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With the needless death of Travon Martin, the seventeen-year-old boy gunned down by a neighborhood watchman, who was tailing him for “looking suspicious,” any comment that puts the blame on Martin’s wardrobe is sure to cause a ruckus. Indeed, it did this Friday, when Fox Commentator Geraldo Rivera deemed the young man’s hoodie as equally to blame as the gunman for the teen’s death:
“When you see a kid walking down the street, particularly a dark-skinned kid like my son Cruz, who I constantly yelled at when he was going out wearing a damn hoodie or these pants around his ankles,” it creates a look of suspicion, said Rivera.
“It’s those crime scene surveillance tapes. Every time you see someone sticking up a 7-Eleven, the kid’s wearing a hoodie. Every time you see a mugging on a surveillance camera or they get the old lady in the alcove, it’s a kid wearing a hoodie. You have to recognize that this whole styling yourself as a gangsta — you’re going to be a gangsta wannabe? Well, people are going to perceive you as a menace.”
He continued, saying “I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngster particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Travon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman.”
The comments have caused an uproar, and seem to be in such starkly bad taste that some have speculated if some  side-motive led Rivera to voice what he himself called a politically incorrect and offensive opinion, such as misplaced parenting angst of his own, or a plot to gain the media spotlight.
Just as President Barack Obama weighed in during the comments made against Ms. Fluke, who Rush Limbaugh had called a slut, he also addressed Martin’s parents, with his empathy:
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“If I had a son, he’d look like Travon. I think they are right to expect that all of us Americans take this with the seriousness that it deserves, and we’re going to get to the bottom of what happened.”
“Every parent in American should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and everybody pulls together, federal state and local, to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened.”
Cynics have characterized the address as Obama’s means to swing Florida votes, but the president’s attention to such public concerns is entirely characteristic.
