From Leigh Davenport, Editorial Director of Hello Beautiful:
My Brother Wears A Hoodie Every Day, So I Am Afraid
Whenever issues of young Black masculinity become part of the national discourse, I often make reference to my little brother. As I am not yet a mother, he is my benchmark for how the world treats young Black male bodies. At 25 years-old he is 6’2, slender, fair-skinned with a small bit of facial hair and walks through the streets of Chicago and New-York most often in a singular uniform: black jeans, a black or white t-shirt, and a grey hoodie.
It’s a hoodie I bought him last year for Christmas. Like most young millennial boys, my 25 year-old brother lives in the same three items until he literally wears holes in them. This means on any given day, if it’s cool outside or raining, there he is: jeans, t-shirt, grey hoodie.
My brother is a classically trained jazz musician. He attended Manhattan School of Music and plays tenor sax and about five other instruments give or take. When he’s not playing jazz music, he also makes hip-hop beats. And let’s be honest, sometimes he smokes weed. He’s an awesomely sweet, non-confrontational, non-threatening kid. But the next time he steps out quickly to go to the bodega, I’ll be a bit more worried about him coming home. The truth is, since he was born, he is and always has been a target.
A year ago, when my brother had returned home to Chicago for a while, my mom would call and tell me about how much my brother was running the streets partying with our little cousin of the same age. With the violence in Chicago raging, I strongly encouraged her to support him returning to New York City. I preferred him sleeping on my couch than catching a stray bullet on the Southside. Here, I’ll worry about him being stopped & frisked, in Chicago, I’d just worry.
I’ve lost a good number of friends thus far in my young life, both male and female. But not one of my female friends died violently, or at the end of a gun-barrel. On the contrary, I’ve got three male gun deaths, one paralyzed from a drive-by and another who was beaten to death. And for many Black women, this is a terribly commonplace story. My own personal account doesn’t even come close to so many others who have lost so many people.
Two weekends ago, my brother and I flew to St.Louis for our family reunion. After the picnic, he and my 23 year-old cousin decided to drive back to Chicago early. As it was the start of the 4th of July weekend, my mother promptly launched in to a speech. “You be careful out there. Don’t you speed, don’t you drive recklessly. It’s the holiday weekend and the police will be out. You all get pulled over in one of these small towns in Southern Illinois there’s no telling what will happen. You drive slowly, you here me?!” I wanted to think she was being dramatic, but as I looked in her eyes and listened to her tone, I realized she was genuinely concerned, because every Black mother of a Black son has no choice but to be that concerned. That is the terrifyingly truthful reality that we were all made brutally aware of on Saturday night. We must still worry for our sons. We worry for our husbands. We worry for our fathers, uncles, cousins and friends. We know our Black men are always at risk, and we know the paranoia and discomfort they feel everyday when they leave the house is real and justified. And so, here I am trying to figure out what to do with these emotions and these tears that flow for Trayvon. The best thing I can come up with is fear for my little brother who wears a hoodie everyday.
Through the tears that have flowed somewhat endlessly from my eyes over the past 24 hours, I find myself alternating between fear and sadness. I am sad that I was ever hopeful that justice would prevail in the case Trayvon’s death. I am fearful that I no longer have that hope. I am sad that a court of law just told my brothers, cousins, friends and father that even today, when the most powerful man in the free world looks just like them, they can still be hunted and killed like animals—like Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and so many more. I am fearful that the next time my kid brother goes to the bodega he might not make it home. And most of all, I am sad that I have to have these fears.
First an foremost, there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE that Trayvon Martin’s hoodie sweatshirt had anything to do with why he is dead. That is a myth that was manufactured out of whole cloth by someone at the law firm of Parks & Crump.
Ms. Davenport’s comparison of Trayvon Martin to other victims of homicide is dishonest. Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy who was kidnapped, beaten, mutilated and then murdered by two men for allegedly flirting with a married white woman. Evers and King were civil rights leaders who were assassinated by snipers. Bell and Diallo were both unarmed men who were killed by cops in incidents involving multiple officers and 40+ rounds fired in each incident.
None of those cases is factually similar to the death of Tayvon Martin. The only common factor in each case is that each man was black and was killed by one or more white or Hispanic men. As far as I can tell none of those other black men was wearing a hoodie when he was killed. The six cases were spread over 60 years and several different states.
