Today is the one-year anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death. He would have been 18 on February 5.
Hoodies Are Not A Weapon
Geraldo Rivera said that Trayvon Martin's hoodie killed him as surely as George Zimmerman's gun did. Lots of people have taken to blaming Martin's wardrobe for his death, in fact. This tumblr is here to expose the notion that hoodies are for thugs as victim-blaming propaganda.
I found this on my desktop this morning and have misplaced the source. If you know it, let me know and I will credit or link properly.
A black body in public space must presume its own guilt and be prepared to present a rigidly controlled public performance of docility and respectability.
Melissa Harris-Perry, Trayvon Martin: What It’s Like to Be a Problem
Askiri is similarly a young, black man who often wears a hoodie. He also happens to be very confident. I can’t help wonder how many times his confidence been perceived as arrogance, his actions as drug-induced, or attentiveness as paranoia due to guilt.
“Askiri and Me,” Abel Habtegeorgis, via the Ella Baker Center.
What do I say to you?
How do I answer your questions
without inviting you to my fear?
How do I make sense of this for you?
you smiling, brown faced boy
you lover of candy and soft drinks
and hooded sweatshirts that make you feel big
and tall like your uncles
you who runs when scared
fights back when cornered
how do I protect you from this?
How can I teach you to love this world
when I’m not convinced this world will love you back
excerpt from Apology to My Brown Boy by Bassey.
My hero LeVar Burton! (Source: Colorlines.)
Melissa Harris-Perry’s Dress Code for Black Safety. An Instant Classic.
Being sketchy at the zoo. Watch out, Tigers!
(User submission.)Your apology is accepted. Let me just add one thing with the wearing of the hoodie. I don’t think America knows that, in fact, at the time of the incident when he initially made the call, it was raining. So Trayvon had every right to have on his hood. He was protecting himself from the rain. So if being a suspicious, walking in the rain with your hoodie on is a crime, then i guess the world is doing something wrong.
Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s father, to Geraldo Rivera. (Source.)
Me, being a person of fashion, I have multiple hoodies of all different colors — it’s what people wear right now. It shouldn’t be that somebody gets shot because of the style of clothing they’re wearing. That should never be an excuse.
Khalil Bunch in Hoodies: Why parents of teens of color have the ‘survival’ talk by Angela Hill
