The Wearing of the Hoodie

 Jesse Jackson says that African Americans should wear hoodies to vote.  It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.  Turn on any news broadcast, and if there is a video of someone robbing a bank or a convenience store at gunpoint, I’ll bet the rent the perp is wearing a hoodie.  Hoodies are a disgusting piece of pop culture clothing that allow folks to hide their face in public.  There is no other reason to wear them.  It provides privacy for drug deals, robberies, assaults and other kinds of violence used by all thugs of every ethnic persuasion.  In the You Tube video of the fight club incident in Boardman Park those who were doing the refereeing  were wearing hoodies, with loaded guns tucked up inside the muff front for added effect.  Many banks require that if you want to do business there, hoodies along with any other face hiding accoutrements such as sun glasses have to come off.

Now…are all people who wear hoodies criminals?  Of course not.   On the other hand, the correlation between the hoodie and crime and violence is more than anecdotal.  Trayvon Martin, the teenager shot in Florida, was wearing a hoodie.  Did it make him look suspicious?  Yes it did, and no amount of political correctness can trump common sense and pictures on the six o’clock news. Did it justify his killing?  That is for the authorities to decide when the facts are ferreted out of the media cesspool this poor young man’s death has become.  

And this is the identity Jesse Jackson wishes for African Americans.  Really?  It’s not cute.  It reinforces the stereotype.  It is counterproductive in so many ways they can’t be listed here, but let’s start with that most black violence is black on black violence…and the hoodies hide identities there too.  There is no upside to these things.  Why would Jesse Jackson want this for anyone?

Congressman Bobby Rush (D) of Illinois, a former member of the Black Panthers, donned a hoodie during a Congressional tirade last week.  He was gaveled for violating House rules about wearing hats in the House chamber…and eventually had to be escorted off the floor for refusing to remove the hoodie.  Congressman Rush said it wasn’t a hat, it was a hoodie.  The next day, a hoodie wearing gunman shot six people, killing one, in Congressman Rush’s district.

Violence is on the uptick in America.  It crosses all color and race lines.  Gang violence is epidemic.   One of the dirty little secrets in America are the amount of riots taking place in our major urban areas and covered up by the press.  You get glimpses of the violence in the Drudge Report citing local media outlets, but the stories NEVER make the evening news…not even on Fox.

The O’Reilly Factor reported about a new phenomenon in our urban areas, Arabs buying up all of the convenience stores in the black neighborhoods and then using black gangbangers to move smuggled drugs into white neighborhoods.  One of the gangbangers interviewed stated that he and his operatives would never kill a white folks because they are his best customers.  What do you know…capitalism at work?  We all should be concerned and ashamed about this triumvirate. 

At the end of the day, violence in this country affects every American.  Jesse Jackson promoting the emblem of violence is not helpful.  Congressman Rush wearing one in Congress is not helpful.  Students wearing them en masse to schools is not helpful.   The Trayvon Martin tragedy is the very tip of a deep and scary iceberg destroying our society and all races and colors should take heed. 

Jesse…take a lesson from Louis Farrakhan.  I might not agree with his philosophy, but his followers have on shirts and ties, and I will guarantee you they have respect.  That, alone, is worth the effort to clean up everybody’s act.