I can understand Ms. Davenport’s concern about her brother becoming a victim of the violence raging in Chicago. But the vast majority of that violence is intra-racial. That’s why I suspect that the five male friends she mentions who were killed or paralyzed were victims of black-on-black violence. But I’m not sure what that has to do with hoodies.
I am certainly not one to defend bad cops but the reason that the deaths of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell and Oscar Grant are so well-known is because cases like that are so rare. There is no evidence that our nation’s police officers are systematically stopping and killing black men for no reason other than that they were wearing hoodies.
A phobia is an extreme or irrational fear. An example is the fear of flying. While you can certainly die in a plane crash it is still one of the safest ways to travel. Nothing in life is risk-free.
Young black men are the demographic with the highest risk of dying by violence. But is the key part of that demographic the “young”, the “black” or the “men”? Or is it something else like residential zip code, economic status, gang membership, education or activities? We can calculate the homicide rate by lots of different factors.
The problem is that when you start digging into all the numbers and risk factors things get all hazy and blurry and some people prefer black and white answers.
there are certain places in this country where a white man takes his life in his hands to go.
I just told my grandson to be extra careful because he has to go to Chester Pa. for his job.
years ago my brother got robbed in Chester and the wanted to know why he was there because he was white.
My son was doing demolition work in Chester and his boss carried a gun for protection.
so it is a two way street when it comes to places that are dangerous
Who do you think is safer, a black man walking through a white neighborhood or a white man walking through a black neighborhood?
That’s true. We are in the “nicest” large subdivision in the city, including shopping on the perimeter, a hospital, a park and a school. For at least three years we’ve had a homeless black dude who pretty much lives (after hours) in the park. None of us encourage him, but we don’t hassle him, either. He says he’s too scared to sleep in the other areas of town, or the homeless shelters. Go figure.
black man in a white neighborhood. he might be looked at with suspicion but it is more likely that someone would call a cop to investigate before beating him up
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/07/16/professional-race-baiter-jesse-jackson-predicts-massive-protests-over-zimmerman-verdict/
jesse jackson predicting massive protests
since he and sharpton use the title reverend which is supposed to be a man of GOD, why are they not preaching for peace?
go out and protest, get arrested, get a record, don’t get a job in the future do to arrest.
way to go jesse, just what young black people need
Newsbusters:
Interesting reactions. And even with asswipe Letterman’s audience. Kind of amazing.
Seen any polls about the verdict?
I haven’t seen a single one.
I wonder why?
Yep. I’d guess the relatively small protest crowds we’re seeing is an indicator. Which will give me hope if large numbers lean in the whatever or reasonable verdict camps. You’d think celebrities and such would want to get a sense of the polls before shooting off their mouth. C.f, Jim Carrey.
I saw one that said only 26% of the nation followed the trial. That’s about half of Obama’s 47% 😀
Saw this elsewhere and thought it would look good here, too.
Meanwhile in an alternate universe:
http://skydancingblog.com/2013/07/16/hillary-on-the-verdict-george-zimmerman-verdict-brought-deep-heartache/#comments
“Wendy Davis for Governor ! ” 😉
Our Attorney General:
Although SYG is relatively new the general common law rule in the United States has been that there is no duty to retreat.
http://books.google.com/books/about/No_Duty_to_Retreat.html?id=Ns3_08iYK1gC
The objection to the “stand your ground” in Florida was not over the duty to retreat part of the law. Over and over it has been explained to the public that the common area in the town home development where Zimmerman lived was basically his home or his castle. HE COULD NOT RETREAT because he was cold-cocked in the face and knocked on his back and could not get up to retreat. The Florida statute does not allow civil suits for wrongful death with out an ARREST (which requires probable cause) if someone is claiming self defense. Then they created a legal framework for self defendants to claim immunity from civil suits to prevent anyone (or their survivors) who caused by their own actions their own injuries or death. The early actions by the Martin family attorneys were solely to bypass these statutes. The Martin family and their attorneys repeatedly said they wanted an arrest not a trial or even a conviction in the early investigation. As soon as they got the state to bypass probable cause they filed notice of suit against the HOA where Zimmerman lived and Trayvon Martin was visiting.
Statutes which limit or forbid damages paid to people who make bad decisions and contribute to their own injury or death are not uncommon. To be sued by the survivors of someone who was beating you in the head is viewed by the public as unfair and unjust. Inmates do it all the time and their suits against the police shooting them in hot pursuit or their ex-girlfriend poking their eye out while they beat her is common as is the dismissal of those harassment lawsuits. So how is a plaintiff to get around that public attitude?
