Hoodies: Can't Keep My Mouth Shut Any Longer!
I have really tried to wait until the hoodie hype passed away into the old news folder. However, since that isn’t happening so much, I have to comment.
What is a hoodie? Basically, it is a sweatshirt with a hood. Why wear one? I think the hoodie’s main purpose is to hide. Hide from the rain, hide from the cold, hide from the wind or hide your face from people. Don’t want to be recognized? Pull the convenient hood over your head. Does that make you a criminal? No. Does wearing a hoodie sometimes make others view you as a criminal? Probably.
I rarely pay much attention to anything Fox News TV commentator Geraldo Rivera has to say. However, his recent comment on hoodies caught my attention.
"People wearing hooded sweatshirts are often going to be perceived as a menace," he remarked. I think he is right. He further commented "I’ll bet you money that if he didn’t have that hoodie on, that nutty Neighborhood Watch guy wouldn’t have responded in that violent and aggressive way."
He may or may not be right on that one.
I think the wearing of a hoodie by any youngster walking alone at night will cause a "flight or fight" response in many people. An article of clothing may not deserve being labeled a display of ill intent, but it happens.
All that being said, I guess what bothers me the most is the legs the hoodie has grown. Lawmakers wearing the garment as a show of support for justice for Trayon Martin. Rallies where the hoodie is used as a symbol of the injustice of the tragic shooting. It has just gotten to be too much. Next will be the outcry to ban hoodies in public places. Or to make it the state of Florida’s official garment. You know, like the state bird or state tree.
Martin was not a perfect young man with school suspensions, a marijuana possession charge and other seemingly petty offenses in his past. But that really doesn’t matter in the overall scheme of things except that painting him as a sweet, young innocent just adds fuel to the fire. His shooter was no innocent either, but I am not sure that means he was out to get a black teenager. Truth is, we don’t really know exactly what happened that night in Florida except that another young black man who happened to be wearing a hoodie is dead.
Are so many black teens and young adults dying at the hands of others because they are black? Or is it because they put themselves in situations where violence happens? Or is it because so many of them wear hoodies?
prettyflower
8:54 am on Saturday, April 7, 2012
I have never perceived hoodies as a way to hide. They have been popular in fashion for at least ten years now, if not more. They became popular when I was in college. They are a staple at suburban clothing stores such as Old Navy and Forever 21. You are just as likely to see someone wearing it at an SAT testing center as you are walking down the street on a chilly evening. I understand why the hoodie has become a symbol of the Martin crime, but I can't understand the perception that someone who wears one wants to hide or is up to no good.
ScenicRoute
5:57 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
I do think hoodies lead to a perception of a threat, but it is 75% the situation. A hoodie on a sunny but chilly afternoon on your average street, no problem. A hoodie on a dark night in an alley with few people around, my guard goes up another notch. Just how it is.
Jonathan Cribbs
6:05 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
I think this is principally a problem with older generations. Everyone I know wears hoodies at all times of the day in all sorts of places. You say if someone was wearing a hoodie in an alley on a dark night with a few people around your threat level would bounce upward a notch. But I gotta ask: Is is the hoodie or the fact that you're in a dark alley in the middle of the night? The hoodie seems irrelevant to me. Even in your situation.