Yeah, my gut reaction is that the hoodie does make folks look suspicious.
You mean “the hoddie does make non-white folks look suspicious,” don’t you? Because from what you’ve said here in this post, I’m not so sure that you wouldn’t just ignore the white fella in a hoodie, but become “suspicious” of a black man in one (or hell, any black man with a southern accent, apparently…).
Wait, what? I don’t think you know what victim blaming is, or perhaps you don’t understand the original comment.
And why do you think that? Because all black men are aggressive and ready to pounce?
Why do you even assume that Zimmerman was even prepared to allow the situation to diffuse? WHAT are you basing these assumptions from? Gut feelings? WHERE do these gut feelings come from? I’m not even sure your intentions seem pure – they seem ignorant, and rather lazy – but either way, it doesn’t make your comments any less problematic and, frankly, racist.
Who “cheered” when OJ “got off”?
Why do the worst racists always have the worst grammar?
Well, see, it’s okay, cause they are white and rich… they can do exactly as they please, and if they come under suspicion (for say sexually harassing a colleague), they get the benefit of the doubt. Young black men, not so much.
Did you reply to the wrong person, or are you just really out to lunch? You see Zimmerman as the victim? Are you a sane human?
The imaginary black people in his head cheered.
An inferior education, perhaps, on both counts?
I say inferior because some people, despite a lack of education, still manage to figure things out for themselves.
He’s not being racist… see he knows what “coke dealers” look like because of all that coke he bought back in college… or last week. Whatever. O’Reilly just KNOWS this stuff, m’kay!
Also: Melle Mel has a response to Bill (sorry - can’t figure how to embedded…)
This video is so well done. I can’t imagine how it feels, to have most people look at me and assume the worst.
“Do I look suspicious?”
And your point is?
Really? According to Zimmerman, the fact that Martin was out in the rain (weather that, I think, would call for a hood) was part of the reason why he thought Martin looked “suspicious”. http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/justice/florida-teen-shooting
I am suspicious of people following me at night. Also, we only have Zimmerman’s word that Martin did not see the gun until the fight already started: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/opinion/blow-questioning-the-struggle.html?pagewanted=all&partner=rss&emc=rss
Aaand it appears my last couple of comments were deleted. Mods, care to clue me in as to why so I don’t make that same mistake in the future?
You’re trying to cast Zimmerman as the victim, even going so far as to compare him to a rape victim, when he’s the one who shot and killed another person. Either you’re trolling or severely confused as to what the word “victim” means.
I know the ladies of the jury were racist too.
Before you act a fool remember the stand your ground rule.
Yeah, I guess we don’t know if the statement was made or even reacted to. We know some of how he reacted to Zimmerman but only a few elements of the situation.
My point was just that Trayvon was not just of the victim of Zimmerman but also of a justice system that didn’t protect him and he could not trust. Its regrettable that in the face of being stalked through a neighborhood he didn’t call 911 or knocking on the door of one of the white neighbors. Its something I think many white people don’t have a real understanding of and probably why a lot folks don’t understand his side of that evening.
I guess I would really like to see this whole thing move to a discussion of how the system gets fixed rather than just a mob out to get Zimmerman who seems to be little more than an angry, fearful, and irresponsible loser.
Maybe that is what Geraldo meant too.
On 7/15/2013 6:02 PM, fireshadow via Boing Boing BBS wrote:
technogeekagain said:
I think I'd find that the hoodie, in weather which didn't call for a hood, made a young white guy look suspicious too. It's just become too stereotypically gangsta.Really? According to Zimmerman, the fact that Martin was out in the rain
Which is not the case I was referring to. I was speaking solely of the
video. For me, the response to their question is “Yes you look
suspicious to me when you put the hood up, but not because of your skin
color or phisognomy. It’s entirely the hoodie. And I fully understand
that this is an unreasonable reaction.”
And I offer that purely as a comment upon a form of social prejudice
that is not racism in the usual sense… but that is deeply entangled
with it since our underclass is disproportionately non-caucasian.
Zimmerman is a different, or additional, set of issues. He didn’t
understand that he was overreacting (or didn’t care), and he was
actively looking for trouble after having been told by the police NOT
to challenge. I consider his having provoked the situation inexcusable,
and he did provoke it. Even if he felt a need to observe despite being
told not to, he could and should have kept his distance and the
confrontation would never have arisen. I have no problem at all with
throwing the book at him.
Believe what you want. I know how I HAVE reacted to a white youth in a hoodie. Unless he has a particularly engaging smile, there is something in my street-sense which says “careful, possible punk.” Something that sounds inner-city-lower-class to me also triggers that reaction, and as I admitted I only learned relatively recently (about 8 years ago) that my definition thereof was badly broken due to limited exposure.
I’m not defending that by any means. I’m just saying that it isn’t necessarily a single-axis question; even if you assume prejudice, it may not be the obvious one. Or may not be that alone.
As I’ve said in regard to more cheerful topics, reality is fractal, and human behavior is more so. Beware of oversimplifying. That doesn’t mean we can’t address the problems, just that we shouldn’t assume there’s only one problem.