The skittles, ice tea drink, hoodie, baby pictures of the deceased was gathered by a PR guy who was directly calling networks and news papers to sell his “narrative” including quotes, soundbites, the evil police department etc with a crafted story to divert from from what the police department investigators were finding in their work on the case. The city police department resisted so they went over their heads to the mayor and city manager, the governor and state attorney general, the congressional black caucus and the DOJ, who interfered in a police investigation. Then they got the cops who would not arrest Zimmerman fired and/or demoted.
The state legislature did a review of the stand your ground laws and found them to be sound and what the people of Florida wanted. The press did not cover that because it did not fit the narrative. The sound and the fury boiling out of the media and plaintiff attorneys are to cover their ass. Yesterday the IT guy who did not want to be part of withholding exculpatory evidence in a criminal trial sued the special prosecutor for firing him! Everyone who played a part in this giant scam is going to be sued by someone. Plaintiff lawyers are not supposed to use the criminal justice system to create wrongful death actions in civil court. But the state of Florida allowed it and now it is all going to be pulled out in discovery, AGAIN. Look Skittles!!!! did not work in a criminal trial and it is not going to work in civil trials.
I think the thing anti-gun nuts hate about the Florida laws is that they restrict gun owners who use deadly force from being sued as easily. If Zimmerman could have claimed SYG, he wouldn’t be arrested or go to trial. He could still get immunity from a civil suit under Florida law.
Exactly. It is very, very clear in their statutes. Most states dismiss those kinds of suits but Florida makes it mandatory to do so AND makes anyone who brings suit pay the self-defendants civil legal bill. And if the self defense claimant is found to be immune so is the the police department who are charged with discrimination, the gun manufacturer, the HOA, and any other deep pockets. The citizens of Florida like these laws and find them just and the legislature is not going to change them so one family can sue. That is essentially how the entire thing got started by the Martin family attorneys.
I really think the anti gun nuts tend to be from the elitist class and the east coast and what they hate most about any states laws is that they didn’t get to dictate them to the people in other states. In their minds they are the elite, not elitists and so they of course know what is best for everyone and should be able to dictate to the grubby masses in all lesser sections of the country.
They can afford to hire armed guards and doormen.
Lulu- do you mean the PR guy mentioned in this article?
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/07/14/a-nation-of-george-zimmermans-awakened-understand-the-fraud-post-verdict-of-acquittal/
I don’t know his name but he has worked for this law firm before on other successful cases. He has a lot of contacts with NBC and other media. He constructs a “narrative” and then sells it and the media has a ready made news piece and do not have to essentially do any work but video it. The media do not vet his work or don’t do much. I think he will be sued too.
Why does she infantize her 25 year old brother. 25 is no baby.
Little old to be wearing the uniform of youth.
I think there has been research on why people wear certain clothing and its affect on the wearer and those around them. Generally anyone wearing something that obscures identification is viewed as suspicious by other people. That also holds for someone holding their hand over their face or even wearing sunglasses indoors. I think this is an instinctual reaction so harping that people should ignore their instincts is a non-starter. When you know that people are reacting to cues such as obscuring your identity and demand that THEY change their reaction to YOU is adolescent and oppositional. There is nothing wrong with any article of clothing. It is the way and circumstances in which it is worn and the personal and psychological cues that the wearer gives to others while wearing it that causes problems. Refusing to acknowledge this is childish.
Banks won’t let you wear your hood up.
And they look at you funny if you forget to take your sunglasses off. I have done that many times and jerk them off when I get the hard stare. It is also a reason men are supposed to take their hats off indoors.
The hoodie thing may go back to Geraldo Rivera. He was actually arguing that Hispanic Zimmerman was not a racist, but that hiding your face in a hoodie is suspicious. Benjamin Klump was arguing that Zimmerman was facing Martin and shot him point blank while both were in a standing position. Eventually, they had to make up crap like Martin had a right to “take a swing” at Zimmerman because he was provoked.
My advice to this woman would be
Don’t let your brother wander around in his new residence in the rain, peeping into windows.
Tell him if he feels threatened to call the police and not his dumb friend who will only egg him on.
Tell him to avoid smoking pot or drinking brain damaging “lean” (Skittles + Arizona Watermelon Fruit Punch + Robotussin)
Tell him not to hone his MMA skills by himself in the dark on an unknown guy he ambushes because his luck may run out that night.
