Im going to need people to stop saying stupid shit about the Trayvon Martin shooting. I’m looking at you, Geraldo:
“I was right about the hoodie wasn’t I,” said Rivera. “I hate to brag, but I got criticized by every pundit in America when I said Trayvon Martin would be alive today but for the fact that he was wearing thug wear – he was wearing the hoodie. Turns out now that we look at George Zimmerman’s interviews with the police; he didn’t profile Trayvon Martin because he was black, he profiled him because he was wearing a hoodie.”
“The headline is: Zimmerman is not a racist. Trayvon Martin would be alive today if he wasn’t wearing thug wear, if he wasn’t wearing that hoodie,” said Rivera.
danimal
I own a hoodie.
I am a mid-40’s white guy with a Tunch-like midsection and a graying goatee. Am I a target if I wear the hoodie, Geraldo?
taylormattd
“Im going to need people to stop saying stupid shit about the Trayvon Martin shooting.”
Heh.
Patricia Kayden
So if I see someone wearing a hoodie, I get to just shoot them down and walk off, right?
Rivera is an idiot.
Linda Featheringill
I hate to get all exercised about Rivera. He is an idiot and that’s a shame. He sure was cute when he first burst upon the public scene. Maybe a little dumb, but cute. Of course, that was decades ago. Now, he’s just dumb.
There are entire countries that blame women for getting raped. They would probably buy that whole blame the victim nonsense. Maybe we should invite Rivera to move to one of those fine places.
Violet
What an idiot. Trayvon Martin would also be alive today if…Zimmerman didn’t have a gun, if Zimmerman had stayed in his car, if Zimmerman had followed the 911 operator’s orders, if Zimmerman hadn’t been give neighborhood watch responsibilities. The list goes on.
Yutsano
So if I’m wearing my Wazzu hoodie in downtown Seattle it’s my fault if I get shot by a vigilane Husky? LOlWUT??
JGabriel
ABL, I don’t think Geraldo is capable of not saying stupid shit. He was just born that way.
.
taylormattd
@Yutsano: Yutsano, you are in See-town too?
Linda Featheringill
@Violet:
Was he given this mission? Or did he just assume it on his own authority?
MikeJ
When did hoodies become exotic thug wear? Pretty much everybody I know owns at least one. My retired parents have hoodies.
JGabriel
@Violet:
Minor fix for accuracy.
.
Johnny Coelacanth
“Thug wear”? That’s just a dog whistle for “dressed like a ni**er.” You noticed they never call white kids “thugs” for wearing a hoodie? When my 15 year old, video-game playing, suburban-white-kid son wears his World of Warcraft hoodie, that’s “thug wear”? Fuck Geraldo to death.
waynski
Let’s all in reaction to Wall Street thievery to the tune of 700 billion shoot everyone in a suit and tie.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I’m sorry, ABL, but I’m going to have to register my displeasure that you, a black woman, are writing stuff about other black people. In the future, kindly leave these issues to those who know the most about them and about how you should feel about them, viz., white people.
Thank you,
A White Dude Who Knows Far More About Black People and How Black People Should Feel About Black People Stuff Than Black People Do
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
first of all fuck geraldo.
this can never be said enough.
but to his point, i suppose he could ask zimmerman why he killed trayvon martin. i mean if zimmerman is irrationally hostile towards outerwear, or what have you, and says he wouldn’t have stalked and killed trayvon martin if he had been wearing a reindeer sweater, then i will credit geraldo for getting this one right.
trollhattan
Also, too, Geraldo: At some level Jeffrey Dahmer didn’t look at his victims as black, he looked at them as tasty entrees.
Geraldo sure told us.
PeakVT
So I guess Rivera thinks that some like, say, Mark Zuckerberg, is just asking for it every time he, oh, I dunno, maybe does something like show up at a board meeting in a hoodie. Because a hoodie is thug wear.
Rivera should go DIAF.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Shit, our son has a hoodie too. He’s also tall, thin, likes Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea too. That means that he’s in danger too. Oh, I almost forgot that he’s white so I guess he’s safe.
Fuck you Geraldo. Fuck you and the Fox entertainment company you shill for.
taylormattd
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): ELL. EMM. AY. OH.
MattMinus
So, the basis for his “vindication” is the excuse that zimmerman gave to the police?!?!?!
Like he was expecting zimmerman to tell the cops “I just love shooting black kids!”?
ABL 2.0
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): ::snicker::
Haydnseek
@MikeJ: As I recall, Geraldo mentioned at one point that he had a son who wore hoodies, and encouraged him not to because, you know, he might be mistaken for a black thug and have some problems. He does have one major problem. His dad is a spectacular fuckstick.
