Real Talk: It’s Not About A Hoodie

March 23rd, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

Source: Centric TV

In all the articles I’ve read on the Trayvon Martin case, there’s one comment that has stuck out to me more than any. I can’t even remember the article or the person’s username, just the blatant lack of acknowledgement of any wrongdoing by this reader who urged news outlets to show pictures of what Trayvon Martin was wearing the night of February 26 when he was shot dead, not the angelic photos now being passed around of the 17-year-old boy.

I was furious, and for some reason shocked, although that type of racist insensitivity shouldn’t have surprised me. After all, the discussion had arisen out of a situation in which a neighborhood watchman was sitting free in the comfort of his home inside a gated Florida community after he’d just gunned down an unarmed “suspicious” black boy walking home with skittles and an iced-tea in his pockets. I’d let the anger at the reader’s insinuation that Trayvon was somehow responsible for his death go as new details in the case gave me new reasons to be upset—911 tapes, a reporter asking if Trayvon ate chicken, a girlfriend recounting his last minutes alive—but today Geraldo Rivera reignited the same fury I felt the day this boy’s apparel was first brought up as a justification for his death and I cried over this situation for the first time.

In an effort to somehow identify with the anger and frustration the black community is feeling over this case, Geraldo talked about not allowing his brown-skinned Latino son wear hoodies, and says plainly, “His hoodie killed Trayvon Martin as surely as George Zimmerman did.”

“No one black, brown or white can honestly tell me that seeing a kid of color with a hood pulled over his head doesn’t generate a certain reaction, sometimes scorn, often menace,” he wrote for Fox News Latino.

“When you see that kid coming your way, unless you specifically recognize him you are thinking ghetto or ghetto wannabe high-style or low-brow wise-A$$. Pedestrians cross the street to avoid black or brown hoodie wearers coming their way…

“Whatever Reverends Sharpton and Jackson say in Florida Friday, after listening to the 911 tapes and hearing the witness’ testimonials, I believe Trayvon Martin would be alive today but for his hoodie.”

Regardless of whether Geraldo is right about the reaction seeing a hoodie causes, there is no room for victim-blaming or distraction from the real criminal in this murder case. I won’t lie, the more I read about Trayvon Martin I thought, what if he didn’t have on that hoodie, what if black men didn’t always have on those damn hoodies. Would the suspicions go away? I didn’t ask the question because I was worried about black men making white or Hispanic people uncomfortable, I asked because I wanted them to be safe. I even engaged in my own chicken and the egg discussion: What came first, black men wearing hoodies as part of their own day-to-day style or hoodies becoming the apparel of choice for anyone who was about to commit a crime? I quickly removed myself from that thought though because discussions about what ifs only distract from what was and the answer truly doesn’t matter because this is not about a hoodie, this is about the skin tone of the boy in the hoodie and the assumptions about who he was based on his presence in an area where the majority of people didn’t look like him.

The suggestion that Trayvon essentially committed suicide by wearing a hoodie is akin to the thought that a woman wearing a short skirt and high heels asked to be raped. We’re blaming the victim instead of demanding the perpetrators accept responsibility and be punished for their actions. Do we really think the racism black men experience would change if they all swapped hoodies for button ups? Ask the well-spoken ninth grade black boy who was just told to read a poem by Langston Hughes “blacker,” ask a brown-skinned man in a three-piece business suit how difficult it is to catch a cab in New York City, ask the black man who’s been pulled over by the police more times than he can count, not because he went over the speeding limit or forgot to use his turning signal but for a crime far more egregious: driving while black. Ask the black man who can sense the fear his presence instills on those around him when he’s doing nothing more but walking to the corner store. Ask them how much their outfit helped or hindered them.