I know not much was made about TM’s toxicology report because he only had trace amounts in his bloodstream. Could he have been in withdrawl (anger,agitation, rage) and looking for an easy hit (break in, mugging) that night to buy more drugs? Did he decide to mug GZ that night? Was he reaching for a wallet when the gun was discovered ?
TM’s biggest mistake was not making a beeline home that night, he apparently had time to do just that.
That has been mentioned too and would possibly fit with being in a new place and not familiar with local sources to buy marijuana. An addictions specialist was on tv last night talking about the long term affects of using. The people who advocate use say it has no bad side affects but it does. It stays in the system much longer that people think and has many more psychological affects than user/advocates want to admit. All of the claims that marijuana users are mellow and friendly and harmless does not take into consideration that they are self-medicating for some reason such as anxiety, anger, or fear rather than addressing those issues. And when regular users can’t use they have large swings in mood just like any other regular user of mind/mood altering substances when they can’t get any. Add in an adolescent rather than an adult who does not recognize this in themselves you get real problems with behavior.
It has been shown that for some, marijuana can trigger psychosis and psychotic disorders, and has led to and triggered schizophrenia in people – especially teens. Trayvon was at the age when this disease – schizophrenia – is most likely to occur in teenage boys. I’m not saying this happened to him, but just saying his behavior could have reflected paranoia just as easily as it could have reflected sociopathy.
I believe the jury did the right thing regardless of anything and that they were brave an honest people.
Weed makes you hungry and horny and makes everything funny. It does not make you violent. Quite the opposite.
That is mythology, Myiq. It depends on the circumstances. Chronic use can certainly lead to anger issues, and many violent people are found to have used marijuana before or during violent episodes. Marijuana, like many drugs, merely intensifies an existing personality or mood.
I have done a LOT of personal research on the effects of marijuana use. I never saw somebody go from mellow to angry after smoking weed. I have seen many people get mellow.
Unlike alcohol, where I have seen exactly the opposite.
Yeah, me too. Smoked for years, and I have seen many fights break out and people go batshit crazy on it. I have also read crime reports and court transcripts that suggests correlation. Anecdotal evidence is just that. Pot mellows some people, and it agitates others. The whole mellow stoner thing is a myth. It does not apply to all pot smokers. It especially does not apply when mixing intoxicants, as may have been the case with Mr. Martin.
We must have better weed here in California.
Ha! I’ve smoked your sorry ass “medical marijuana”. It’s pretty and smells good, but the buzz is lame. It’s like O’Doul’s for potheads. Y’all gettin’ gypped.
Pfffft.
We got shit that will make you forget your name. I smoked two puffs of something called “train wreck” one night and for the next two hours I sat on a couch saying “I can’t feel my legs”.
Seriously. I could not feel my legs.
Pfffft. You got nothing. In a word: Muhlenberg. In a name: Cornbread Mafia. All you got are jacked up gangs growing shit in National Parks and pansies growing hydro. It’s a profession in Kentucky. We grow crops. In the sunshine, where it belongs.
There is the shit we sell and the shit we keep. You are obviously familiar with the first kind.
That’s like me dissing Kentucky because I tried Val-U-Rite bourbon.
His biggest mistake was not calling 911 IF he felt threatened. That is, to use a familiar quote, retarded, siiiir.
But Ms Davenport—-justice WAS done.
It takes an elderly retired president to come out and say the obvious.
““I think the jury made the right decision based on the evidence presented, because the prosecution inadvertently set the standard so high that the jury had to be convinced that it was a deliberate act by Zimmerman that he was not at all defending himself, and so forth,” Carter told Atlanta news channel WXIA. “It’s not a moral question, it’s a legal question and the American law requires that the jury listens to the evidence presented.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/jimmy-carter-george-zimmerman-verdict-94320.html
She deserves the Leona Helmsley Lifetime Achievement Award.
This type of background, her naked aggression and careerism, is why I found her retort whispered in a weird little girl voice what she thought of Zimmerman after she had her ass handed to her, “murderer” so bizarre. I do not know what she thinks she is up to but she is being exposed daily. The nitwit governor has to put some kind of pressure on her to resign or she is going to drag his whole cabal down the rat hole with her.
Her calling Martin “prey” was equally bizarre. Corey gives me the creeps.