Mary
@Linda Featheringill: He already lives in one of those fine places – the good old U S of A.
bleh
Well, thank you Geraldo! It is certainly about time that right-minded Americans stood up and said, we are just sick and tired of all this thug-wear, and anyone who wears it should just be shot dead.
America has a long and proud history of shooting people dead because of what they wear. The Founding Fathers didn’t use the term “Redcoats” lightly! And they certainly didn’t hesitate to shoot any Redcoat they saw!
I will stand up and say, I will personally take action! Any inappropriate dress I see, I will stand my ground! Shorts in the business district, bang! White after Labor Day, bang! And that weird white-yuppie thing with the polo-shirt collar, OMG, bang bang bang!
I’m pretty sure Leviticus has something to say about mixed fibers and all that. History and religion are on our side. It’s about time “dress code enforced” starts to MEAN something!
Ruckus
Has geraldo ever said anything but stupid shit?
No?
Yea I didn’t think so. On most days he’s not even as correct as a stopped clock.
Violet
@Haydnseek: I think his own son told him via Twitter that he was an idiot for that comment.
Yutsano
@PeakVT: I suppose this means Zimmerman hates the Patriots. Also. Too.
@MikeJ: Ur parents r ghetto thugs. They’ve just been hiding it well.
bemused
Didn’t Geraldo’s own son give him a lot of shit about the hoodie business when Geraldo first put his foot in his mouth? Geraldo didn’t learn a thing from his son, instead he doubles and then triples down. Hope that fat paycheck is worth the risk of losing his son’s respect.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Okay, I’ll say it — Trayvon Martin was a target not because everyone who wears a hoodie is a target, but because he was a black male wearing a hoodie.
Remove the black (or Latino) male from the hoodie and it magically returns to being an innocuous piece of clothing sported by Americans ages 8 months to 80 years. And yet we’re supposed to believe this bullshit that the problem is the hoodie itself and not the race of the person wearing it?
Lurker
@Johnny Coelacanth:
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN film that came out earlier this month puts Peter Parker in a hoodie. I guess Spider-Man’s a thug, too.
Raya
Right, because whatever Zimmerman SAYS is the reason he killed the random totally innocent kid he killed MUST BE the REAL reason. Why would we doubt his word on anything whatsoever?
Also, too, I am a pregnant white lady who wears a hoodie every day because it’s so freaking cold in the library where I work. If people are taking me for a “thug,” I’d sure love to hear about it.
OzoneR
cause that’s much better. We don’t profile on race now, we profile on clothing.
Fluke bucket
A hoodie? He was suspicious of the guy because of a hoodie? Wasn’t it raining?
quannlace
Apparently so, at least according to Rivera.
How in this idiot’s fevered brain did Hoodie=Fear for your very life.
jnfr
I have a hoodie from the Smithsonian Institution. I am also white and very middle-aged. So even wearing my geek hoodie, Rivera would not call me a thug, because I am not a young black man.
Silver
So my preference for track jackets is what keeps moron racists from shooting me?
And here I assumed it was because I’m white. Nice of Geraldo to clarify that for me.
JGabriel
__
__
Raya:
I never go to the library anymore cause you intimidate me, lady, with that hoodie you always wear!
Yours Truly,
Geraldo Rivera
.
CraigoMc
It was raining that evening.
Does that matter?
General Stuck
Lot of that going around tonight.
Narcissus
Remember that time Geraldo guest-starred on Baywatch as a blowhard
Snarla
Stupidest thing said by anybody anywhere, ever. And this in a world where Sarah Palin exists.
Haydnseek
@Violet: Now that you mention it, I remember that, and you’re absolutely right. Nevertheless, Geraldo remains a spectacular fuckstick.
Steve in DC
I agree with him to an extent.
When we beat in new people to our group, jumped people, shop lifted, skated, broke into places, tagged, always with hoodies. You don’t show up on camera, only idiots do that stuff without one.
Of course it’s like guns. Does having a gun mean you are a criminal or going to shoot someone, hell no. But do people with the intent to commit a crime or shoot someone keep guns to do it, of course.
Hoodie, ski mask, gun, crowbar, all harmless, but all wildly used to commit crimes. And you’re naive as all fuck if you blatantly assume people with these things aren’t going to do anything wrong.
Honestly I’d take a hoodie or ski mask as a greater threat than a crowbar or a gun… because of past experience. Hiding your face is usually a bad sign.
Hell I’m still part of a street art crew, we wear hoodies or face masks, why, you don’t show up on cameras and are harder to identify. I’ve committed countless “crimes” hiding my face, never with a gun.
Amir Khalid
Technically, this is not a new stupid thing that Geraldo Rivera hath said. It is an old stupid thing over which his own son publicly rebuked him. That rebuke must still sting Rivera Sr. But it’s a stupid reason for suspecting a person of being up to no good, that they’re wearing s hoodie, even if George Zimmerman sincerely believes that about anyone. And, as we saw at his bail hearings, George Zimmerman’s name and the word “sincere” hardly belong in the same sentence.
