The Trayvon Martin Hoax: Geraldo Rivera Finally Does the Right Thing!

 

Trayvon Martin, l, and George Zimmerman
 
By Nicholas Stix

He’s caught hell for writing something that in an earlier day and age would have been so obvious that it would not have even needed to be said. But for the past generation or two, black boys and men alike have either been thugs, or imitated them in their dress and bearing. And then they cry bloody murder, when you respond the way they have told you they want you to. When a Raiders jacket was the mugger’s uniform, they purposely wore Raider jackets. When a warm-up outfit was the uniform, they wore warm-up outfits. Sport caps turned backwards, pants hanging so low as to show their underwear and the crack in their butt, hoodies, you name it.

This behavior is an expression of racist defiance, and is also meant to aid and abet criminals, so that police might respond to a thug wannnabe dressed like a real thug, and the wannabe can sue and thereby disarm the police. And black "parents," if you can call them that, have supported, and even inculcated the racist defiance and the solidarity with criminals.

In the following essay Rivera triangulates like crazy, and he doesn’t redeem himself for all the bad he’s done over the years, but this sure helps.

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Geraldo Rivera: Trayvon Martin Would Be Alive but for His Hoodie
By Geraldo Rivera
March 23, 2012
Fox News Latino

Million Hoodie March
Demonstrators take to the streets during the Million Hoodie March, Wednesday, March 21, 2012 in New York. A few hundred people were marching in New York City in memory of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager shot to death by a Hispanic neighborhood watch captain in Florida.

“Take that thing off,” I snarled at my dashing, dark, handsome then late-teenage son. Named for his grandfather, in those not so long ago days Cruz styled himself a ghetto gangster, fashion-wise. His baseball cap worn askew, the rim almost unbent, I worried that gravity would leave his brown behind, bare-assed when his low-slung pants completed their descent to his knees just a step or bump away.

“And pick up your pants,” I often added as he walked out the door.
Let me leave the issue of low-slung pants for another day; except to say that any kid who looks for a job similarly dressed is not seriously looking for a job, unless it is as a bank robber or pimp. Jay-Z, Eminem and the tiny handful of others aside, as President Obama wisely once said, “Maybe you’re the next Lil Wayne, but probably not.”

It was a refreshing moment when the leader of the political party that sometimes revels in victimization spoke the plain truth. Most success is not flashy. It requires heavy lifting and an education. It also demands personal responsibility because regardless of the bad hand poor folk are dealt; they must do the best they can to provide for themselves and their families.

Opinion: Does Race Play a Role in the Trayvon Martin Case Even if Zimmerman is Not White?

Posing like a hip hop mogul when the holes in your pants are real is ultimately self-defeating.

But leave the subject of self-destructive pretense for another time, let’s talk hoodies.

His hoodie killed Trayvon Martin as surely as George Zimmerman did.

Remember when my friend and colleague the estimable Juan Williams got fired from NPR for saying that Muslims formally garbed freaked him out at airports? Juan is among America's sharpest commentators. He wasn't justifying his reaction, he was copping to it. Maybe shock therapy or a semester of sensitivity training could change it, otherwise It is what it is.

No one black, brown or white can honestly tell me that seeing a kid of color with a hood pulled over his head doesn’t generate a certain reaction, sometimes scorn, often menace.

When you see that kid coming your way, unless you specifically recognize him you are thinking ghetto or ghetto wannabe high-style or low-brow wise-ass. Pedestrians cross the street to avoid black or brown hoodie wearers coming their way.

Because this is a teachable moment let me speak plainly.

Whatever Reverends Sharpton and Jackson say in Florida Friday, after listening to the 911 tapes and hearing the witness’ testimonials, I believe Trayvon Martin would be alive today but for his hoodie.

The Trayvon Martin Killing Stirs Tension and Prompts Rallies Across the Country

I want the feds to thoroughly investigate and prosecute vigorously if the evidence warrants. But understanding the wrath currently focused on George Zimmerman and the police chief and the town council and the gun sellers and everyone else, I am begging parents of kids in Trayvon’s vulnerable demographic to heed my politically incorrect approach to this story.