Absolutely creepy, little girl weird voice reminded me of this:
Because drug dealers have the right to defend themselves. I am not being factitious. They do just like anyone else.
Not just drug dealers, but racists, too! And people who don’t recycle and meat eaters. Your right to defend yourself is supposed to be unconditional, not based on your character, but related to the situation at hand.
This whole case is just spooky and has some real sci/fi elements to it, like the power of propaganda and why the Gov is getting us all riled up over something so out of proportion. There’s nothing rational or reasonable about any of this, it’s like Big Brother blowing some sort of dog whistle and people suddenly turning into zombies. Nothing is real, from the “white” Hispanic to the “innocent 12 yr old boy” who’s picture they keep showing.
More generalized rage and projection. There are people consciously manipulating it for their own agenda and then the emotional mass of sheep who jump on any and all dramas to belong to something. Facts are irrelevant. There was a piece on Facebook today that said more people were friended/unfriended than on any other day in Facebook’s history the day of the Trayvon verdict. Were all of those people in the courtroom, hearing the facts as members of the jury? No, they watched some trial TV (maybe), and listen to Maher, Sharpton, their friends, whatever biased source they prefer on a regular basis. More hysteria until the next sensational issue everyone can use to randomly express their rage and frustration.
As with the OJ trial I watched a lot of the actual testimony and then heard/read what was reported in the news. In both cases there was a BIG difference between what I saw and what I heard/read.
The OJ trial was one of the reasons I quit watching the news. (Monica Lewinsky was the other.)
I figured if there was that big a difference between what I was seeing and what they were telling me, television news was worse than useless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States
Perhaps she should look past the visual that the msm has ingrained in her brain and chat about these stats with her bro. As for anyone who really wants to make a difference, they should be addressing unemployment, gang crime and health issues amongst the AA community. Getting down to those ugly minor details is a lot of work. And that is what it takes to make a better community. Should not the community organizer in chief be saying this?
Isn’t it just easier to rile FOLKS up, stoke anger about being an eternal vicitm and organize mob action than to do a lot of work? This isn’t anything bronco and his bulls have much experience at… the hard work it takes to eliminate unemployment, gang crime or health issues.
Yes leslie, it is far easier to kick back and throw gas on the fire. He is the laziest man in the world imo.
I am eternally pissed at bronco’s perpetual use of the “folks”. It is lazy and disrespectful of those of us who refer to our parents as “the folks”. I realize I have said this before, but it just ticks me off NO END. And even though I never liked it when my brother called our parents “he folks” , I liked it enough to feel protective of the words.
grrrrrrrrrr
It’s hard to believe, but I think the sheeple have been so thoroughly brainwashed that they are willing to sacrifice 11,000 blacks killed by other blacks since the Martin shooting. This apparently does not offend anybody. It is only offensive and morally reprehensible when somebody who is not black kills somebody who is black.
I suspect the Organizer in Chief has orchestrated all this outrage to distract from the record breaking unemployment and poverty that his policies have increased in the black community.
Here’s how murders rank in terms of race:
1st – Black on black.
2nd – White on white.
3rd – Black on white
4th – White on black.
But the official narrative is that black people are violently oppressed by whites. Only one kind of murder fits that narrative.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded/expanded-homicide-data
What race are hispanics considered in the FBI’s stats? Hispanics make up a disproportionate percentage of violent crime victims and perpetrators. If hispanics are counted as white, then the black v white numbers look kinda 50-50 If not, the number of murders by white men goes way down.
In NYC from 2003 to 2011, 61% of murder perps were black and 29% were hispanic. Yes, that’s 90% of all murderers in NYC were black or hispanic. 7% were white and 3% Asian.
The victims in that same period were:
Black: 61%
Hispanic: 27%
White: 8%
Asian: 3%
92% of murders were committed by men and women made up 17% of victims.
This map of the data in NYC is fascinating:
http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map
It just keeps getting better and better:
{{Scream!}} Where’s da goat?
Because he pays for sex?
Most guys expect it for free.
what a scuzzball. (not you, that twerp).
Most men who pay for it think it gives them the right to be violent and disgusting. Spitzer was no different. Recall Ashley’s description of him in the logbook that the VIP club kept on file.?
Gross pig.
Which explains why he had to pay for it.
Not completely free. Dinner and a movie?
I always insist on at least dinner and a movie. I don’t give it up for free.