Narcissus
Also remember that time Geraldo was a war correspondent and decided to draw a map of troop positions in the sand on international television
sophronia
There’s an ad on my page right now showing Norm Macdonald, middle-aged white guy, wearing a hoodie.
Do you suppose he knows he’s courting death?
Amir Khalid
@Steve in DC:
George Zimmerman had a gun on him that night in Sanford, and Trayvon Martin did not. Which one was intending to commit a crime?
Your reasoning, sir, is hopelessly confused.
ericblair
So what happens if you’re wearing a hoodie, and there’s a Death Droooone just about to blow your head off because that’s what they’ll do unless you stick a stake through their CPU at midnight, and you whip out an SEC filing? Since SEC filings are apparently impossible to look at directly, does that protect you from detection?
Amir Khalid
Some news of interest, re George Zimmerman: he wants a second judge thrown off his case, this time because the judge said mean things about him at the bail hearings.
Lord Jesus Perm
Ladies and gentlemen, the essence of the right-wing, distilled into five very ugly sentences.
Fluke bucket
@CraigoMc: It makes wearing a hoodie a given. I would have been more suspicious of a person not wearing a hoodie if it was raining.
Lord Jesus Perm
@CraigoMc: Not if you pass the paper bag test.
Jay in Oregon
OK, fine, maybe I could be convinced that Zimmermann profiled Martin for wearing a hoodie.
He still shot Martin because he was black.
(Edited for clarity)
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
But-but-but if Zimmerman had targeted Trayvon because of his race he TOTALLY would have told us, especially with a lengthy prison sentence hanging over his head. So it must be true!
janetplanet
If I were the prosecution, I’d get into G. Zimmerman’s closet to find all his hoodies.
nautilator
Do hoodies kill people, or do people kill people?
Lancelot Link
Sarah Palin often wears hoodies, and she make me feel threatened, also.
YellowJournalism
I propose that a small crowd of hoodie-wearing protestors follow Rivera everywhere he goes, pelting him with Skittles whenever he shows his face.
Bill Beaman
So Geraldo isn’t a racist for making those comments. I guess that makes him a fashion expert, right?
chrome agnomen
cole sells thug ware on this very site. i feelz threatened by the tunch hoodie.
Villago Delenda Est
Look, this is the guy who made such a big fucking deal out of Al Capone’s vault, right?
So much for journalism, it’s all about fucking ratings.
LongHairedWeirdo
@Linda Featheringill:
He was officially on Neighborhood Watch, and may have even helped the police catch a few people, but that’s also kind of beside the point. There are good ways and bad ways to handle a NW encounter. “Howdy; I’m with the neighborhood watch, and I haven’t seen you around here before. I guess you must have seen me following you, eh? Do you live around here?” is a good way to handle it.
As for all the speculation about racism and hoodies, it really frosts me because the whole thing ignores what racism really is. It might be if Zimmerman had seen a young me in a hoodie (I’m white), he’d have let me pass, thinking “of course he’s wearing a hoodie, it’s *raining*” and thought that Martin looked suspicious, not because “that’s a black guy wearing a hoodie” but, you know, “something about that guy just makes me suspicious.”
That’s not bigotry (which is what most people think of as the only racism), but it *is* racism. It’s usually unconscious. And it’s not a crime (though any decent human being wants to root out such preconceptions and destroy ’em).
But even that’s not the point. The reason I’m angry with Zimmerman is that he killed a young man who wasn’t engaged in criminal activity, and that he’s given a story that doesn’t really hold up.
Sure, Zimmerman was injured; he took a good knock to the nose, and has some minor cuts on his head – and, since a witness saw Martin on top, I’d guess it’s most likely that Martin gave him that knock on the nose. But Zimmerman didn’t say he was given a good knock on the nose – he said his head was slammed into the concrete repeatedly – and his injuries aren’t consistent with that. One good knock? Sure. Repeatedly? I don’t think there was any evidence to support that.
The bigger issue of racism is the question of whether the cops let a young man die and decided it wasn’t all *that* important because, hey, it was a black kid, and some evidence of a scuffle existed.
And, of course, there’s the horror of SYG laws.
Andrey
@Lurker:
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh318/forgotton_fool/normal_1108262940483.jpg
Chris
So Zimmerman’ s defense, if I understand correctly, is “Damn it Jim, I’m a moron not a racist.”
Sustained.
Johnny Coelacanth
@chrome agnomen: Tunch Hoodie? Kitteh hoodie thugs are the thuggiest thugs what ever thugged! Thank Ghod Tunch isn’t a black cat. Can you imagine how terrifying that would be?
