Hoodies don’t kill, but ignorance and hate do

It’s Friday, the ole man’s birthday is tomorrow and despite the ever-changing state of our lives, we are still each other’s best friend, so my mind was on cake baking and all that good jazz. However this morning while sipping my daily joe to get my motor started, I stumbled into some online stupidity. It seems America’s favorite *smirk* journalist Geraldo Rivera decided to take to the twitter and explain that Trayvon Martin was killed because he was wearing a hoodie. BGIM say what????

Of course twitter lit into his ass with all it had but it doesn’t take away from the fact that there really are people who believe that if people of color wear certain clothes or do certain things that we will decrease the likelihood of having a cap busted in our ass. To that I say please read this post by the Black Snob, she breaks it down in a way that frankly I don’t have the writing chops to do.

There are simply people who for whatever reason refuse to see the humanity of Black people and what we wear or what we do is irrelevant. The fact is that some of the best thugs dress in thousand dollar suits and are very white! Do the names Bernie Madoff, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush mean anything to you? All old white guys who are pure fucking criminals and thugs, they don’t wear hoodies but trust me; they are thugs of the highest order. As someone reminded me Dick Cheney is such a thug, he shot a so-called friend in the face and no one said boo! Call me late to lunch, but that is some Tony Montana shit…straight thuggery, but I digress.

I am realizing that the death of an innocent child is causing us as a collective to start an honest dialogue on race in the United States and while generally I would say that is good, fact is for many this seems to be painful. Change is painful and generally discussions on such serious matters are meant to cause you to feel something internally, growing pains are very real. Yet when you try not to feel that discomfort or worse yet try to co-op the feelings and experiences of people of color, you then become part of the problem. The reason we have never advanced beyond seeing race is because no one wants to get raggedy, well let’s not let a child’s death be in vain, let’s work towards a world where one day any child can wear a hoodie without fear they will lose their life.

Now let me get back to my baking…happy weekend!

2 thoughts on “Hoodies don’t kill, but ignorance and hate do”

  1. The idea that it’s ok to shoot a boy in a hooded sweatshirt is asinine.

    The fact that everyone is not equally horrified and heartbroken by this heinous murder makes me sick.

    Making disgusting and idiotic remarks to somehow make it seem like a justifiable killing…they should be ashamed.

    Imagine you are minding your own business walking down the street and a stranger, an adult man, in a car starts following you. Imagine this man starts talking to you. What would you do if he tried to touch you? Or demanded that you stop?

    Anyone who is not moved to tears by the murder of this beautiful boy, anyone who could try to blame this child for his own murder has no humanity.

  2. Geraldo Rivera is a douche, but I do think he represents a very quiet and disturbed part of our American population. Personally, I am glad he said what so many others are thinking but are afraid to say out loud in a public forum. Unless it all comes out in the open and is examined negated, nothing can change.

    As someone who (I thought) passed for 100% White for most of her life, I can tell you this type of attitude is prevalent especially amongst all white groups. No one usually dares to say something like Rivera’s bs if there’s other “non-whites” around. Like you didn’t know that, right? *sarcasm*

    It certainly is painful to scratch the surface of race in America. We are opening up a giant, ugly wound that has festered in this country for centuries. Once your eyes are open to it, it’s everywhere and it’s so painful to see. You realize there are certain people (in my case family members) who you can’t tolerate anymore. You see racism EVERYWHERE. I saw it last week in my mostly white town’s grocery store. A cop had stopped a young black man and was questioning him in front of the store. The young man wore a hoodie, but for fuck’s sake we all wear hoodies don’t we?!

    I think everyone has to listen to the audio of Trayvon Martin being murdered. You can’t see color on the audio, you just hear a boy begging for his life and then silenced forever by another man.

    He was killed because he was Black. But, Trayvon is my son and your son, it doesn’t matter what color we are. When dear god can we get past this? How many babies have to die?

    This is (and has been) what happens when we don’t examine our actions and in-actions, our thoughts and fears, our differences and similarities, our institutions and laws. The silence from some people frightens me and speaks louder than words.

    Sometimes I get hopeless and think that there is no way we can change the hate that George Zimmerman and so many others feel in their hearts. I think maybe the only things we can do are GET MOTHER FUCKING LOUD, vote, vote, vote and make our public servants accountable. These institutions have to change! And then we just have to wait for this old racist, sexist regime to die out.

    What makes me hopeful is being around my school-age daughter and her friends. They don’t see color first and foremost. They see a person first and then they see that person’s color or ethnicity. They are excited to learn about different cultures. This gives me hope. Maybe I’m optimistic, but it’s all I’ve got.

    Thanks for your blog.
    K.

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