men's clothing and the negro

Clark Atlanta University

Men's Clothing and the NegroAuthor(s): Jack SchwartzSource: Phylon (1960-), Vol. 24, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1963), pp. 224-231Published by: Clark Atlanta UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/273395 .

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By JACK SCHWARTZ

Men's Clothing and the Negro

W HILE THE AMERICAN standard of living comprises the basic needs of food, shelter and the like, a major component of this standard

concerns the symbolic significance of the articles of consumption. In order to receive the full symbolic value of consumption, the individual is generally aware of the status generated by the consumed article. Status is acquired through the fulfillment of culturally defined patterns of consumption modified by personal interpretations.

Dress is a communication medium. Clothing can function as a communication medium in various ways for different groups and individuals. Clothing can hide bodily defects, suggest and stimulate personal gratification, and exaggerate physique. The consumption and status symbolization of men's clothing as it relates to one particular group, the Negro American, will be examined here. The lower economic position of the average Negro in the American class system does not, per se, pro- vide sufficient information for predicting his patterns of consumption relative to those of whites. When a significant difference is observed in

proportionate consumption and expenditure between Negroes and whites, an explanation for this phenomenon cannot be limited to strictly economic interpretations.

It is undeniable that within the American social structure groups do exist to whom status symbols are differentially denied. The professed democracy witnesses a system in which rewards and punishments, rights and duties, knowledges and advantages are unequally distrib- uted between Negroes and whites. Whether it is called a class system or a caste system, it controls peoples' lives, and educates others in its ways and precepts.

But is it correct to refer to a segment of the population as the Ne-

gro population? Are there exclusive Negro clothing items? The grouping of any segment of the population must be based upon some diagnostic which distinguishes it from other social groups. With the passage of time and the continuous reference to these characteristics, real or imag- inary, any one of the more bizarre features will become a synonym for the group. With the Negro American, according to Myrdal, one of these characteristics has been loud, flashy clothing.' Can this alleged

1 Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (New York, 1944), p. 962.

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characteristic be dismissed simply because of its promotion by the white majority seeking to justify its dominant position? What may appear as distortions of "average" American behavior and consumption patterns exist because Negroes generally live on the margin of American life. The very existence of a separate Negro community with its own insti- tutions, according to Frazier, "is indicative of [the community's] quasi- pathological character, especially since the persistence of this separate community has been due to racial discrimination and oppression." 2 That the Negro has rarely been permitted to play a serious role in Ameri- can life has forced him to develop those habits of behavior and consumption which satisfy the peculiar exigencies of an isolated community life. When the Negro community, or any other minority community, is denied access to many status symbols, it is forced to use compensatory devices to raise self-esteem, aid status symbolization, and cushion the traumatic effects of a subordinate position. Clothing is one of these available devices, along with cars, furniture, and housing. Being a more portable and relatively less expensive object of conspicuous consumption, clothing is more easily exhibited than other status symbols.

PRE-EMANCIPATION STYLES

For the majority of slaves in the pre-emancipation United States, dress was of a strictly European or American nature, African styles having been largely forbidden or considered impractical by the over- seers. The plantation field hands' clothing was coarse, poorly tailored, with shoes and hats furnished only during certain seasons, if furnished at all. The plantation owner's major consideration was the slaves' pro- tection from the elements in order to preserve their commercial utility. The use of attractive clothing was usually limited to that time in the slave's life when he was exhibited for sale by the slave trader. Ottley reported that slaves were dressed in bright, showy clothes at sale time, and doused with whiskey. Pet dogs performing tricks would amble through the corrals diverting the thoughts of "the sorrowful blacks. Such up-to-date methods impressed the people of the time as being humane." s

The clothing provision of one large Southern plantation alloted each adult field hand seven yards of osnaburg, three of check and three of baize every October, the slaves themselves performing the cutting and sewing. A hat or cap was given each field slave; however, footwear is absent from the list of provisions.4 Another owner gave each man two cotton shirts, two pairs of pants and a woolen jacket every year,

2 E. Franklin Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie (Glencoe, Illinois, 1957), p. 234. 3 Roi Ottley, Black Odyssey (New York, 1948), p. 127. 4 Ulrich B. Phillips, American Negro Slavery (New York, 1952), p. 64.

