Posted on 03/27/2012 2:00:29 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
The shooting of Trayvon Martin has cast a spotlight on the humble hooded sweat shirt, raising questions about the messages it sends — and why.
Football coaches wear them on the sidelines. Toddlers sport them on trips to the park. They are what we grab when we run to the market or head out in the cold to walk the dogs.
Yet somehow the humble hooded sweat shirt has evolved from basic, everyday apparel to a sinister symbol of urban terror.
It has become a touchstone in the conversation about the death of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who was wearing a hoodie when he was fingered as "suspicious" and shot by a Neighborhood Watch patroller.
Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera considers the hoodie "as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman," the man who shot him.
"I believe Trayvon Martin would be alive today, but for his hoodie," Rivera said last week. "If he didn't have that hoodie on, that nutty Neighborhood Watch guy wouldn't have responded in that violent and aggressive way....
"Pedestrians cross the street to avoid black or brown hoodie wearers," he said. "When you see that kid coming your way, you are thinking ghetto or ghetto wannabe."
Rivera has been roundly mocked since he made those comments last week — including in countless Facebook posts of a brown-skinned Rivera wearing a hoodie in the crowd at a Yankees' game.
It seems to me like a shameful example of blaming the victim. So I was surprised that several readers responded to my Saturday column on Trayvon's death with a similar view:
Hooded jackets broadcast "thug" when worn by minorities.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
My 88 year old grandmother wears one when she’s out in the yard this time of year.
or a biker, or drive a jeep sans top and doors.
i was wearing one the last couple weekends when it was fairly warm, but still a touch chilly in the jeep.
Yeah, it was his behavior and actions, not his clothing. He chose . . . poorly.
How about a Hoodie in Mossy Oak or Real Tree ? No Homeboy would be caught dead one of those. 8*>
I’m wearing blue jeans to show solidarity with George Zimmerman.
Should have used the twitter handle .....
See post #24 ..... switch to camo ... a whole different “statement”!
I have 3 of them in hunter orange.
I wear a hoodie every day but rarely do I put the hood itself up. I am not some anti-social miscreant who wants to hide his face and leer at people out the corner of his eyes.
That is the difference. These kids walk around filled with menace, constantly looking around with barely contained predatory intent or an overly developed flight or fight response because of their piss poor life choices. Always on the lookout, for victims or other predators.
Thieves, thugs, and assassins of the ages have wore hoods. We have them still in the modern age.
Regular people wear the hood when it’s cold. Gang bangers wear the hood to make it harder for people to see their faces, to conceal themselves from the store security cameras, or to prevent them being recognized at a distance by rival gang bangers.
Nuns don’t wear hoodies!
Monks do. ha.
And I will add....
Ski masks are practicable articles of clothing ....but I suggest you take it off before entering a bank.
I cut the hood off my camo hoodie today. Now, it’s just a sweatshirt.
Threw the hood into the carwash bucket. It’ll make a great “wash mitt”...
What a bunch of overheated, hyperbolic claptrap. It's a sweatshirt, for cripes' sake, not Darth Vader's cloak.
What is left unsaid is that hoodies, coats, and baggy clothes provide a cover for shoplifting. Our daughter managed a retail store and saw it firsthand.
The gangs and thugs adopted it as their symbol, that is why it is their symbol.
It is that simple.”””
Absolutely.
Check with the Oakland police & ask them what the staple piece of clothing they get in all the camera records of roberies & shootings in Oakland/ Richmond/ etc.
The only thing good happening out of all this is the surge in Hoodie sales.
Wait until those companies get their tax bill for their new found profits!!!
Along with bandanas, trenchcoats, all black attire. sigh.
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