RF23 - Prison, HIV and Saggin'

Over the last weekend, I went to get my fade tighten up and of course, I made the mistake of not making an appointment and had to ask that dreaded question of "how many?" and getting that dreaded answer of three or more, of course the folks who had sense to make an appointment got to the head of line.

Like all barbershops, in urban America, the conversation in the barbershop is a good gauge of who smart and knowledgeable and unfortunately, who's not. Well, on that day, it was a mixed bag, so I decided to sit back and listen to neighborhood gossip and see what was being sold.

The conversation started slow, when one usual patron, mentioned that someone, who was 19, apparently got sentenced to 165 years, earlier in the week. Someone asked, damn! what did he do? In my head, I'm thinking dude probably killed a few people or was on strike 5 or something. Anyway, the shock of someone being sentenced to 165 years in prison brought up the subject of prison rape and whether this young person was going to be the ahem receiver or the ahem pitcher. So after a lengthy conversation of that, someone brought up that men, who engage in homosexual acts in prison, are gay and quite frankly doesn't change when they get out. Someone argued that it's part of the prison lifestyle, which was shot down in a quick fashion. No the overwhelming majority of those participating in the conversation, pretty much said,"you do a man, you gay."

Next, was the issue of "men on the down low," and the majority of those talking pretty much said, "they're gay." Then someone brought up HIV/AIDS and how come so many black women fall prey to these deadly disease. One brought up, that many feel that it can't happen to them and therefore engage in unprotected sex. Another brought up that some of these men engage in these acts after they're in a trusting relationship and then spread the disease to their unsuspecting partner.

So far the conversation was good, no one blamed the white man for dropping the AIDs bomb and effecting black neighborhoods. It all seemed civil, when someone surprisingly asked, "how do we stop it?" And one lady, said it all, "be responsible, protect yourself and your partner." At this, I shook my head and agreed.

So as that conversation ended, one of the guys who was getting his haircut, got up from the chair and to everyone dismay, was saggin' hard. His pants were past his butt and everyone fell out laughing...Dude had the nerve to ask, what? and the same lady who hit the nail on the head on the HIV/AIDS subject, told him to pull his damn pants up..She said as a lady, she found it unattractive and quite frankly, questioned his maturity. The guy stared at her, as to say, who the fuck are you?, put his head down, and pulled his pants up.

No one wanted to discuss that...
It's easy, pull your pants up..