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and one pair of shoes, given in the fall. Headwear is absent from this record.5

Twilled red flannel shirts, Scotch caps, jeans and check shirts were also popular items, used almost exclusively by Negroes in slavery and afterward until their recent adoption by Ivy League upper-middle-class whites. One Negro writer bluntly states that:

they call it the Ivy look but ask any haberdasher worth his salt, and he'll tell you it really started in Harlem rather than Harvard . . . and naturally it wouldn't be exactly high fashion to admit it all be- gan in Harlem. So Harvard gets the credit. Yet when the Negro's uninhibited contribution to the American way of life became so ac- ceptable that jazz entered the concert halls, . . . it was just a mat- ter of time before a Harvard lad would discover that a Harlem hustler's cap was ... appropriate for hotrodding an MG.6

The large servant staff of the plantation was dressed in elaborate livery and carefully trained to reflect the wealth of the master. The

Negro servants rivaled the Southern gentlemen with powdered wigs, embroidered waistcoats, striped trousers and fancy silk handkerchiefs around their necks. The huge, well-proportioned black butler was at- tired in the morning with a swallow-tailed coat and silk knee breeches; in the evening he wore an embroidered silk jacket, a vest of faded lilac, silk stockings, shoes with silver buckles, and a powdered wig.7

The numerous field hands and house slaves observed the white man's dress when the master's family and friends were garbed in formal or recreational attire. Since they interacted more frequently with the Southern white bourgeoisie, the clothing emulation standard of Negroes was higher than that of lower-class rural whites. Within the Negro slave

community, the house servants were the source of emulation for the more numerous field hands. The butler, maid and personal valet were in continuous contact with the white household, enjoying the best oppor- tunities to emulate its manners and acquire its discarded clothing. Buck- ingham observed in 1835 that:

On Sundays when the slaves and servants are all at liberty after dinner, they move about in every thoroughfare, and are generally more gaily dressed than the whites. The young men among the slaves wear white trousers, black socks, broad-brimmed hats and carry walking-sticks; and from the bowings, curtseying and greet- ings in the highway one might almost imagine one's self to be at Hayti [sic] and think that the coloured people had got possession of the town and held sway while the whites were living among them by sufferance.8

Such a display may represent a release from the deep frustrations felt by many Negroes for the oppressive implications of racial prejudice.

6 Ibid., p. 266. 6 Vincent Tubbs, "Those Crazy Caps," Duke (July, 1957), 21. Duke is no longer published. 7 Ottley, op. cit., pp. 32-33.

J. S. Buckingham, Slave States, II (London: Fisher & Son, 1842), p. 427. (Italics mine)

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Davie feels that the emotionalism found in many Negro churches, and the excessive absorption in the pursuit of pleasure found in Negroes and other discriminated groups, represent a release of frustration. The clowning and the laughter, he says, are escapes "from the galling reali- ties of [the Negro's] subordinate status." 9

STATUS COMPENSATION

The need for status compensation within the Negro sub-culture may also be greater with men than with women. Within the world of slavery, the woman as mother held the strategic position and the dominant role in Negro family life. The father could easily be transferred to other owners, but the mother rarely left her young offspring. While Negro men today are gradually assuming the traditional role of provid- er, like their white counterpart, the Negro woman in the family unit is likely to contribute a substantial proportion of the income and assume the larger share of family responsibility since employment is generally more widely available to her.10

The occupational differentiation of Negroes and whites, particularly in the South, offers one explanation for different clothing patterns. That most Negroes engage in or are candidates for productive labor means that work clothes are the dominant dress style. While ties and suits may be worn by Negro teachers, undertakers and the clergy in the South, says Lewis, the general Negro community is typically aware of the pressure from whites and dresses to communicate deference and humility. ". . in telling of their approach to whites in a situation where he wanted something, [a Negro] will stress 'and I put my hat in my hand!'" 1

