Wear Hoodie...Get Lynched???

by Laura Thompson

A hoodie is a popular style apparel for young men...African American, Hispanic, Asian, White...young men...an apparel that is making hundreds of millions of dollars for manufacturers, designers and retailers, is also a symbolic apparel.

To the young men, a hoodie represents style, coolness, hip...hoodies keep you warm in the winter and is often worn by young people with shades...baggy jeans and sometimes a cap.  When walking the streets onlookers may view young men that wear hoodies, as threatening, a thug, a criminal, a robber, as someone to fear.

The irony is that hoodies are sold in major department stores, like Macy's, Dillard's, JC Penney's, Academy, Marshall's and many retail chains like Target, Wal-mart and more.  Most of these outlets are owned by non-minorities and certainly non-young people and yet the seller yields a high profit for selling hoodies.  So all these hoodies are sold to minorities in upscale department stores, prominently displayed to attract young men and promoted as stylish, yet as soon as they walk out of the store...the buyer falls victim to so much scrutiny that what was initially promoted as a fashion statement turns into a high risk target for young men.

A seventeen year old young man was murdered in cold blood, in a gated neighborhood, by a 28 year old white male because he was assumed dangerous, suspicious, and threatening.  When in fact, the young man was walking in the rain with a hoodie pulled over his head covering himself from the rain...he was armed with skittles, iced tea and a desire to hurry home to get out of the rain.

To the white man, the young black man wearing a hoodie should not have been in the gated community and he took it upon himself to lynch the young man...an act that was popular in the 19th and 20th century...and apparently the same beliefs that were prevalent long ago...still lies in the hearts of some today.

As a result of the lynching...a global movement has began to protest this vicious and uncalled for murder.

Retailers consciously or unconsciously are making our young people targets, as they walk the streets in their home towns and neighborhoods...Wear HOODIE...Get Lynched?  Scary...protect your sons...