Guns don’t kill people… Hoodies kill people

Earlier this morning, in a segment on FOX News, self-important pseudo-journalist Geraldo Rivera suggested that it wasn’t just George Zimmerman who was responsible for the recent shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager who was gunned down while walking though a gated community outside of Orlando, Florida. No, according to Rivera, it seems that Martin shares some of the responsibility, for having chosen to wear a hoodie that evening, when he left his father’s home, in the rain, to buy Skittles at the local 7-Eleven. Here’s what Geraldo had to say:

…I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters, particularly, to not let their young children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was…

And here’s the video.

Fortunately, people aren’t letting Gerlado’s blame the victim bullshit pass unchallenged. The internet, at this very moment, is exploding with photos of people donning hoodies, asking wether or not they deserve to be shot down in cold blood, like Martin. The image above, for instance, is of a group of terrifyingly-non-white Howard University Law students. It appeared on Facebook this evening with the caption, ‎”Am I Suspicious?”

I think it’s kind of amazing and beautiful how memes like this evolve. Clearly, in this case, there was an incredible desire on the part of people everywhere to express in some meaningful way that they were supportive of Trayvon Martin and his family, and anxious to see justice served in this case. Gerlado just provided the mechanism by which they could do that. Hopefully, people find it cathartic. And, maybe, if we’re lucky, it’ll also spell the end of Geraldo on television.

[note: My dislike of Gerlado, for what it’s worth, isn’t motivated by the fact that he once pushed me on the set of his television show, which he did, or, for that matter, the fact that he only seems capable these days of pushing right wing narratives masquerading as news, like John Stossel. The real reason I hate Geraldo is that I once read, many years ago, that Kurt Vonnegut, who had, for a short while, been his father-in-law, hated him intensely for having mistreated his daughter. For some reason, that’s stuck with me for 25 years… Any enemy of Vonnegut’s is an enemy of mine… Speaking of Vonnegut, this morning, a previously unpublished novella of his from the late 1940’s, entitled “Basic Training,” was released on the Kindle platform.]

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18 Comments

  1. b
    Posted March 24, 2012 at 6:55 am | Permalink

    ugh……i’m with you and vonnegut!!

  2. Jim
    Posted March 24, 2012 at 7:06 am | Permalink

    http://geraldoinahoodie.tumblr.com/
    It’s okay because he’s not a youngster. Or Latino.

  3. Jules
    Posted March 24, 2012 at 8:48 am | Permalink

    Oh, c’mon, Mark. Do NOT leave us dangling with “he once pushed me on the set of his television show, which he did”. WHAAAA? Please elaborate.

  4. Posted March 24, 2012 at 9:22 am | Permalink

    Sorry. You have to buy the book, Jules.

  5. Posted March 24, 2012 at 9:23 am | Permalink

    Actually, I should probably just scan it and put it online. It’s from issue #4 of Crimewave.

    Speaking of Crimewave, someone just told me that back issues are selling for a lot of money on Ebay.

  6. Posted March 24, 2012 at 9:25 am | Permalink

    Jim, are we allowed to shoot Geraldo if we see him in a hoodie?

  7. Jim
    Posted March 24, 2012 at 9:44 am | Permalink

    Even though he’s been asking for it his entire career, you may not shoot Geraldo. But please do post the Crimewave story!

  8. Posted March 24, 2012 at 9:51 am | Permalink

    I just checked eBay. Copies are going for as much as $9.99. The Geraldo issue is listed now; the current price is $5. Get your bids in!

  9. Posted March 24, 2012 at 10:03 am | Permalink

    I’m hesitant to check Ebay. I don’t want to know which of my friends are selling their back issues.

  10. Posted March 24, 2012 at 10:09 am | Permalink

    I just added the photo of Geraldo and me that appeared on the cover of Crimewave #4 to the post… We were both so much younger then… This was taken a second before I was shoved into my seat.

  11. Dan Gillotte
    Posted March 24, 2012 at 10:12 am | Permalink

    Wait, so you’re saying that I could make about $150 if I sell my Crimewaves on eBay?!? He’ll, that’s one less trip to the plasma center!

  12. Lee
    Posted March 24, 2012 at 10:23 am | Permalink

    Some websites captioned the photo of the men in hoodies as Harvard students, but others have pointed out that they are actually Howard University law students.

  13. Posted March 24, 2012 at 11:20 am | Permalink

    Thanks, Lee, I’m making the edit.

  14. Ethical Rapist
    Posted March 24, 2012 at 11:56 am | Permalink

    I like it when women wear mini skirts. It makes my job so much easier.

  15. Leon
    Posted March 24, 2012 at 12:04 pm | Permalink

    The Geraldo episode may be my favorite Crime Wave issue. It cracks me up just thinking about it.

  16. j
    Posted March 24, 2012 at 8:50 pm | Permalink

    broken windows at Dreamland? What happened? Anything your troll legions can help with?

  17. Meta
    Posted March 27, 2012 at 8:47 am | Permalink

    “A hooded sweatshirt can make an innocent teen look like a criminal — just like a suit and glasses can make Geraldo Rivera look like a journalist.” — Stephen Colbert

    http://on.cc.com/GR6iY0

  18. Alice Krum
    Posted March 27, 2012 at 3:48 pm | Permalink

    Geraldo apologized….. kind of

    “I apologize to anyone offended by what one prominent black conservative called my ‘very practical and potentially life-saving campaign urging black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hoodies.”

    Asshole.

    http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/03/geraldo-riveras-hoodie-apology-worst-ever/50403/

One Trackback

  1. […] to wear a hooded sweatshirt, “like a gangster.” In doing that, Gerlado gave us all a way in which we could, without much effort, show our support for Trayvon Martin’s family, an…. All we had to do is wear a hoodie. And, this weekend, social media sites were bursting with images […]

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