The politics of hoodie wearing

It should also be noted, and this particularly should endear hoodies to our contingent from Oz, that zipless hoodies are usually our only marsupial clothing. They have a double-ended pouch or sac in front, ideal for hand-warming or keeping your water bottle or whatever. They are kangaroowear.

i'm not 100% sure, but i think in the UK, the "Hoodie" is less a race distinction than a criminal element, especially when used in conjunction with the term "Chav", which i often equate with "Whigger"

When I was a kid, the hoodie was known as a kangaroo jacket, because of the pockets. Maybe that was an Albertan thing.. It was only after highshcool that I ever started hearing the term hoodie.

Thay make good, effective de facto masks.
Some people prefer to avoid identification,
because of what thay intend to DO.





David

They don't frighten me, but certain images of people make my time as a pedestrian less relaxed. I am alert when I am near certain types of people. And, age is not a criterion.

And, it is not the kids problem. It is my problem. That is why I am not so relaxed in the presence of a certain type of person. When did I say it is the "kids" problem? Not I. What is your point?

Doublespeak from OmSigParanoid.

I don't think so.

These are the only kinds of hoods that scare me,,,

If I am remembering correctly (from world history class) Oliver Cromwell had his soldiers wear hoods when riding into battle, while singing hymns. Apparently very initimidating to an adversary. In Googleing "hooded soldiers" I found this more modern reference to hoods:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-14740545.html

I would think many hoodie wearers do not realize that a hood can be intimidating to some people. I would not want any young person in my family to wear a hoodie, since some people might not think that the wearer is a friendly person. Sort of like back in the Vietnam Era when some young males wore a military green fatigue jacket. The image was sort of anti-Establishment I thought. Anyway, I would like to see the hoodie style evaporate with the need to have multiple tatoos, or a baseball cap brim cocked to the side. Never being "cool" in my youth, I do not relate to the need to radiate a cool image that is also sort of threatening to the meek of the world, in my opinion.

I'm cautious about hoodie wearers regardless of anything else about them. They tend to be part of standard young crim fashion here.

Of course, they can also just be convenient, cheap fashion!

I am not in favourite of shooting hoodie wearers though, shr said drily.

Well, there's your proof, soz. I can't recognize a single one of them.

ETA See somebody in Miami wearing a hood, what's the first thing crosses your mind. Why, they're cold. Happens a lot down there.

I've noticed that too, Roger, that there are a lot of real wusses all over the southern US.

Shud the hoods be bulletproof ??





David

Unless there was a major news break about a witness to the incident, I don't think anyone other than Zimmerman knows what actually happened. In some quarters the man has not only been tried and found guilty, but sentenced too. Not particularly surprised that there is no moral outrage expressed over the Wanted Dead or Alive posters that have been going up in his neighborhood.

Wearing a hoody obviously doesn't warrant a confrontation let alone physical harm or death, but they are worn by many to affect a certain style that incorporates a measure of menace whether or not the individual would ever act in a manner suggested by the image.

This is what young people do. They affect images that only a small percentage of them ever manifest. In my day it was the hippie/druggie look. It's amazing how many of the kids I knew who looked like someone living in a Timothy Leary commune but never did anything more than smoke pot. Some of them wouldn't even do that and yet they all wanted the mainstream to think they did.

Nice kids will affect a look popularized by hoodlums because they see it as cool and they desperately want to be seen as cool themselves. Obviously not everyone who wears a hoody is trying to affect such a look, but many are. Most of them are not looking for trouble, but if you knowingly affect a look with connotations, it rings hollow to cry foul when someone registers the image you are trying to project in a way that doesn't please you.

Being shot and killed simply because of the image is, of course, not justifiable, but we don't know if that is all that transpired in this case.

If you intentionally dress like a nerd, a druggie, a homosexual, a hoodlum, a mercenary etc, then you really shouldn't bitch when someone buys the image you are projecting and reacts as if you are what you dress like.

Again, this doesn't explain or justify every reaction.

If you are a woman and dress provocatively in a rough bar, your being raped would never be justifiable. Your being stared at and propositioned would be.

If you dress like a hoodlum your being shot would never be justified for that reason alone, but someone crossing the street when they approach you would.

Kids and adults with childish minds, insist that they should be considered and treated like anyone while they project an image that is deliberately very different from that of everyone. This is immaturity.

If a white man dressed like a skin-head and walked through a largely black neighborhood, the chances are he would not receive a warm welcome, even if he, otherwise, gave no indication, through word or deed, that he was a racist.
Beating him up or killing him would not be justifiable, but other reactions would.

he's white in an area where that makes a difference

here, a hoodie on a young (12 - 25 roughly) man of any colour is something that gets people edging away on the subway

are we talking about folks wearing them with the hoods up? (like little red rider)

cuz I wear a hooded sweatshirt most of the winter without thinking about it. but I only wear the hood when the blizzard type of stuff is happenin'...

Finn,
re
"Nice kids will affect a look popularized by hoodlums because they see it as cool and they desperately want to be seen as cool themselves. Obviously not everyone who wears a hoody is trying to affect such a look, but many are. Most of them are not looking for trouble, but if you knowingly affect a look with connotations, it rings hollow to cry foul when someone registers the image you are trying to project in a way that doesn't please you."

I seem to remember you used to be a longhair. Are you wishing you didn't do that now, what ever your reasons re being hip or otherwise?

Fashion policing takes many forms.
Our a2k friend Bob/Dys was often judged amiss because of his continuation of having long hair. Tended to be checked out when arriving in airports. Many assumed he was a druggie by his hair.
These kind of assumptions happen with skin color, hair, first last and middle names, seniors who wear socks with sandals. Ok, scratch that last one.

It seems to me that the shooter could see well enough that Trayvon had black skin and dared to walk in a gated community, and then dissed by his actions the words of the police in order to become the man protecting the threshold beyond his property line and that gate; as I said before, policeman wannabe.

I keep seeing articles, one most recently about a black friend of his, that he isn't racist. There may be something to that, I don't know his heart. He at least made some jumps based on color.

On another matter, what about the gate? When I used to go into gated communities to see clients there was a rigamarole that the homeowning person left a visitor's name at the gate.
I haven't heard if this was a practice in that gated community.

yup - h0od up

what would be the point of a hoodie if you didn't wear the hood up?

it keeps my neck warm and my hair dry...

The kids in school - boys and girls - like the hoodie over their heads even in the classroom to "look cool." It is a school rule that students are not allowed to wear hoodies over heads in class or at recess. I didn't get it, so I asked why.

The principal said it's because we can't id the wearer, and it may be someone sneaking on campus... We have to be able to id the person.

I talked about this event with a friend recently. He assumed the shooter was white. When I pointed out the shooter was of color - the tune changed considerably.

It seems the shooter had mental problems - and this issue may be more about that than the color of the child who was shot. He seems to be another cop wanna-be....unfit for the job. Wanting to be a ....hero. The stereotype did play a role -- dark youth in hoodie = bad.

So, maybe a bit more complicated that straight racism - but still, a learning moment for all of us. Just horrifying that a child died.

I do think if I had a son OR daughter of any hue, hoodies would be outlawed in our house.