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Sherlene Stevens: New Era, The Fear of Wearing Professional Clothing

Since the recession, I have noticed a new consumer behavior by American people of color. In Ebonics, we don't really dress up anymore for traditional-school pictures, work, or our places of worship. A designers worst nightmare!

In my opinion, people of color have the modern healthcare illness (PTSD)  when it comes to interacting with people who wear professional styles for a living within their work habits (ex. dresses, dress suits, pant suits, etc.). Or maybe it's actually the behavior history of remembering when your parents, magically, on Easter Sunday (or church events) or a traditional school program, were able to afford such attire for you. Yet, they couldn't quite seem to afford buying you that favorite doll, toy, or latest invention back then--that you so desperately begged for every time you went to your local store, right?

Where does this emotion, modern dress-style habits, come from. Have you ever wondered?
  • When we stopped purchasing or wearing such clothing at our unique households. Where are we going to wear it anyway?
  • When we took to more modest religious views during the most recent recession.
  • When we would glance at our modern, local ministers without their robe on Sunday mornings, or that white thing (preacher's collar) around their neck when strolling neighborhoods. Are you able to tell whose a preacher when in a crowd within your local community?
  • When we believed the myth that the only people who wore such clothing were either priests, teachers, or people up to no good in our communities.  No-good activities meaning an individual trying to develop new approaches to community concerns, or the lack of such professional look in the environment.  Did you know that most of our American business schools require you to wear business clothing--at all times? By the way, good luck in finding any-race's teacher who really creates a household budget which actually allocates, or includes the realistic expenses of professional work clothing. 
Unproductive habits or routines can be mistakenly defined as purpose, unique households.

I believe that we are unknowingly (from consistent basic store-aisle shopping) now losing our personal creativity when it comes to clothing styles. We dress in basic colors of darker shades of blue or black [jeans], and find it odd if another is wearing a pair of lime-green jeans. Audience family, next time that you are in your favorite clothing store, glance at the clearance rack. I bet it will be full of quantities of colorful or printed garments that will either be purchased at a fraction of its original value, or discarded because of markdown to its lowest price value of which has no real profit to the store entrepreneur or store chain. 

"Spooky---"