The dress of the Negro entertainers influences a perception of "the Negro" diametrically opposed to that given by the lower classes. Negro stage personalities play a vital role in setting standards of emulation within the Negro community. They are of relatively high status since their profession involves a comparatively high degree of respect, inter- action and acceptance by whites. Frazier contends that Negro entertainers, who often have a lower class background, exert a much greater influence upon the Negro middle class than white stage personalities exert on the white community.12

The use of hand-me-down clothing given by employers to Negroes, particularly poorly paid domestic service workers, also contributes to different dress patterns between Negroes and whites. Sterner's research

9 Maurice R. Davie, Negroes in American Society (New York, 1949), p. 442. 10 46 percent of Negro women were in the labor force in 1961 compared with 36 percent of

white women. (Statistical Abstracts, 1962, p. 218 based on Current Population Reports Series P-50, No. 66). Hylan Lewis, Blackways of Kent (Chapel Hill, 1945), p. 62.

12 Frazier, op. cit., p. 127.

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of 1935-36 data indicates that hand-me-down clothing was more frequently worn by Negroes than whites in rural and lower income urban communities.13 This practice adds as much to the occasional awk- wardness of the Negro male's dress as does the limited selection which most clothing merchants stock in rural and semi-urban communities, particularly in the South. Ottley reported after World War II that throughout the South the emergence of a large class of serious looking, neatly dressed, intelligent Negroes had become increasingly apparent. The familiar rags and hand-me-downs, the scuffed, unlaced shoes, the improvised hats - all these and many other details had vanished.'4

ANTHROPOMETRY

Anthropometric differences between Negroes and whites also contribute to a need for clothing of differing dimensions. The research of Herskovits,15 and Todd and Lindala 16 indicates the width of the head to increase and the length to decrease with increasing proportions of white ancestry, and the Negro male's foot is both longer and wider than whites'. Consequently, different hat and shoe sizes and shapes would be preferred by both groups; however, if social prestige via an association with white physical dimensions is desired by the individual Negro, consciously or not, he may seek those sizes and styles which do not correspond exactly with his body measurements, e.g., long, pointed shoes.

The difference in skin color is another contributing factor to dis- similarity in clothing color preferences between Negroes and whites, since certain colors and hues harmonize better with Negro than with white complexions.

EXPENDITURE

An empirical difference in proportionate expenditures for clothing between Negroes and whites is shown in the consumption of clothing. At all income levels over $1,000 in 1950, the proportion of total income spent for clothing by whites was relatively constant at all income levels, while the rate for Negroes - always higher than for whites - showed a steady increase with each succeeding income leveL The proportion of total income spent for clothing by whites earning over $4,000 was 11.4 percent, for Negroes 14.3 percent.17 When regions of the United States are compared, expenditure by Negroes for clothing is proportion-

Richard Sterner, The Negro's Share (New York, 1943), p. 137. Also see Paul K. Edwards, "Distinctive Characteristics of Urban Negro Consumption" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1936), p. 109.

1 Ottley, op. cit., pp. 305-06. 5 Melville J. Herskovits, The Anthropometry of the American Negro (New York, 1930), p. 187. 8 Wingate Todd and Anna Lindala, "Dimensions of the Body: Whites and American Negroes of

Both Sexes," American Journal of Physical Anthropology, XII, No. 1 (July, 1928), p. 98. 1T Calculated from the Study of Consumer Expenditures, Incomes and Savings, VII (Philadel-

phia, 1957), pp. 31-35. For income levels over $4000 the N for whites was 3756, Negroes 176. For all income levels giving expenditure for total family clothing the N for whites was 9847, Negroes 1254.

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ately higher than that by whites in all regions.8l That a greater proportion of the average Negro's total income is spent for clothing tells us nothing relative to the prices paid for individual garments by both groups. This difference can be explained by assuming that Negroes pur- chase either (1) larger quantities of the same or lower priced items, (2) smaller quantities of higher priced garments, or (3) neither. Since clothing is one of a limited number of channels for conspicuous consumption available to Negroes, it may be hypothesized that the inability to com- pete for "restricted-consumption" status symbols is compensated by the consumption of either higher priced garments or quantities of clothing in excess of that consumed by whites of comparable class or income.'9

