I see London, I see France...

I was listening to a radio piece the other day about the way our clothing reflects how people react to us, specifically young black men wearing particular items of clothing such as hooded sweatshirts that project a threatening image to some people. The "hoodie" controversy came to a head a few years ago after Trayvon Martin, an African American teenager was confronted by George Zimmerman, a self proclaimed one man citizen police force in his gated community in Florida.

The confrontation ended with  Zimmerman shooting to death the unarmed Martin whom he described as a suspicious character, namely because of his attire, you guessed it, a hooded sweatshirt.

In the aftermath of the Martin shooting and the initial failure of the police to press charges against Zimmerman, major campaigns featuring celebrities and public figures including President Obama sprung up all over the world that questioned the stereotype of people who choose to wear this particular item of clothing.

In the radio piece mentioned above, the narrator, a young African American man, interviewed an African American mother who did everything she could to discourage her teenage son from wearing hoodies and other items of clothing she feels could get him into trouble simply by wearing them. Because she forbade her son the right to wear whatever he pleased, the narrator expressed his inability to come to terms with the mother whose actions he felt contributed to the stereotype and the racism that is inherently part of it. After a long and exhausting conversation, both the interviewer and his subject began to understand one another, she finally came to terms that her son, as a young black man, is treated differently in our society than people of other races.

For his part, the interviewer admitted he began to understand that all the mother was really interested in was her son's welfare. My initial reaction to this startling revelation was "duh." Then I had a revelation of my own, the guy obviously has no idea what it's like to be a parent.

As the parent of two children, a 15 year old boy and a 9 year old girl, not a day goes by without experiencing some degree of fear over the welfare and safety of my children. Living in a city where donning the wrong color shoelace in the wrong neighborhood could get you killed, you'd better believe I'm not going to let my children leave the house wearing inappropriate clothing regardless of their perceived "right" to wear whatever they please. But it goes beyond that. The way we present ourselves to the world has a great deal of impact upon how we are judged. That may seem petty and superficial; we all like to claim that all that really matters is what the person is like on the inside, not the outside. But like it or not, first impressions play a big role in our opinions of others. The way we carry ourselves, dress and speak really does matter.

Here I'm reminded of a piece I wrote several years ago that mentioned the brilliant comic George Carlin and a routine he did called "the seven words you can't say on TV". His point was that those seven words, I'll leave it up to you to figure out which ones they are, are just that, words, no more, no less. They describe things, namely body parts and bodily functions, that other perfectly acceptable words describe. According to Carlin, what's the big deal about them, words are just words right? Please indulge me the opportunity to quote myself for a moment:

...Carlin was wrong. Words are by far our most powerful tool, more powerful than any weapon. They have the power to shape lives, inspire people to greatness and to despair, to inspire love and to inspire hate, to create and to destroy people as well as nations. Certain words in every language are reserved for the purpose of expressing unmitigated anger, to incite, to arouse or to disgust. They serve a very useful purpose (as we all know when we hit ourselves on the thumb with a hammer), when their use is limited.

I went on to say that once cuss words sneak into the common lexicon, they lose their effect and other, nastier words take their place.

To a lesser extent, what we wear speaks volumes about who we are, and how we wish to be judged. Just as certain words are inappropriate in certain situations, the same holds for our attire. Wearing tank tops, shorts and flip flops, while perfectly appropriate at the beach, would be considered the ultimate symbol of disrespect at a funeral.

Respect is what it all boils down to. Unless he is going to Jimmy Buffett's funeral, our hypothetical tank top, flip flop wearing funeral going friend may believe he is making a statement or grand gesture in his choice of attire, but all he is really doing is showing a lack of respect for those around him, and perhaps more significantly, a lack of respect for himself.

What got me thinking about all this was an incident that happened this morning. As I was taking my daughter to her summer camp, a teenage boy passed us sporting the not so recent trend in street fashion, sagging pants. Calling this kid's pants sagging would be a gross understatement as they were pulled up just above his knees not only exposing his boxer shorts, but his legs beneath the underwear.

