Yvette Carnell: Geraldo Says He Was “Right About Hoodie”, and “Thug Wear” Got Trayvon Martin Killed
by Yvette Carnell
In “stupid is as stupid does” news, Geraldo’s mouth is moving, which means he’s saying something stupid. In grand imbecilic fashion, Rivera has retraced 
his stupid breadcrumbs on the Zimmerman case back to where it all began: That bullet in his chest isn’t the reason Trayvon Martin is dead, it’s that d**n hoodie.
Let me catch you up to speed: Sanford Police Department homicide investigator Chris Serino said he “believes that when Zimmerman saw Martin in a hoody, Zimmerman took it upon himself to view Martin as acting suspicious,” according to documents released today by the State Attorney’s Office.
One could certainly interpret that to mean that Serino felt that Trayvon was profiled because of his attire, not his race. But either way, profiling is profiling, and Serino’s statement tells us that Trayvon Martin was profiled by Zimmerman, and that shouldn’t have happened. Trayvon Martin shouldn’t have been profiled, stalked, and eventually murdered, all because Zimmerman didn’t like his clothes.
But Geraldo Rivera is an idiot, so he finds any excuse to buttress the two brain cells in his head which are always fighting for TV air time:
I was right about the hoodie, wasn’t I? I hate to brag, but I got criticized by every pundit in America when I said that 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.
What a t**d. First of all, Geraldo is a narcissist, so he can’t even wrap his head around the fact that this isn’t about him. That it’s about a 17 year old who was buried too soon because he was immediately, and wrongly, assessed as a troublemaker. The hoodie he wore was viewed as thug wear, but on a white kid, it’s joshed about as trendy urban wear. Whatever.
What Geraldo doesn’t get is that, even if he’s right, and Trayvon “would be alive today but for the fact that he was wearing thug wear”, that’s still despicable. Tell me, what’s the difference between a black boy being a threat just because he’s black or a black boy being a threat because he wore a hoodie? These are just layers of excuses, permission granted to view young black boys and men as lethal threats in waiting. Either way, the person jumping to that ill thought out conclusion believes, in his mind, that he is absolved from the responsibility of making a rational judgement because of who the black boy is or what he has on. See hoodie, shoot. See black boy, aim, then shoot.
I shouldn’t have to say this in the 21st century, but this is America, so here it goes – racism is wrong. And profiling based on attire is just a nuanced way of saying it wasn’t about race, when it really was. Easy to say it wasn’t about him being black, but about him being black and wearing a hoodie, or baggy jeans, or a baseball cap. Just make it up as you go along.
Say what you like, but I have a hard time believing that Trayvon Martin would be dead today if he’d been a white boy in a hoodie. Had he been white, Zimmerman probably wouldn’t have even slowed down long enough to inspect his attire. See how it works? That’s the insidiousness of racism.
Yvette Carnell is a former Capitol Hill and campaign staffer turned writer. She is currently an editor and contributor to Yourblackworld.
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I think when that KKK member hit Geraldo with that Chair in his big nose on his show during the 1980′s it did something to his head..
Must have!
I am a 66yr old great grandmother, and I have a closet full of hoodies. So I suppose if I walked through the neighborhood at night I would be setting myself up to be shot by some psycho redneck bent on killing a “n****r”. I wear hoodies because they are warm in winter & comfortable. I’m retired & it’s no longer necessary for me to get dressed for work. So I can not understand why the psycho made such an issue over the hoodie. Gearldo needs to get a grip. Trayvon would be alive had he not run into the psycho Zimmerman.
Geraldo Rivera is a weakling.
Hoodies, and whatnot, are no more “thug wear”, than high heeled shoes are “hooker wear”. Just because a certain group chooses to wear something does not mean that group was for whom the item was created. As many nonBlacks, male and female, that wear hoodies, why are they not seen as thugs so readily? It all comes down to Race, and racist mentalities. Yvette Carnell hit it right on the head with her assessment!!! Geraldo is a blithering idiot, and a sad excuse for a journalist, who is desperately trying to be seen as relevant. Next, please!
Geraldo is a non factor. I didn’t know he was still on the air. He is trying to become relevant with those stupid remarks.
I really try to be the person that is pleasing in the sight of God. I have grown leaps an bounds in my Christian walk, I am a 52 year old mother, wife and recent B.S. graduate. But after reading Geraldo commits I would like to put all of my Great Accomplishments aside and say one thing” Geraldo Go Dig A Hole And Put Your Brain INSIDE “!