Everyone is looking for answers here in a crime that doesn’t make sense but I assure you, you won’t find the answer amongst a critique of black menswear. All this banter proves is a fact we often discuss when it comes to black women but is clearly now evident when it comes to black men, make that a black child: we cannot be victims. If being followed, pursued, and tracked down by George Zimmerman, as his calls to 911 demonstrate, doesn’t prove Trayvon was as innocent of a victim as a deer being hunted in the woods, how much more damage will insinuations that by wearing a mere sweatshirt Trayvon posed enough of a threat for George to stand his ground do? I don’t doubt that Trayvon would’ve been pursued exactly the same way as he was February 26 hoodie or not because he was an unrecognized black male in a community of mostly whites. We can swear off hoodies for black men until they go out of style and that won’t remove the accessory that is truly the root cause of their innate suspiciousness in our society—brown skin.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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  • VirtualClover

    RIP Trayvon Martin.

    Bottom line, it’s not self defense even if Trayvon was punching him in the face and winning, to use a gun. If and only if Trayvon had a gun and was wielding it with a threat to shoot would use of a gun be considered lawful self defense.

    It’s heartwarming to see communities across the country rising up to speak out for him. My deepest sympathies to his family, and especially his mother. 

  • robjh1

    Folks wake up!  It is too about the hoodie and Trayvon being black.  If it wasn’t about the hoodie why are people asking others to wear hoodies as their avatar in social media. Why not just paint your face black?????????????????????????? Wake up folks.  Have you all not heard of this case: 

    http://gothamist.com/2011/05/26/uws_apple_store_sued_for_discrimina.php

    It is unbelievable at how blacks are denying what Geraldo said. 
    When just recently at a rally for Trayvon in NYC Joelette Crawford explained to her son “that some people draw conclusions about others based on skin color, gender, clothing, and all sorts of arbitrary things. Those conclusions can hurt people’s feelings. And sometimes they cost lives.” 

    So we’re either going to speak the truth or continue to live a lie. Why else are people asking others to where “hoodies” to remember Trayvon? Don’t allow Trayvon’s death to be in vain simply because we refuse to see the trut or don’t like the way the messenger told the truth. No one is saying Trayvon wasn’t stalked because of his skin color, but the hoodie also played a part. Horrible incidents like this will continue to happen until we accept the full story. It’s not pretty it’s UGLY but don’t try and water it down or silence it. 

    http://andwearenotsaved.blogspot.com/2012/03/melissa-harris-perry-mocks-geraldo_2344.html

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JAI4SRENU2A5WKRTELXXYJPDSI Kayla

    So on the tape when Zimmerman said “They always get away”. I’m sure he was referring to men who wear hood right?……

  • Anony

    IllyPhilly… totally agree with you!!  And might I add, while I am livid at this entire situation and believe Zimmerman is 100% responsible and should be imprisoned or killed, I also feel we as a people, are indirectly responsible as well.  Though I can generally tell what type of person (of my race) I am approaching, I can’t deny I dont get a bit quiverish not to mention pissed off and disappointed when a “thug” (one of ours) walks past me. Why are we wearing pants past our a$$es?!?  Why do we think its cool to be in a gang or throw up signs?!? Why are we killing our own people?!? Why are rappers putting out so much negativity and violence and applauding arrogant behavior?!? Sad but true, we have help to create this “perception” that everyone has of us! As a result, Trayvons everywhere are suffering from a mere “perception”!  And, THAT, my friend, is also a HUGE contributor to Trayvon’s death!  Sure, we’ve dealt with racism since the beginning of time, but we have also helped to entice it.  While this Zimmerman character may have “mentored black kids” or had “black friends”, I, too, can say I have a few white friends, some very close, but I cant deny that when I’m talking about an issue with “my peeps” that I don’t sometimes find myself saying “YT people get on my nerves” or this that and the other. Point being, his black friends and family are irrelevant!  He probably still has issues with blacks *dropsthemic*

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kenneth-Johnson/1508895351 Kenneth Johnson

    I could not have said it any better.Thank you.