Every generation comes up with its own kind of attire designed with the specific intention of pissing off its parents. In my day it was long, disheveled hair, ripped jeans and army jackets. To this day my mother still talks about the way I looked in high school. Today, it's almost inconceivable to encounter a person in his or her twenties or thirties without a tattoo and multiple body piercings, something that continues to make me cringe even though I'm beyond used to it. A few generations before me it was the Zoot Suit. In the Wikipedia entry on the subject, the author said:

Wearing the oversized suit was a declaration of freedom and self-determination, even rebelliousness.

Like many fashion trends, the Zoot Suit was born in the African American community, and later became popular with cross-cultural hepcats. The hoodie and sagging pants also became fashionable among non-blacks.

At the risk of sounding like an old prude, I have to say that unlike all other teen fads, sagging is "fuck you" fashion taken to its extreme As ridiculous as so many teenage fashion statements over the years have appeared, what sets sagging apart in my opinion is the willingness of the sagger to humiliate himself (saggers are always hims) in public. There is a primal revulsion toward seeing someone's undergarments, so much so, small children invented the mocking chant to ridicule someone exposing his underpants, the beginning of which is the title of this post. Freedom, self-determination and rebelliousness, all of which are a part of the logic behind sagging as well as every other youthful fad ever invented, in this case take a backseat to a willingness to give up all sense of dignity and self-worth. In essence the sagger is telling the world that he doesn't give a shit about you, about society, and most importantly about himself.

So this morning the sagger my daughter and I witnessed, proceeded to squeeze his extremely skinny body through the turnstiles and up to the L platform without paying a fare. My initial reaction was explain to my daughter that his bad behavior was an isolated incident, that she shouldn't judge other people dressed like that by this guy's conduct, yadda yadda yadda. Instead I chose to let it go; my daughter is too smart for such pedantic explanations; she knows full well that guys who don't care enough about themselves to pull their pants up, certainly aren't going to care a lick about what people like her think of them.

The narrator of the radio piece would certainly object to that sentiment, especially coming from an old white guy. He might say I was perpetuating racism through stereotypes. But I beg to differ. If there is such a stereotype, it was the kid with the pants pulled up to his knees who snuck through the turnstile who is embracing it. That no doubt is the reason why I hear complaints about sagging far more often from black people than white people. As a group of people who feel a general lack of respect from community at large, it must be particularly painful to see some of their young people with such little respect for themselves.

All I could feel when I saw Mr. Underpants today was pity. I could only imagine that he lacked parents, like the woman featured in the radio piece, who loved him and tells him every day that his life means something. That woman's son was lucky because he had someone who loved and cared enough about him to tell him to pull his damn pants up.

Where is the Justice?

Yesterday, a jury of six women acquitted George Zimmermman in the murder of Trayvon Martin. As you may recall, last year Trayvon, a 17 year old, was visiting relatives who lived in a gated residential community in Sanford, Florida. As he was walking through the community after a visit to a convenience store, he was spotted by Zimmerman who was on a neighborhood watch patrol. Trayvon appeared suspicious to Zimmerman. Zimmerman who was armed, confronted the boy. A struggle ensued and in the end, the unarmed Trayvon Martin was shot and killed.

Zimmerman was taken into police custody but initially released after police and lawyers from the District Attorney's office determined he was acting in self defense, as described by Florida law. Once news of the story broke, a firestorm of protest engulfed the country around the injustice of an innocent, unarmed young African American youth being killed by a private citizen, simply because he looked suspicious.

Responding to almost unanimous public outrage, the D.A.'s office eventually indicted Zimmerman on murder charges which ultimately led to his trial this month.

I wrote about this story not long after it took place last year. You can read that piece here. My feelings then are the same as they are today. Essentially I believe that this is an unspeakable tragedy and I have nothing but the deepest sympathy for Trayvon's family and for his young life cut short. I believe that, from what I know, Zimmerman was over-zealous in his pursuit of the young man, and in the end his actions proved to be reckless and foolish. However, given the testimony from the witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense, (Zimmerman himself did not testify), there was not enough proof beyond a reasonable doubt to convict Zimmerman of murder.

I realize this is a very controversial opinion that many people are not going to like. Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, has been portrayed in at least one sector of the media, as a racist, paranoid sociopath. All that may or may not be true, nothing that has come out about him, at least to my ears, either confirms or contradicts those accusations.

