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 ...
I’m wearing blue jeans to show solidarity with George Zimmerman.
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Very cute! Sitting here laughing! :-)
Dear Sandy Banks,
Almost all thugs, of whatever color, like and wear hoodies, because they protect and enable crime, specifically robbery and assault.
However, not all hoodies are worn by thugs.
Logic 101. Deal with it, you stupid liberal appeaser.
I have 3 hoodies that 8 can where in solidarity with Trayvon.
Yacht Club, Polo Club, or my University.
Same for switchblade knives.
Back around 1965 I came home with a hooded sweatshirt that had Pedersen Hoods on the back. Our TriHiY chapter had chosen these green sweatshirts as our uniform. May father was furious. So furious that he tried to strangle me wit the cords of it. No daughter of his was going to go around looking like a HOODLUM.
Hoodlum is why they chose the hoodies, I believe.
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