  • SMHgurl24

    Please people we need to WAKE UP we are fighting the wrong war! This issue CANNOT be seen as a racial issue. This needs to be seen that our goverment is getting away with murder! We put these people in charge and they are not doing their job which is to PROTECT THE PEOPLE. There will always be racial issues at this point in time but being up in arms about it is allowing the real criminals to get away. This WILL happen again and if we constantly point out race we will get nowhere. The common denominator of this tragedy and others like it has been and will always be sneaky, lying goverment. All of us whether black, white, asian, hispanic need to STAND TALL against the real issue here because if not were just going to be stuck in the same circle of injustice.

    • L-Boogie

      I understand your point.  But there is a huge racial implication in this case.  Did you hear the 911 call?  If not, please do.  Zimmerman made racial slurs about Trayvon even before questioning his “suspicous” activity and later shooting him.  To think this does not have elements of racism is naive.

      • L-Boogie

        suspicious

  • Indigo

    Hoodies are not just “black menswear”…white people wear hoodies too.

  • Crystal

    I wear hoodies with my college logo on it; I guess that makes me a college-educated thug….

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WSVFJLWBGUC6IZCIMBKVXSNRWY Dani

      I know that’s right I wear my college hoodie aswell. I am far from being a thug, I am a young black educated woman.

  • Crystal

    It was raining, probably why he had the damn hoodie on in the first place! How is someone wearing a hoodie in the rain supicious? I would be more suspicious of him if he was walking in the rain without one.

  • T2mara

    I can think of a million articles of clothing which can be associated with illicit activities but are worn by law-abiding citizens everyday.  We can ask ourselves “what if Trayvon had not been wearing a hoodie?”, but I don’t think that is the real issue here.  We would not be asking this question if it had been a young white male, or better yet, a young white female who was wearing the hoodie and had been shot.  Why is it that our children have to be held to a higher standard when it comes to there attire.  I see children of other ethnicities wearing questionable clothing all the time but for some reason, when it comes to black children, does it have to have some deep, hidden meaning.  I don’t agree with children wearing  pants which hang low, but you have to wonder why members of our government find it so offensive that they feel laws need to be enacted making it illegal.  Its just another sly way to harass our children.  I see young Caucasion females wearing “daisy dukes” or low-rise jeans which show their butt cheeks or the cracks of their butt and I don’t see any Congressman or Senators getting up in arms about enacting laws to stop it.  Like I said, its just another “legal” way to harass and intimidate our children.

  • Ms_Mara

    Geraldo is wrong on so many levels. You don’t blame this boy for his own MURDER. And you don’t blame minorities for other people’s ignorance/prejudices about them. Sure, some people may feel threatened or scared when they see someone wearing a hoodie. How about we address that ignorance?  Get people to see how wrong they can be in their kneejerk judgments. Instead of making it seem like that boy did anything other than what he had the right to do – which was buy candy and expect to get back home in one piece.

     The ONLY one in the wrong was Zimmerman for ASSUMING things about Trayvon based on what he claims he saw. Trayvon holds no fault whatsoever. Shame on Geraldo for trying to pass the buck.

  • Patahnu

    Less be real,…it ain’t the clothes…its the mindset of some folks in this country…when I use to walk around in my gold…it was the same thing. I rock a shirt,tie and shoes 5 days a week…the same bs. I feel for the father (me a single dad w/14yo son)….we MEN gotta change this…not the law,…US…among other things…..

    A black me

  • India Rodriguez17

    I can say right now that I will continue to wear my hoodies because they’re comfortable and suit me just fine. Geraldo is always saying some dumb a** ish and apparently hasn’t learned from when he got into trouble revealing troop movements years ago. No one should pay his dumb a** any attention because we all know why he was killed….an overzealous idiot who wanted to be a cop but he couldn’t hack it

  • L-Boogie

    Trayvon did not bring this injustice upon himself.  He was treated unfairly and I wish they would focus on getting Zimmerman in jail versus testing him for substances.  This just reaffirms the way in which Blacks are viewed and treated within the United States.  

    • L-Boogie

      SN: testing Trayvon for substances. 