What is unquestionable is that Zimmerman profiled a young black man who was visiting his community as a potential criminal, because of the way he was dressed and the way he way carried himself. Zimmerman confronted Trayvon, and after some kind of altercation, (where Zimmerman's life may or may not have been threatened), shot and killed him.

According to Florida law, the question of whether or not his life was threatened during the altercation, is at the heart of whether or not Zimmerman is guilty of murder, or was acting in self defense. As a policeman member of my family said the other day: "only two people know exactly what happened that night, one of them is dead, the other is George Zimmerman." We simply will never know the facts of what really happened during that altercation, leaving me and obviously the jury to believe that while he may have acted inappropriately, perhaps criminally, the prosecution did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman is guilty of murder.

We can expect in the coming days, public furor over the verdict in this case. Our legal system will be raked over the coals. But it must be remembered that our system of law, imperfect as it is, is designed not only to punish the guilty, but also to protect the rights of the accused. I remember when O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder in his famous trial several years ago, many of the same people who are now excoriating the system, back then applauded the verdict because they felt that despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary, there still existed a reasonable doubt that the former football star murdered two people. Remember this line of defense: "if the glove don't fit, you must acquit"?

The bottom line is that Trayvon's death and the media circus that surrounded it, is a tragedy that speaks volumes about our society and the way we treat each other. There are no winners here, just as there would not have been had the verdict been different.

As for justice for Trayvon, I will quote myself from last year:

Trayvon Martin's story on the surface is very compelling, filled with right and wrong, good guys and bad guys. It could have come off the pen of Harper Lee or any number of authors who have dealt with the tragic story of race in this country. Yet the reality is not as simple as we might have hoped. The grim truth is that Trayvon's murder is not simply a case of a paranoid vigilante, profiling and murdering an innocent victim, and a racist police force (and justice system) turning a blind eye on the death of a minority child. It is the tragic result of decades of stupid, senseless violence in our society. We can blame all sorts of causes for the violence; guns, poverty, racism, violent movies, video games and TV, the lack of respect for human life and dignity, the breakdown of the family, heck maybe even the people who commit the crimes themselves. Innocent people are murdered every day in this city and around the country at an alarming rate. Yet where is the righteous indignation over all those victims and their families?

Justice for Trayvon Martin will not come with George Zimmerman's arrest or conviction. Justice will come only when we as a society, all of us, learn to love, care and respect one another, and by God, figure out how to stop all the killing.

Then and only then will Trayvon's death, and the rhetoric that surrounds it, have any meaning.

Oh and since I'm spewing out my take on controversial subjects, here's another one: This tragedy should give pause to anyone who seriously believes that private citizens carrying concealed weapons in public is a good idea. In two words, it isn't.

Perhaps one life saved by someone realizing that he or she has no business carrying a gun around in public, would be the start to bringing justice to Trayvon Martin, his family, and everyone who dies needlessly because of violence in this country.

On good guys and bad guys

This is very difficult for me to write as it involves the death of a child. Having two children of my own, there is no subject closer to my heart. In a perfect world, no child would ever die before his or her parents.

Let me say at the outset that the killing of 17 year old Trayvon Martin in Florida last month was an unspeakable tragedy. I grieve along with Trayvon's parents who have been dealt the cruelest blow any person can experience.

Trayvon, in case you don't know, was shot and killed while walking through a gated community in Sanford, Florida, a suburb of Orlando. The man who unquestionably shot him is George Zimmerman, 28, a resident of the community and a volunteer neighborhood watch patroller. There are conflicting reports but this much is undisputed: Zimmerman felt that Trayvon, whom he did not know, was behaving suspiciously. Zimmerman followed the teenager, there was an encounter, and Zimmerman shot the boy who was unarmed.

The police interrogated Zimmerman but did not hold him as they felt there was not enough evidence that Zimmerman did not act in self-defense as defined by Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law.

The reaction to the tragedy has been viral in the month since it happened. There has been severe criticism of the Sanford Police for not arresting Zimmerman, as well as the Florida Law which seems to have introduced an open season on human beings. Specifically, the feeling is there is a double standard in our judicial system regarding both the protection, and the prosecution of minorities. In this case, Martin, who was African American, was a young man unfairly targeted (because of his race) and murdered by Zimmerman. For his part Zimmerman, who is also a member of a minority, was allowed to go free, literally getting away with murder.

