Guns Don't Kill People. Hoodies Kill People. [View all]

[McCamy Taylor]

As long as there have been victims, there have been people blaming the victims. You don't think it's fair that I kicked your teeth in with my steel toed boot? Why did your teeth get in the way of my steel toed boot?

Victims get victimized all over again by society---police, lawyers, the press---when they are told "Didn't you realize that wearing____ could get you killed???" Sometimes, society seems so eager to blame the victim---and defend the perp---that it comes up with fashion rules that would make the Taliban proud.

The classic example---and still used by defense attorneys in courtrooms to this day---is the old "Men don't rape women. Short skirts rape women." A woman walking down the road in a short skirt is just asking to be attacked. If she left her panty-hose at home, she is practically begging to be assaulted. Doesn't matter if the young woman in question is a minor. Doesn't matter if the rapist is someone who should know better, like her priest. That's because the man didn't do the crime. The short skirt did.

Meanwhile, according to prosecutors, in his cell before his arraignment, the Catholic Church’s Father Duenas said, “She didn’t protest to getting a massage. She was wearing short skirts.”

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/archbishop-dolan-bashes-church-rape-victims/news/2012/01/09/32869

Guys, whatever you do, don't wear skinny jeans. Skinny jeans will get you beaten with a baseball bat.

http://www.carltonjordan.com/2012/02/08/attacked-for-being-gay-brandon-white-speaks-out/

Lesbians, that short hair will get your head slammed on a pavement.

http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/australia-news/victoria-news/2008/12/17/lesbian-attacked-in-street/36635

In the wake of 9/11:

In Alabama, women in traditional Islamic garments were jeered and spat upon.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/atta-s15.shtml

There is something very wrong about a member of the press telling us that we are not free to choose our own clothing. This is the same press that defends its right to free speech the way that a mother bear defends her cub. I own three hoodies and none of them has a big red target on the back. What's more, if I walked down the street wearing all three of them, one on top of the other, I would not be shot by some trigger happy community watch--because I am short, female and white.

So how can Geraldo say that the hoodie is as responsible as the gunman? Even he admits that is the Black or Latino youth inside the hoodie that is responsible....

"I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly not to let their children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as much as George Zimmerman was."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2012/03/geraldo-rivera-blames-hoodie-for-trayvon-martins-death/1

You heard it from Geraldo. Whatever you do, don't get caugt walking outdoors in America wearing the wrong color skin.