  • Doriska

    “The suggestion that Trayvon essentially committed suicide by wearing a hoodie is akin to the thought that a woman wearing a short skirt and high heels asked to be raped.”
    This is exactly the thought that came to mind when I initially heard Geraldo’s claim. Victim blaming gets no one nowhere. 

  • Ca Ga Peach04

    I heard in some reports that it was rain/drizzling that evening… Isn’t
    a hoodie supposed to be used to protect one frm the elements? How does wearing
    a hood automatically make on menacing?? Geraldo can Kiss IT!!
     

  • Gimmeabreak78

    Geraldo is a world class a-hole for his comments.  I guess Oscar Grant, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, etc were all wearing hoodies when they were gunned down???  Hell, was Martin Luther King wearing a hoodie when he was gunned down?  The problem isn’t the hoodie, or the hoodie-wearer as it were.  It is in the attitude of a society that frequently overreacts to blackness (more specifically black maleness).  Black men are are always portrayed as the boogey man no matter what they are wearing at the time.  The fear of black men that this society has created and cultivated has the the strange effect of having black men simultaneously perceived as both the predator and the prey.  Predator because the outsized fear people have that black men will somehow violate them–prey because all too often it is the feared black man who ends up inside the chalk outline on the street.  Heaven help us all.

  • R Wilson

     No disrespect but there are thousands of
    Trayvon Martins in america

     

    and whites are largely silent

     

    until the “news” hits the media

     

    and white racism is exposed to the world

     

    white people then swing into action and put on the masks
    of concern

     

    just like they did during Katrina

     

    after the rest of the world looked on in shock at the
    way white people were treating their negroes worse than DOGS

     

    then suddenly

     

    white people collectively began swinging into action and
    offer help, food and a bed to sleep in

     

    not because they cared

     

    it was because they did not want to be exposed to the
    world — or to their victims

     

    now that black people forced the issue of Trayvon Martin
    out into the open and into the news

     

    white people have collectively swung into action

     

    to CONTROL the imagery and the dialogue

     

    so black people will NOT wake up and decide we are going
    to do something about our oppression

     

    the ultimate trickology of this latest murder
    controversy/control
     
    is connecting Trayvon’s MURDER  to a “hoodie” 

     
    aka the HOOD
     
    aka “a black male criminal”
    I don’t know about you, but whenever I see a “hoodie”

     

    I immediately think of the hundreds of surveillance videos of young black males wearing hoodies and
    committing CRIMES
     
    the trickology is about pretending to sympathize
    with a young black male who was MURDERED
     
    all while CEMENTING the image of black males with
    criminality EVEN WHEN they are being victimized
     
    which is why Trayvon’s CORPSE was tested for alcohol

     
    and here’s the fun part
     
    (which is almost as much fun as wearing blackface or an
    afro wig)
     
    the images of white people wearing “hoodies” to
    show their support
     
    all while knowing that a black male in a “hoodie” is a HOOD in the minds of white people.
     
    white people must control the imagery
    and dialogue

     

    and keep their negroes always looking, searching,
    praying for those “good white people” who will come to our rescue

     
    because if they didn’t

     

    their negroes might wake
    up

    • autumn_breeze

      Ok…so I’m NOT the only one that felt a little weirded out by white’s wearing hoodies for Trayvon?!…Good post!

    • Green94camry

      Er, you’re a dork !

    • Carolinakatlady

      I do respect your position and agree with you that Blacks have and still are oppressed in America.  Please don’t however, steryotype ALL white people.  Isn’t that was this is about?  White people steryotyping black males in hoodies or sagging pants or wearing chains.  Yes, I know the images you refer to.  They have been engrained on our culture by the media and Hollywood.  Its like a little kid who has been taught to fear snakes because his mother once saw one and screamed. 

      I say don’t steryotype us because all of us don’t join the marches and the vigils out of our own guilt or shame.  Some of us do see the injustice and hate it, just as you do.  I do agree that many have rushed to control the dialogue and imagary, but not all.    Those who should support you more vigourously don’t because we like so many of you, are so busy just surviving in the lower and middle classes, meanwhile it behoves the upper class to retain the status quo. 

