# Educated middle class blacks embracing and "owning" the Pimp Lifestyle -

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educated-middle-class-blacks-embracing-and-owning-the-pimp-lifestyle/136714>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 14, 2002, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educated-middle-class-blacks-embracing-and-owning-the-pimp-lifestyle/136714 "2002-11-14T14:05:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educated-middle-class-blacks-embracing-and-owning-the-pimp-lifestyle/136714/1 "2002-11-14T14:05:32Z")

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Is this “owning” of the Pimp experience and lifestyle a culturally valid and important point I’m missing about what it means to be Black in Amerika, or is it simply a silly affectation by over-indulged college students?

[‘Pimp’ Show At Howard Is By Definition Controversial - Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51910-2002Nov13.html)

> [@](#):
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> They’re still talking about Howard University’s homecoming fashion show, a month later. And they’re still arguing. In the now-infamous show “Pimp Harder,” a procession of sometimes scantily clad models sashayed down the Cramton Auditorium runway between clips from documentaries “Pimps Up, Ho’s Down” and “American Pimp.”
> 
> As the rapper Jay-Z boasted of "Big Pimpin’ " and Joi sang praises of the “Techno Pimp” over loudspeakers, the models strutted in nouveau pimp gear by Tristen Blake and Earl Bannister and sizzling lingerie by Kelley Carter. One model strutted topless, her hands cupping her breasts.
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> Between catwalks, definitions of today’s pimp were flashed on a screen:
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> • “One who exists as a distinct entity.”
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> • “A shrewd understanding of human affairs.”
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> • “The best-looking [expletive] you’ve ever seen.”
> 
> Organizers Jessica Lima and Megan Moore, both 21, say the show was an attempt to reinvent a word in what they call the “Pimp Age,” an era marked by corporate pimping, the pimping of black culture, and widespread manipulation in everyday relationships. They say the show was a challenge to the student body to "conquer what oppresses them and become pimps in their own right

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> But the organizers say the Pimp Age has nothing to do with exploiting women or black culture. “Pimping is a state of mind,” Moore said in an interview, “a movement about no longer being the victim, a movement where women do not have to take some of the crap that men dish out, a movement that is focused on educating our people and uplifting each other.”

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**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educated-middle-class-blacks-embracing-and-owning-the-pimp-lifestyle/136714/2 "2002-11-14T14:59:06Z")

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> [@](#):
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> Is this “owning” of the Pimp experience and lifestyle a culturally valid and important point I’m missing about what it means to be Black in Amerika, or is it simply a silly affectation by over-indulged college students?

It’s neither. It was a theme for a fashion show. Why the organizers are trying to justify it a tad silly.

There was a Pimp party here in Baltimore around Halloween. I’ll scrounge around for a link, but it was attended by mostly white people. It may have been at Bohagers, a popular bar/club in Fells Point.

I was a pimp (circa 1978) last year for Halloween. I was pimp-a-rific! I didn’t do it because I’m black, I did it because the vintage clothing store around the corner from my house has some kick-ass clothes from that era.

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**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educated-middle-class-blacks-embracing-and-owning-the-pimp-lifestyle/136714/3 "2002-11-14T15:05:52Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by JuanitaTech \*  
> \*\*There was a Pimp party here in Baltimore around Halloween. \*\*

There was one here in LA last halloween. My roommate attened, and said it was nearly an all-white affair.

He looked like Huggy-Bear from _Starsky and Hutch_.