To avoid becoming yet another statistic, black men across the country, like Pegram, have adopted a dress code to deflect negative attention as a conscious means of survival. They want to send this message: “I’m safe. I don’t pose a threat. You can trust me.”

Certainly, many black American men dress up simply because they like to. They don't necessarily dress fashionably to feel safer in their skin or to avoid police suspicion. One need look no further than style stars like Pharrell Williams and Kanye West, up-and-coming dandies like Jidenna, who are trendsetters in their own right.

Fashion bloggers like Sabir Peele say their own sharp sense of style comes from an innate desire to express themselves through clothing. “I’m normally dressed in suits because that’s my personal taste,” the 28-year old says. "I don't necessarily dress up because I want to deflect any attention from police, no. But I wonder if people would be questioning why a black man is at places, like a fancy hotel, and staring my way if I wasn't suited up like I usually am."

The former admissions counselor who resides in Philadelphia is now the creative director for his own business, Men’s Style Pro, a menswear blog.

Though he hasn’t had run-ins with the police in recent years, one incident still resonates. It was New Year’s Eve a couple of years ago when was walking to a party with a friend, in casual clothing: a t-shirt and a black leather jacket. He was stopped by authorities who drew their guns.

“They pulled their guns out on us saying that we fit the profile of a couple of guys who recently robbed a house,” he says. “It was extremely upsetting.”

It's not a unique experience to Peele, rather, one that many black American males have faced at one time or another.

“There’s this notion of African American males who have chosen to dress in a way that disarms the blackness and the potential for being seen as more black than human,” says says Emmett Price, author of Hip Hop Culture and a professor at Northeastern University.

“In society today, dressing up has become a life or death choice.”