The Negro male's orientation toward individual garments may reflect the importance of the social aspects of the garment: in style and appearance, and a de-emphasis of the physical aspects: fit and comfort. He may also be expected to compensate for a less independent role in male-female relationships than his white counterpart by consuming, in larger proportions, those clothing items invested with sexual or personal gratification. Using one psycho-analytic interpretation of clothing symbols, the Negro male might be expected to consume items which help the individual's personality expansion, cathexis, and phallic grati- fications. Disguises from Negroid anthropometric characteristics might also be sought through clothing. A sharply pointed, slim, high-fashioned shoe with thin soles and a delicate, supple fabric may serve these func- tions, as well as large Homburgs20 with wide brims and deep, soft creases. CONTENT ANALYSIS

In order to test these hypotheses, I compared men's clothing adver- tisements in Negro and white periodicals and examined haberdasheries in a large urban community with sizable Negro and white populations. The comparable periodicals were Ebony and Life, the urban community, Chicago.21 These methods were used to try to determine how adver- is The mean percent of total income after taxes spent for clothing by Negroes and whites re-

spectively in large Northern cities was 12.8 percent, 11.4 percent; large Southern cities 13.1 percent, 11.4 percent; small Southern cities 14.0 percent, 11.4 percent; large Western cities 13.6 percent, 10.9 percent. Based on calculation from ibid. by Irwin Friend and Irving B. Kravis, "New Light on the Consumer Market," Harvard Business Review, XXXV (January, 1957), 112. Using an N for whites of 11,136, Negroes 1,294, the percent of total income devoted to the following consumption categories by Negroes and whites respectively were: food 31.9 percent and 29.5 percent; housing 11.3 percent and 11.5 percent; clothing 13.6 percent and 11.3 percent. Negroes spent 7.2 percent on furnishings; whites spent 11.9 percent on automo- bile expenses. Of the first four articles of consumption for both groups, clothing ranks as the fourth largest expenditure for whites, second largest for Negroes.

'9 This same hypothesis can be made for other minority groups as well. 2' Soft felt hats with a creased crown and small creases on each side of the front of the hat. 21 Randomly selected copies over the period 1947-56, with a .5 p for Ebony, a monthly, and

.09 p for Life, a weekly. Sample size of Ebony's ads 499, Life's, 287. These periodicals were selected since both have national coverage, "slick" reproductions; Claude Hall, "The Negro Market," Printers' Ink (August 23, 1957), 238, maintains that Ebony occupies a position in the Negro community comparable to Life. The average income of Ebony readers, according to 1956 Daniel Starch Reports, was 165 percent of the income of the average Negro according to Statistical Abstracts, 1957, p. 315 for 1955, Series P-60, Nos. 9, 19, and 23. The mean income of Life readers was 149 per cent of the national white income. For both periodical audiences we are dealing with those segments of Negro and white communities approximately equal in its economic distance from the mean community income. Ten percent of Life's readers are Negro, 6 percent of Ebony's readers are white. In the haberdasher study, 60 randomly selected stores in Chicago neighborhoods with 95 percent either Negro or white populations were used.

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tisers and small haberdashers communicate their knowledge and feelings about the Negro and white men's clothing markets. This is to say that the advertiser or haberdasher tailors his talk with his customers to fit his knowledge of their habits and desires.

In both the priced men's clothing ads in Ebony and the price tags in haberdasheries in urban Negro neighborhoods, the mean price of all garments was higher than in Life or white neighborhood stores.22 Suits and jackets were the only clothing items not higher priced to Negro audiences; all other items- undergarments, hats, ties, shirts, slacks, stockings, shoes, overcoats and jewelry - were higher priced when shown in Ebony and men's clothing stores in Negro neighborhoods. The significance of these facts, particularly with hats and shoes,23 seems to be that Negroes do spend more for most individual clothing items, on the average, than whites. Whether this phenomenon is occasioned by the desire of Negroes for personal gratification to compensate for a subordinate social role, or whether it represents the exploitation of a vul- nerable minority by white merchants cannot be determined from this research.24

