Oakland Barber Shop Owner Demands Self Respect, Belts From Kids
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- The owner of Oakland's Pull Up Your Pants Barber Shop is trying to change attitudes, one young customer and one saggy pair of jeans at a time.
82nd Avenue in Oakland has its share of inner-city problems. But the corner barbershop has become a safe haven for the neighborhood, all thanks to the man who owns it.
"He's our Martin Luther King around here!" said one customer with a hearty laugh.
That may be stretching things, but Tyrone Burns has earned the respect of the neighborhood with one simple message: pull up your pants!
"You come in here, you gotta respect the rules," said Burns.
And he isn't kidding. Burns will ban you from the shop if your pants are sagging or if you use foul language.
"When I see that, I see a person that's trying to be a wannabe," said Burns. "Somebody that's trying to be like everybody else, that don't really know their own identity."
Burns told CBS SF that he doesn't like to see sagging pants because they are meant to mimic the look of prison clothing.
He said young people deserve better role models than that. He's even started a donation drive to give belts to kids.
It's not an exactly something that young people want to hear.
When asked how he would have reacted to the message as a young man, an older patron said he probably would have stayed defiant.
"Basically, I probably wouldn't have even came," the man said. "I probably wouldn't because I was rebellious like that."
But something interesting has happened at the barber shop. The young people who do come in have discovered that self-respect is gained by giving respect to others.
That's what Myeisha Walker learned the first time she came in with sagging pants.
"And he was just like, Pull your pants up! So I just pulled 'em up," said Walker. "But now when I come in, before I hit that curb, I just automatically pull 'em up and come inside."
It's a code of conduct he expects from everyone who walks through the door of his Pull Up Your Pants Barber Shop.
"Your character is how you display yourself. If your pants are down, then I might look at you quite different," said Burns
How people wear their pants might seems like a trivial thing, but in this Oakland neighborhood and this barber shop, it means something.
