LAUSR

It is February 26, 2012, evening in central Florida. Trayvon Martin is walking home from a local store, wearing a hooded sweatshirt (hoodie). Martin chats on his cell phone with his friend while carrying his purchases, a bag of Skittles, and an Arizona iced tea. Another actor appears: George Zimmerman, an unofficial neighborhood watchman who notices Martin walking through his neighborhood. Zimmerman calls the police, suspecting Martin might be involved in the recent robberies that have occurred in the neighborhood, and makes it his mission to follow Martin. Zimmerman continues his pursuit despite the emergency operator’s request to stand down and let the authorities handle it. The rest of the details of the encounter are unclear because only one person survives to tell the story. But there is one truth we all know: seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin dies from a gunshot wound at the hands of George Zimmerman. Although Martin’s life ends that night, the way he dies spawns public debates that rage on. Some loudly proclaim that Martin’s hoodie was to blame for his death. The hoodie, they cry, is a part of a larger negative trend in young people’s fashion: dressing like criminals and thugs. In their opinion, the hoodie justified Zimmerman’s suspicion. The most noteworthy indictment of Martin’s hoodie comes from TV personality Geraldo Rivera, who tells the world that the hoodie was as much to blame for Martin’s death as Zimmerman. Rivera warns black and Latino parents of the dangers that come from their kids wearing hoodies. Rivera argues that people associate hoodies with gangs, crime, and urban life (but only when they are on