Cacti
BJ’s own Ann Laurie has told us that President Obama using Predator drones to kill beligerents under a Congressional authorization for use of military force is like George Zimmeran shooting Trayvon Martin.
Chris
@LongHairedWeirdo:
This, especially your last paragraph. I completely agree.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Steve in DC: Fuck you.
Why isn’t this piece of shit banned yet?
“hurr durr Trayvon had it coming i kno cuz i’m a baaaaad man”
maya
You know who else wears a hoodie?
rikyrah
fuck this mofo
Steeplejack
@maya:
God, the worse part of that photograph is that apparently Geraldo voluntarily went to a Yankees game with Bill O’Reilly. Ngrr!
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Steve in DC: @Steve in DC:
Gosh, the sociopath who wants poor women to die so he can laugh at his sister has an extensive criminal history? Did anyone not see that coming?
Rafer Janders
Thug wear? My mother, an elegant older woman who’s in her seventies, wears hoodies as she runs errands around her little village.
honus
What a tragedy. If Trayvon had been wearing a nylon windbreaker or a North Face parka he’d be alive today.
El Cid
I make it my policy to shoot anyone who wears a jacket with a hood. It makes it expensive and dangerous as hell when it’s raining, because I may have to shoot several dozen people in a day.
But it’s worth it, because at some point I know I’ll shoot a dangerous black kid who may one day burgle my house.
Lurker
@Andrey:
Cool. I haven’t read Marvel comics in a while, so now I’m wondering if that’s Miles Morales in the costume…
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’m smelling a bullshit artist. We may have to demand a faxed credenza here soon.
Narcissus
@Lurker: I prefer Miguel O’Hara. But then, I was one of the three people who actually liked the 2099 stuff.
BD of MN
Per Geraldo, is it OK if we pop a cap in Bill Belichick?
ChrisNYC
Wasn’t killed by an Obama drone. Death doesn’t count. Move on.
Joey Maloney
It is possible you could get Geraldo to stop saying stupid shit about Trayvon Martin. It is not possible you will ever get Geraldo to stop saying stupid shit.
Gretchen D
I have an Obama hoodie. Hmmmmm.
valency
Hey Geraldo. If you assume any black male in a hoodie with his hood up is a gang member who deserves to get shot, you /are/ a fucking racist. Extra racism points if it’s cold and raining, jerkoff. Cheap assumptions are precisely what got Zimmerman into this jam. Cheap assumptions are why you’re working at Fox News, not the New York Times.
I wear a hoodie myself because I have thinning hair and I live in a very cold city, and when it rains, unless I have the hood up it feels like someone is dumping ice water on my head. But I’m a reasonably un-threatening looking white guy in my early thirties, not a skinny black teenager, so I guess nobody assumes I’m a thug.
Spatula
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
I’m slow. What exactly did Steve in D.C. write in this comment that would get him banned?
I thought Cole almost never bans people.
?
Jay in Oregon
@Narcissus:
Spider-Man 2099 was a fun read; Peter David seemed to enjoy poking fun at the cliches of the Spider-Man franchise.
Doom 2099 started off interesting—the premise was that an amnesiac Doom appeared in the ruins of his castle, and he sets off to free his homeland of Latveria from the megacorp that controlled it—and went into crazy mode when Doom, after reclaiming control of Latveria, decided he needed to defuse the next biggest threat to his beloved nation; the United States of America (which was a shell government rubber-stamping the actions of the megacorps).
So he takes over in high-tech military coup. He sets about turning the resources of the government towards actually helping the people; he builds clean energy systems, sets up booths for free internet access, and more.
Unfortunately, I think the series gets cancelled before there’s a decent ending, but I remember one of the power players for the megacorps promises to destroy Doom for taking over the U.S. but the scenario for doing so will make the Earth uninhabitable within a decade…
Jay in Oregon
@Lurker:
No, that’s Peter Parker being goofy.
Miles is Spider-Man in the “Ultimate Marvel” line of comics, which started off as a low-continuity, new-reader-friendly line of books and went sideways when they literally killed half of the superheroes (and a good chunk of the villains) in a really bad crossover storyline called Ultimatum.
Fun fact: the Ultimate line is where we get the version of Nick Fury that shows up in the Avengers movies. The creators who built up the Ultimate version of Fury actually used Samuel Jackson as a visual reference.
Lurker
@Jay in Oregon:
Thanks. I did know about the Samuel Jackson/Nick Fury connection because a friend lent me his copy of the first ULTIMATE AVENGERS trade paperback in 2007. Other than that, I haven’t heavily followed Marvel comics since the 1990’s. So I appreciate the info on the panels posted above.
I liked SPIDER-MAN 2099, too. Miguel O’Hara was cool, Peter David’s writing was great, and the Leonardi/Williamson art in the early issues was lovely.