I feel that much of the reaction to Trayvon's killing has been justified. It brings to light many of the problems that unfortunately still exist in our society, namely violence, racism, injustice, and the disenfranchisement of certain segments of society. Moreover, the almost universal sorrow, anger and frustration over the tragedy shows me that our society hasn't completely given up on the ideals of fairness and compassion for all. It has even brought together if only briefly, such disparate figures as Barack Obama and Rick Santorum.

Yet a great deal of the public's reaction deeply troubles me.

When I originally sat down to write this post a week ago, I wrote this:

From all the media accounts I've read to date, I have come to the opinion that the the actions of George Zimmerman, were reckless, foolish and perhaps criminal. I find it puzzling that the police did not at the very least take him into custody, instead taking his word at face value that he acted in self defense. 


The problem lies in the first few words of that statement. All I had to go on, all anyone in the public has to go on, are media accounts. The court of public opinion is condemning Zimmerman based on the stuff they see on TV, read in the papers or social media, and hearsay. Furthermore, as more accounts of the tragedy have surfaced, a more nuanced picture of the story has developed. Unconfirmed witness reports of Trayvon before the shooting, on top of Zimmerman and beating him, do not jibe with the original reports that Trayvon was simply an innocent bystander. Reports, also disputed, of Zimmerman's broken nose and bruises on the back of his head when he was at the police station, and still others that some of the police sought to arrest Zimmerman the night of the killing, shed new light on the actions on the department.

None of that takes away the fact that Zimmerman was armed and Martin was not. Or that Zimmerman seems to have gone well above and beyond the scope of his duties, especially in ignoring a 911 operator's admonition to not follow Trayvon. Right now, knowing what I know, I still can't come up with a scenario where I feel the shooting could have been justified.

More importantly however, regardless of my opinion, it's not my job to be the judge and jury of George Zimmerman. Imperfect as it is, that's the job of our justice system. As we speak, that's exactly what it is doing in Florida, gathering evidence which will be presented before a grand jury who will decide if there is enough for an indictment of Zimmerman. If he is indicted, he will have his day in court and held accountable for his actions before a jury of his peers who will decide his fate.

That is not enough for some protesters, including Trayvon's parents who in the name of justice for their son, demand the immediate arrest and conviction of Zimmerman. The Black Panther Party has offered a $10,000 bounty for the "citizen's arrest of George Zimmerman." Tweets posting Zimmerman's (incorrect) address, were forwarded on Twitter by the film director Spike Lee, causing great peril to the people living at the address. Meanwhile Zimmerman and his family are hiding for their lives.

Politically incorrect as it may sound, these actions come mighty close to lynch mob mentality. They undermine any meaningful discourse on the subject.

Trayvon's story on the surface is very compelling, filled with right and wrong, good guys and bad guys. It could have come off the pen of Harper Lee or any number of authors who have dealt with the tragic story of race in this country. Small wonder why so many public figures have come out and taken a stand against the perceived injustice of it all. Yet the reality is not as simple as we might have hoped. The grim truth is that Trayvon's murder is not simply a case of a paranoid vigilante, profiling and murdering an innocent victim, and a racist police force turning a blind eye on the death of a minority child, but a tragic result of decades of stupid, senseless violence in our society. We can blame all sorts of causes for the violence; guns, poverty, racism, violent movies, video games and TV, the lack of respect for human life and dignity, the breakdown of the family, heck maybe even the people who commit the crimes themselves. Innocent people are murdered every day in this city and around the country at an alarming rate. As I write this, the news of yet another shooting (one killed, five injured) in Chicago is just coming across the radio. Yet where is the righteous indignation over all those victims and their families?

Justice for Trayvon Martin will not come with George Zimmerman's arrest or possible conviction. Justice will come only when we as a society, all of us, learn to love, care and respect one another, and by God, figure out how to stop all the killing.

Then and only then will Trayvon's death, and all the rhetoric that surrounds it, have any meaning.