A content analysis of advertising copy in Ebony and Life's men's clothing ads was made to examine the hypothesis that the Negro man dresses more for style than for comfort. The proportion of copy stressing appearance, style and prestige was measured against expressions stressing durability of the garment, comfort and fit; e.g., "your friends will admire you with a new, smart looking suit" vs. "a comfortable, long- lasting, lightweight suit." The average Life ad stressed the physical qualities in 60 percent of the copy, as compared with 42 percent of the Ebony copy, strongly suggesting that the latter's advertisers conceive of the Negro male consumer as more concerned with the social advantages to be derived by wearing the advertised garment than with its physical comfort. If this accurately reflects a greater style consciousness among Negro men, it may represent either the greater desire to conform to vogue or the desire to stress individual eccentricity in dress, the former described as "smart," the latter "loud and flashy."25 Though the def- inition of style as interpreted by the individual, Negro or white, is not suggested here, men's clothing is exhibited to Negroes in a verbal con- text where style, and not the physical qualities of the garment, plays the major role.

Seventy-nine percent of Ebony's ads were priced compared to 66 percent for Life. Since fewer Life men's clothing ads were priced, this suggests that the advertisers in Life believe their audiences are less affected by price as such than do Ebony advertisers.

2Hat prices in Negro and white neighborhood stores respectively were $13.42 (N=130) and $9.22(N=58), in Ebony and Life respectively, $16.52(N=80) and $7.67 (N=6)! Shoe prices in Negro and white neighborhood stores respectively were $17.21 (N=148) and $14.63(N=75); in Ebony $16.75 (N=207), in Life, $12.75(N=35). 2 A mixture of both reasons is probably operating. The way style is defined by both groups represents a virgin field for communications research.

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Men's clothing ads and haberdasher displays were used again to determine the clothing items popular with Negro and white audiences. Hats and shoes were found to be the two items exhibited most frequently to Negroes, and in proportions significantly exceeding that shown to whites,26 suggesting the plausability of psychoanalytic and anthropometric interpretations. Sharply pointed shoes and wide brimmed Homburgs were the shoe and hat styles chiefly shown to Negroes.27 The shoe fabrics and leathers exposed to Negroes differed from those shown to whites by the popularity of real or imitation reptile, unborn calf, pony, polka-dotted calf and suede-reptile combinations. Sharply pointed shoes as well as those with delicate fabrics are not generally identified with productive labor but communicate the wearer's association with leisure activity. The average Negro, whose occupational his- tory is mainly in non-professional jobs, may use these fabrics and styles to communicate a dissociation from the traditional working classes.28

SUMMARY

This research has suggested that hats and shoes are exhibited to and presumably consumed in greater proportions by Negroes than by whites. Men's clothing advertised to Negroes is also higher priced than that shown to whites. Explanations for this phenomenon were made on the basis of the operation of clothing as cathectic objects, sexual and

personal symbols of gratification, and anthropometric disguises. Since

many Negroes are generally conceived as socially inferior, both by themselves and by whites, it was suggested that the individual Negro compensates for this position through clothing symbols. A position eco-

nomically inferior to that of the Negro female may force Negro males to use those hats and shoes invested with sexually gratifying symbols.

Segregation has produced patterns of consumption originating with status differentiation but leading to repercussions in more subtle ways for the subordinate class. It has conditioned the pattern of consumption in such a way that the economic position of both groups is not nec-

essarily the most significant factor for predicting these patterns. The evidence supported by status symbolism, anthropometry and a dynamic psychological interpretation appear to offer more valuable clues than economics to the understanding of clothing as an American cultural communication medium.

2 Hats occupied 39.8 percent of the display space in Negro neighborhood stores compared to 24.5 percent for whites, with Ns of 142 and 63 respectively. 16.6 percent of Ebony's men's clothing ads were for hats compared with 3.2 percent for Life. Dress shoes were advertised in 57.7 percent of Ebony's men's clothing ads compared with only 22.3 percent in Life.

7 Sharply pointed shoes composed 42 percent of the shoes exhibited to Negroes, 6 percent for whites. Sixty-three percent of the hats shown to Negroes were Homburgs, 8 percent of those shown to whites.

28 Strong racist attitudes in both Negroes and whites can operate in certain individuals, and it should not be inferred that all Negroes want to imitate whites.

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