Opinion: Geraldo Rivera: Wearing a hoodie while black is asking for it
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Geraldo Rivera set off a firestorm Friday morning when, on âFox & Friends,â he commented on the Trayvon Martin shooting, saying: â[I] am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martinâs death as George Zimmerman was.â He continues:
When you see a black or Latino youngster, particularly on the street, you walk to the other side of the street. You try to avoid that confrontation. Trayvon Martin, you know God bless him, he was an innocent kid, a wonderful kid, a box of Skittles in his hands. He didnât deserve to die. But Iâll bet you money, if he didnât have that hoodie on, that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldnât have responded in that violent and aggressive way.
John Hudson at the Atlantic Wire scoffed at Riveraâs remarks, putting together a post featuring famous white people (including Rivera himself) and one brown extraterrestrial wearing hoodies. But few around the Web have been as lighthearted in their commentary.
Mediaiteâs Tommy Christopher writes:
You can file Geraldoâs absurd remarks under the category of âLazy Pragmatism,â which is really just a way to avoid the heavy lift involved in actually thinking about things. If people like George Zimmerman go icy inside when they see a dark person in a hoodie, the answer must be to get dark people to stop wearing hoodies, or at least part of the answer. Never mind that a paranoid cop wannabe with the 911 Suspicious Black hotline on speed-dial gets to walk around free with the 9mm handgun he used to gun down a teenager, or that the police treated that teenager like a side of beef, the key difference being that the side of beef actually has value, or that there are reasons for wearing a hoodie other than âlooking gangsta,â or that this is America, and we have the right to âlook gangsta.â
Geraldoâs comments are akin to blaming a woman whoâs been raped instead of her attacker, argues the Washington Postâs Alexandra Petri:
Guns donât kill people. People donât kill people. Hoodies kill people. Those shorts will get you raped, and if you wear too much makeup or your skirt is just an inch or so above the knee or your sweatshirt looks too much like the one that always turns up on the surveillance footage, forget it, you donât have a face or a name and you might as well be carrying a sign that says Commit A Crime Against Me, Please.
But if we were to sift through Riveraâs hyperbolic comments (or give him the benefit of the doubt), there is perhaps a nugget of truth in what he was trying to express. Like I said, if we were to give him the benefit of the doubt, weâd perhaps find that he was trying to convey the uncomfortable but real issue that Peggy McIntosh wrote about in âWhite Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.â Hereâs an excerpt:
[I] have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was âmeantâ to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.
On the flipside, thereâs the burden of being a black man. In a piece earlier this week, Timeâs TourĂŠ wrote âHow to Talk to Young Black Boys About Trayvon Martin.â His first point:
Itâs unlikely but possible that you could get killed today. Or any day. Iâm sorry, but thatâs the truth. Black maleness is a potentially fatal condition. I tell you that not to scare you but because knowing that could save your life. There are people who will look at you and see a villain or a criminal or something fearsome. Itâs possible they may act on their prejudice and insecurity. Being black could turn an ordinary situation into a life-or-death moment even if youâre doing nothing wrong.
ALSO:
A shoot-first mentality in Florida
Pictures: Trayvon Martin shooting and aftermath
Obamaâs shining âIf I had a son, he would look like Trayvonâ moment
--Alexandra Le Tellier
