hoodie

When I travel, I carry three pieces of what I consider essential clothing:
-    A change of underwear for everyday, including socks.
-    A lightweight quilted shell (doubles as cold-weather guard and a comfy pillow)
-    A black hoodie: it’s a blanket, a coat, an umbrella, a pillow and it covers mild stains (at least until your next laundry stop).
Sure there are things you should carry – Tshirts, travel-size toiletries, scarf – but if any of the above were forgotten, I’d actually buy a replacement.  I crossed this great and beautiful country with my customs hoodie (saved my life); I covered The Rock in my Library Wench hoodie; I took in the majesty of the Grand Canyon in my Jasper hoodie.  The hoodie is indispensable.  And a Canadian winter?  A hoodie is the undergarment, often paired with a down-filled waterproof puffy vest. 

So, I find it fascinating that a piece of clothing as versatile and as useful as a hoodie has become so vilified.  How it could be used as a reason for suspicion, a reason for a bullet in the chest?

The Not Guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial makes me ill.  The blatant racial and sexist profiling (would he have fired if it was a black girl, a white man) is incredible enough; the fact that he was acquitted as having acted reasonably is just downright nauseating.  Since when does suspicion allow you to murder? And is my car or my computer or my home theatre system worth a young man’s life?  There are just so many things wrong with this picture: stand your ground laws, rampant gun violence, institutionalised racism ... and all in a country that prides itself on freedom. 

Where was Trayvon Martin’s freedom to wear a hoodie? Eat skittles? Walk home without being harassed? 

As Elle so eloquently put it:
“The American justice system is still stacked against black people, don't delude yourselves, this isn't a post-racial world unless you're white and privileged. That's not a dig against white people, that's an honest interpretation of our social structure. Institutionalized racism is so much worse because it looks like fairness but it's really just prejudice wrapped in a pretty package. I'd rather be called a Nigger to my face than being lulled into a false sense of security. God, if people only understood that race is a social concept, not a scientific one. The traits most commonly used to distinguish one race from another, like skin and eye color, or the width of the nose, are traits controlled by a relatively few number of genes. We are more similar than different, there's only one real SCIENTIFIC race and that's the HUMAN RACE! But understanding that takes a little more education and comprehension than the average racist has. There are times when being Canadian feels so damn good. There's racism everywhere, but dear God the systemic racism in the US scares me. Black men in the US pull up your pants, put the blunt down, pick up a book, and educate yourself. This is what the system thinks of you…nothing.”