      Here, Whites DO wear hoodies as a matter of practice.So, I wasn’t weirded out by the Whites wearing hoodies. They are economical and functional clothing (unless you go for the name brands).   I am appalled however that in a couple of weeks this will be over except for the news casts.  I sincerely hope his murderer is treated as such and receives a maximum sentence.  Please know that some of us whites actually vote for candidates who are for social justice.  Grouping us all together is like saying all young black men are criminals.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FNWK5IQUFNOTBHBJW2XEJOESME John Lee

      I Hate to break it to you…But the killer of this kid was a Hispanic and not a White man. Just look at the man’s picture, he is about as White as you are. And you know what, Geraldo Rivera is simply trying to do damage control here. Geraldo views himself as Hispanic and he is trying his DAMN best to deflect attention away from the simple fact that the killer is a fellow Hispanic…Which is really sad since the Hispanic/Latino community needs to man up and take responsibility for THEIR racism this time.

      But instead of doing that, he is trying to dump the blame on White people with his subtle message of “brown and black people beware”…but of course, it was a brown person who killed a black person in this case.

      And for the folks who say this guy is “white” since his dad is supposedly white [last name is Zimmerman]…Ask yourself this – Do you consider Obama White ? If you dont then why does Zimmerman have to be White in this case ? He looks Hispanic – not White. His mother is Hispanic to.

      ALSO back to Geraldo Rivera…Geraldo is the same mix as Zimmerman. Geraldo has 1 hispanic parent and 1 white Jew parent – Zimmerman has 1 white Jew parent and 1 hispanic parent. So how cute of Geraldo to count himself as Hispanic at this moment but try and shrug off Zimmerman as “just” a White guy [who does not look white] when he kills a black kid…Latinos need to face their own racism for a change, alot of them DO hate black people.

      • Just saying

        I didn’t even read your whole statement because I’m tired but your first statement is false. “The killer of this kid was a Hispanic and not a White man”. That makes absolutely no sense…it is possible to be both believe it or not. “Hispanic” is not a race…”White” is, just saying lol.

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FNWK5IQUFNOTBHBJW2XEJOESME John Lee

          The killer is a mu** and not White…A white Hispanic is Cameron Diaz, Emilio Estevez etc – they are White hispanic. This guy could pass as a Mexican or a Guatemallan. If we are to consider this killer as White then we might aswell count George Lopez as White and countless other brown ppl..But that wouldnt make sense would it ? No they are forced to be white when its convenient for them to be White, it makes it easy to hype up the media and racket up the big $$$ for Al sharpton. If he were not a killer and was instead a hero for saving a drowning kid you can bet your a** the news would label him as a local Hispanic man helping out his diverse community.

  • J A SASSY aka salon22w

    where are the white women who lay up with blakc men and claim they love  black men so much… with all the the ::oh i love chocolate up against my white skin”  where are they when the black race has these kind of black struggles they face every damn day? thats the big question… they are no where around the black fight and trails we as blacks go thru.. but you can catch them in the blk mans bed!?????

    • Herm Cain

      Your pathetic chick you will die alone no man wants to deal with your self esteem issues your comment says your bitter and need therapy brothers aren’t your problem white women ain’t thinking about you look in that mirror evaluate and improve yourself

      • Green94camry

        Preach on herm, let em know !

  • IllyPhilly

    Where are the famous Black men to counter his claim?  Everybody but the people you’d expect to speak out (i.e. kanye) has said something.

    • Gimmeabreak78

      Many famous black men have spoken out on this issue.  Unfortunately, none of them hapen to be your favorite rappers.  Our community needs to stop expecting rappers to be our voices on issues like this, because they’ll disappoint us every time. .

      • IllyPhilly

         Ew, not our voices. Apparently if kids walk around in tight a$$ pants cuz some rapper does it or starts saying bestie cuz some rapper says it, they hold a lot of clout with these kids (not mines). Saying something IMO, is the least they can do since rap perpetuates so much violence and stupidity.

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