Trayvon Martin's Thug Wear Got Him Shot

Geraldo Rivera decided to go on Bill O'Reily's show and say "“I think what’s far more significant is what Trayvon Martin looked like on that night, Bill. Aside from the fact that he’s dressed in that thug wear — look at the size of him, he’s not a little kid."

So, as now for my rebuttal to such an ignorant comment.

What if I go into a bank, which is likely run by people who look like the same (few) white people who, on a corporate level, blindly rob the working man everyday , and I decide to take these innocent white people hostage until I get every dollar of mine that someone else is misusing?  Is that right?  Or what if I walk up to a Latino who is out w/ his buddies at Walmart on a Sunday afternoon and ask him how much he would charge to mow my lawn?  The jeans and tee shirt that he is wearing at that moment don't tell me that he is actually a Vice-President at Wells Fargo and could afford to pay me to mow his lawn.  Or, what if I saw a Middle Eastern woman in Harris Teeter without her face covered and asked "Does your husband know you're out like this?" when she is actually a Christian who has not practiced the Islamic faith a day in her life?

Those were all racist statements but statements that many Americans would make if we were to think on a basic level.  If I offended you, it was not intentional.  But this Simple-Simon, sorry excuse for a journalist is doing what 5 year old children are instructed not to do; he is judging a book by its cover and using that to justify the alleged murder of Trayvon Martin (I say "alleged" because 1 - I was not there; 2 - this is America and Zimmerman is still innocent until proven guilty).

Mr. Rivera, if you are reading this, I beseech you, don't forget that you are a minority as well.  If you were not of such high status, your son, who is also a young minority, could have been Trayvon Martin.  Your son could have been leaving the gym in a hoody and could have been shot.  Don't be that minority who is making excuses for the murder of others at the hands of yet another minority.  Call it what it is - prejudice and discrimination.

By the way, I know plenty of white kids who wear hoodies too.  But if they're "dressed in that thug wear," you can still see the white on their hands from any angle.  Do you think we'd be having this discussion about thug wear if Trayvon Martin's hands were white?  I highly doubt we'd be having any discussion about the matter at all until it happened to someone else.



For the story that lead me to write this post, www.newsone.com/2016416/geraldo-rivera-trayvon-martin/

Litera scripta manet. - Unknown