Well I think the east coast liberal elitists are still into white guilt. But us white trash people never owned anyone and were screwed by the elitist whites right along with the Native Americans and Blacks and we are sick of attempts to dump guilt on us because of our skin color.
Honk!
Hashtag game today to mock Rolling Stone for giving Jahar teh Jim Morrison treatment:
#FutureRollingStoneCoverIdeas
I’m starting with “Idi Amin’s Favorite Recipes”
That should be “Jeffrey Dahmer’s Favorite Recipes.”
How about “Ted Bundy’s Dating Tips”?
You’re missing the point. Those guys are white Americans. And they weren’t young when they were caught. You have to pick exotic young people to emulate in their criminality. For example, MMA Trayvon-style.
“David Duke’s Passover Seder hints.”
This petition needs more signatures. You don’t have to register an account in your real name.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/civil-rights-prosecution-angela-corey-united-states-department-justice-she-deliberately-withheld/pGTglGG2
I am white and so are my hoodie wearing children. When my son was about 12 I told him to stop cutting through peoples yards to get home quicker. In the dark you look like a large and possibly threatening man and you could get shot or punched by a legitimately frightened home owner. So he is now 6’4″ and 185 pounds, he has the potential to frighten people just by being there but would seldom be mistaken for a victim by thugs. Girls are smaller and not prone to fighting, they are less likely to be shot cutting through someones property as they are less likely to be perceived a threat. But girls are also more likely to be seen as possible victims by thugs. So that is just life for everyone, it isn’t something peculiar to black males.
Seriously, though, regarding the article. I also noted that of the people she described as shot, not one was mentioned being shot by a white person. The race of the perpetrators was, I suspect, necessarily obscured.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/16/Holder-DOJ-witch-hunt
Robert Zimmerman to holder’s dept of crime ” stop the witch hunt”
http://rabblerouserruminations.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/enough-of-the-revisionist-history-already-time-to-focus-on-the-real-issues/#comment-16872
I brought this over because there is a righteous rant that sums up the whole martin dialog
My violin is in the shop.
The statistics show the safest place for her brother to be would be in a white neighborhood hanging out with some white friends. She should tell him to get his ass on over here.
off topic
http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20130716/NEWS06/307160014/Jury-selected-try-Fort-Hood-shooting-suspect
you know that other trial, the one that holder calls workplace violence and shows no interest in
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/07/17/rachel-jeantel-trust-me-i-am-educated-i-have-a-3-0/
I know we talked about this before, but I do feel sorry for this girl. she does not even know that she is being ridiculed.
Sad she probably does have a 3.0
She’s probably in all remedial classes. THAT 3.0 ain’t the same as average or GT classes.
What is sad is how the grading has changed over the years. Schools went from grading based on achievement to feelings / self esteem. Who really know what a 3.0 means in her school. Both Piers and Rachel wanted attention more than anything and their 5 minutes of fame even though ridicule was the outcome.
Someone brought up lack of poll info on Zimmerman trial earlier….this is all I have seen so far.
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/07/17/poll-48-of-americans-agree-with-zimmerman-verdict-only-34-disagree/
egalinsurrection.com/2013/07/rolling-stones-boston-bomber-cover-flops/#comments
cover went over like a lead balloon
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/07/17/tedeschi-wont-sell-rolling-stone-cover-stores/
good for these businesses. they have good sense
The case has certainly led to some strange phobic reactions in my circle of acquaintances. A black co-worker says she won’t let her teenage son wear a “hoodie” and she’s getting him a handgun; she says he’ll apply for a concealed carry permit on his 18th birthday, “so he can protect himself.” My Jamaican-British neighbor has requested his job to transfer him back to England, where he figures “the odds are better for guys who look like me.” It all seems a bit over the top.
Meanwhile, hangin’ off Rev Al’s arm …. pretty lady, but they’re calling it “personal stylist” now?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/al-sharpton-finds-new-love-decades-younger-article-1.1400703
Of course he does, Neblett-Neblett …..
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/toure-defends-journalistic-concept-behind-rolling-stones-boston-bomber-cover-exploring-roots-of-evil/
I subscribed to Rolling Stone years ago, when it was about music and stuff.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/trayvon-martins-stepmother-speaks-out-i-dont-think-zimmerman-picked-him-out-because-he-was-black/
martin’s step mother speaks out
This is the woman who actually raised him IIRC. (but I haven’t read it yet, so I may be mistaken.