My own son just wrote to say he's ashamed of my position re hoodies-still I feel parents must do whatever they can to keep their kids safe
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) March 23, 2012
Good job, junior.
As to senior's contention that "parents must do whatever they can to keep their kids safe," in addition to its vile victim-blaming, the belief that it is parents' responsibility to "keep their kids safe" from violent racists is predicated on the fantasy that the hoodie is not just the current symbol being used to justify the slaughter of a young man on the basis of nothing other than the color of his skin.
Hoodie, saggy pants, cornrows, picks, bandanas, Air Jordans... I have heard each of these things in my lifetime (and many more) used to justify the "accidental" killing of a young black man by his neighbor, by a stranger, by a cop. It's a constantly moving target by design. Because the whole point is for there to always, always, be something that the dead kid in the street should have done differently, something his parents should have warned him about, as if any of that shit matters to the George Zimmermans of the world.
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