The Killer Sweatshirt

"I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was,"

-Geraldo Rivera

I had some pretty nasty things to say to and about Geraldo today. And I stand by them. But, for the sake of argument, let's pretend The 'Stache is right. Let's even give George Zimmerman the benefit of the doubt, and assume that if Trayvon Martin hadn't been wearing a hoodie that particular night, Zimmerman would have gone the rest of his life without killing anyone for any reason. Where does that leave us? Well, Trayvon Martin would still be alive, which would be awesome. And George Zimmerman wouldn't be known worldwide as a racist and a murderer, which would be nice for him, no doubt.

It doesn't matter. If every hooded sweatshirt in the world went up in a puff of smoke tomorrow, racists would just find another symbol to hang their hate and fear upon. Blaming the victim, advising people to dress a particular way as 'a sensible precaution', it's all an excuse. Each and every healthy, sane, adult human being has both the capacity and the responsibility to govern their own behavior. Anyone who commits murder is a murderer, even if they construct a narrative where they were defending their community from a gang-banger. Anyone who commits rape is a rapist, no matter how much skin their victim was showing. The ability to override instinct and emotion with rational thought is one of the characteristics that separates humans from animals. I don't know about you, but I don't think it would be a good idea to arm tigers and turn them loose on the streets, even if you did somehow mangage to give them opposable thumbs & teach them to roar in English.

Excusing murder by blaming the victim is clearly immoral, but the other (more insidious) danger in Geraldo's philosophy is that it creates an illusion of safety. It sounds reasonable enough...

"Don't dress like a gangsta, and you won't get gunned down by a twitchy vigilante posing as a Concerned Citizen."

"Don't wear miniskirts and you won't be kidnapped by a pervo and chained up in his basement."

Straightforward, practical, pragmatic advice, right? The main thing is that you'll be safe. Of course, the next kid in a hoodie is a goner, and the girl in the knee-length skirt got the Buffalo Bill treatment because there weren't any miniskirted targets available, but at least you're safe. Oh, sure, the twitchy vigilante and the serial rapist are still out there running around, and maybe next week they'll decide to go after anyone wearing denim, or wool socks, or whatever, but you'll probably be OK. The odds are in your favor, at least in the short term. Shame about your daughter, though. Did they ever find her body?

There was a time when your ancestors thought that painting themselves blue and walking backwards around a campfire, or some such foolishness, would keep them safe. So they wasted a lot of time doing that instead of developing the germ theory of disease or something similarly sensible. And when it didn't work, they blamed the crazy old lady who lived in the hut just outside the village and burned her alive. Ah, the good ol' days.

About ten years ago, I was talking to a psychologist. During our conversation, she asked me if I felt any anxiety in the wake of the (then-recent) 9/11 attack. I was legitimately confused by this question. Why would an event that had happened nearly a year before, in another city, to people I had never met, concern me in any meaningful way? Or, more precisely, why should that particular event spook me? I had spent roughly 30 years of my life inundated with daily reports of bombings, highjackings, carjackings, plane crashes, shipwrecks, muggings, rape, murder, arson, you name it. Shit happens. Sometimes rocks fall from the sky and kill you. That's just how the world works. Slowly, it dawned on me that there are people in the world who do not understand this. Apparently, some of this woman's clients were numbered among those people. They believed that terrorist attacks only happened in other countries, to other people. Merely having had the good sense to be born in America granted them special immunity. Armed with my new knowledge, I looked at the world around me and slowly realized there are a lot of people out there who honestly believe they are perfectly safe. People who legitimately think it is possible for anyone to ever be entirely secure. People who consider themselves rational adults, living in a Never-Never Land of their own imagining.

Here is the truth:

We're living in the Really Real World.

You are not safe.

I grew up as a tall, strong, white, middle-class boy in an affluent suburb. I have spent my entire life being about as safe as anyone can possibly be outside of a monastery made of eiderdown and life preservers.

I have never been safe.

Money won't make you safe.
Power won't make you safe.
Influence won't make you safe.
Clothes won't make you safe.
Armor won't make you safe.
Weapons won't make you safe.
Walls won't make you safe.
Gates won't make you safe.
Iron bars won't make you safe.
The Church won't make you safe.
The GOP won't make you safe.
Rick Santorum won't make you safe.
FOX News won't make you safe.
Geraldo won't make you safe.
Hate won't make you safe.
Fear won't make you safe.
Violence won't make you safe.
Being born with white skin won't make you safe.
Murdering children won't make you safe.

Lies won't make you safe.

The truth won't make you safe, either, but at least you'll be in a position to distinguish rational precautions from pure superstition. Not even precautions will make you safe. But they just might make you a little bit safer.

And the truth is, Trayvon Martin's hoodie never pulled any triggers.