If you dress like a hoodlum eventually some schmuck is going to take you at your word.

Remember Elvis’ ‘In the ghetto’? or that old Johnny Cash song about not taking ‘your guns to town son, leave your guns at home Bill, don’t take your guns to town?’
The kid in the both songs dies in totally predictable gun fights. Trayvon was unarmed save his box of skittles. But his hoodie gave his assailant cause to think him the enemy.

Maybe his specific encounter with an over-zealous, gun-toting, blood-lusting neighborhood-watch captain was less predictable than usual, but not by much.

Feds to Investigate Killing of Black Teen by Florida Latino

I am begging parents to unbait the trap. Don’t let your child provoke madness.

Agonize all you want about the unfairness of stereotypes. Argue how it amounts to a million, million little cuts of racial profiling. Work to change the world. Rail against the inequities of life; but don’t let your child go out into the hard cruel world wearing a costume that is really a sign that says ‘shoot me.’

‘And as his mama cries,’ sang Elvis.

Geraldo Rivera is a Senior Columnist for Fox News Latino.


Do you think what you wear can get you killed? Is this accepting reality, or blaming the victim? Join the discussion on facebook.com/foxnewslatino. Follow us on twitter.com/foxnewslatino.


[Previously, on the Trayvon Martin Hoax, at WEJB/NSU:

“Sanford, Florida: Black ‘Little Boy,’Trayvon Martin 17, Beat White ‘Vigilante’ George Zimmerman Bloody; Zimmerman Shot Martin Dead; Now Black WFTV ‘Reporter,’ Daralene Jones, Black Supremacists, and White Aunt Jemima Earwitness Demand That Zimmerman be Arrested”;

“Trayvon Martin: ABC ‘News’ Gets on Bandwagon, Acting as Martin’s Family Mouthpiece; Family Lawyer Refuses to Release All Information about Teen’s Last Phone Call to Girlfriend, but Insists That It Requires That George Zimmerman be Arrested ‘Right Now’”;

“Arrest First, Investigate Later: Press Conference by Lawyer Benjamin Crump, of Trayvon Martin’s Family, Seeks Through Violation of Due Process… to Railroad George Zimmerman”;

“News Coverage of the Trayvon Martin Case Keeps Getting Worse: New York Daily News Passes Off ABC News Hearsay as ‘Interview,’ While Changing the Hearsay!”;

“USA Today: ‘In wake of black teen Trayvon Martin's death, USA is soul-searching’; McPaper Invokes Jena 6, Quotes Al Sharpton, Self-Described ‘ThugNiggaIntellectual’ Mark Neal, and Jena Attacker Theo Shaw as Moral Authorities”;

“Why the Secret ‘Interview’ with Trayvon Martin’s Secret Girlfriend is Bogus, and His Alleged Last Cell Phone Call is Insignificant”;

“Another Trayvon Martin Supporter: Florida Atlantic U. Hate Crime Attacker Jonatha Carr Had Just been Interviewed about the Jena Six/Nuremberg-Style Rally She’s been Organizing; CBS12 News Tries to Rationalize Her Crimes”;

“Trayvon Martin’s Parents Attend New York City Riot Held on Their Behalf”;

“Associated Press and Penn Live: Arrest George Zimmerman for Killing Trayvon Martin, the Law be Damned! Let Zimmerman Prove His Innocence in Court!”

“National Review ‘Conservative’ Rich Lowry Goes to Bat for Al Sharpton in Trayvon Martin Case, Ignoring or Misrepresenting Facts of the Case”;

“Trayvon Martin Case: Real Eyewitness Supports Zimmerman’s Story, as Opposed to Lynch Mob’s Fake Eyewitnesses”;

“Barack Obama: Because Trayvon Martin was Black, and Vaguely Resembled Me, ‘All of Us Have to Do Some Soul-Searching’”; and

“The Trayvon Martin Hoax: Business Insider Joins Mob Seeking to Lynch George Zimmerman.”]