Geraldo Rivera Travyon Martin Hoodie Comments Video: March 2012

I understand what Gerardo was saying to a certain degree and that is society has associated crime and negativity with color and clothing. Meaning they associated color with crime along time ago if you are black you are a criminal they is what society says. Women clutching purses when they see and black, then you have the fact that people have been wearing jeans, t-shirts, tennis shoes, and baseball caps since we have had sports but when you see a black of Hispanic wearing these items they are gang members, and drug dealers. Society has been labeling minorities since the beginning of time. When a white person is running in the park with a sweat shirt on and it begins to rain he puts up the hood it is okay that is normal, however, when any non-white does the same he is either running from a crime or about to commit a crime. The hoodie is a piece of clothing it can not take a life however, a person can use it to take a life, and that is what Zimmerman did he used society view as the reason to pursue and kill a young man because society says if you are wearing a hoodie and you are not white you are a criminal. So the truth is Rivera, it is not that the hoodie is equally responsible for Trayvon's death the Fact Is That Society and Zimmerman is Responsible and should shoulder equal blame.

     Rivera is half Latino himself and is a lawyer to boot. It is shameful for him to assert that wearing a hoodie makes the victim in this case at fault, moreover, equally at fault to the shooter. I wonder how the faculty at his alma mater, Brooklyn Law School, would evaluate his opinions from a legal standpoint. 

Peacefrog, I too was surprised that an attorney would say such a thing.

I agree that it is wrong to associate one's clothing to a profile but the truth is we all stereotype. We do this without even thinking about it because we use pattern recognition to understand our world around us. We are all prejudice to some degree. This doesn't make it right. We must overcome our urges or instinct to do what is right. Zimmerman should be in jail for the acts he committed and Rivera was wrong to put blame on what the boy was wearing as some justification for his murder but I think the point he is trying to make is we need to be careful about what we associate ourselves to.

The main issue for concern regarding Mr. Rivera's comments is the fact that he is an attorney which should mean his mindset should not allow for any tolerance of the idea that because someone is dressed a certain way that they are as responsible for the attack on their person as their attacker.

It is evident that this discussion is about "profiling,"

From what I've seen in my life, police profiling has been applied with a broad and selective brush.

Are these programs of profiling racist, classiest, or religion based?

You bet they are, and as selective as every town, city, county and state in this country.

That should change.

stop assuming and dont fix anything until it breaks

The nature of the absurdity of Geraldo Rivera's comments cannot be over stated.

Case in point, the National Rifle Association (NRA), prior to the murder of Trayvon Martin, has been offering for sale to its membership a clothing item designed with them in mind, a hoodie equipped with a conceal carry pocket for a gun, complete with velcro for making adjustments to facilitate quick removal of, or to draw, the gun.

Statistics inform us that the majority of NRA members are White males. Knowing that there is a greater possibility that a White male seen wearing a hoodie has a greater chance to be a member of the NRA, possibly wearing the NRA's conceal carry hoodie, it can be conjectured, based on the fact, that anyone encountering White males in hoodies, be they Black, White, Asian, Purple, whatever, to think the possibility existed that White male was carrying a concealed weapon and because that White male in the hoodie MIGHT be armed, all who encounter him should fear for their lives.

So, does that mean, since it is known that there will be NRA members purchasing the conceal carry hoodie, carrying their guns, to avoid anyone engaging them in a deadly confrontation, White males should no longer wear hoodies?

That is stereotyping White males because of the likelihood of them being NRA members.

Does Geraldo Rivera support telling White males not to wear hoodies?

Yet it's a fact gangster kids wear hoodies when they perpetrate crimes to conceal their identities. 

Yes or no? 

Geraldo is half latino, yes or no? 

So why are we taking his comments as racist and not trying to inject common sense?

the idea that because someone is dressed a certain way that they are as responsible for the attack on their person as their attacker.

Do you wear red and go to a game at Yankees stadium?

Do you wear red and walk down a street in a Crips neighborhood?

Do you wear any color but black and silver to a Raiders game?

Why was Martin wearing a hoodie.... in Miami, Florida?