Dear Geraldo: Hoodies Have Gone the Way of Sagging

Hi Geraldo,

I know you’ll probably never read this, but I wanted to write you a letter about your comment regarding the influence of Trayvon’s hoodie. You’re right and wrong at the same time. You’re right, that our society is overly fearful of black men in hoodies, but you’re wrong about the “gangsta” part. I am a teacher. Even though hoodies are technically banned at my school except for special days, there is still a constant battle with the students; male, female, black, white and other. Hoodies are as much a part of their wardrobe as pants. I can’t speak for young people, but I would wager to bet that most young people don’t look twice at a person in a hoodie. It’s normal. I, however, was raised during the era of hoodies being associated with criminals and so it took me a while before I would even wear a hoodie in public. I was paranoid the first few times because I thought people would look at me and see a black person in a hoodie and instantly be afraid. I was surprised when I noticed little change in the behaviors of people around me. I also follow certain hoodie rules of etiquette. If I am wearing a hoodie in public, I immediately take off the hood when I enter any building. I don’t want people to see me and assume that I am up to no good but that is my personal bias from years of seeing news stories about hoodies associated with illegal activity. Trayvon, however, was not inside. Trayvon was walking outside, therefore wearing a hoodie shouldn’t have been suspicious and it was raining so having his hood up should have been expected.

I have students in my school building who try to walk around with their hoods up. I think hoods are for outside use, not inside use, but my students seem to think that hoods are appropriate whenever. Thus leading me to the point of this letter: hoodies have gone the way of sagging. I am not a fan of sagging. I think pants should be pulled up and fit properly. Like hoodies, sagging used to be associated with criminals, but now, sagging has become a part of the culture. It irritates me when I see a young person with their pants dropping off their butt. If I’m at work, I tell the student to pull their pants up, but if I’m in public, I keep my mouth shut. My point is that older generations and some members of my generation have preconceived notions about hoodies and sagging pants, but our notions do not apply to this new generation. Hoodies and sagging pants are the norm. There is nothing stylistically “gangsta” about a teen wearing a hoodie, because unfortunately, hoodies have followed behind sagging pants and crossed over in to the mainstream.