond a haircut style, and encourage young men across America and the world to finally forfeit this "thug" standard, and trade it in for "suave, cool, and smart." Many black men already embody this "suave, cool and smart" standard (think Morris Chestnut's character in "Two Can Play That Game") - perhaps Obama's presence in the media will finally push the thuggy standard into the shadows of the hip hop industry and allow the new "cool" to rise up to the pedestal.