Wordful Wednesday - HOODwinked #ripTrayvonMartin

Every now and then, you have to go there.

Not because you want to. It's more like you need to.

A moral obligation, if you will.
A duty.
A homage.

A few people in this slightly twisted world want the masses to believe that a person of color wearing a hood is suspect.
A threat.
A thug.
A menace to society.

I guess no one told Target. Hmmmm!!

They are trying to HOODwink you into thinking that this particular article of clothing is only worn by a person who is up to no good. Nice try, Geraldo.

Don't believe the hype (in my Flavor Flav voice)!

My son has been wearing hoodies before he even had teeth.
Before he could crawl.
Before he could talk.
Before he knew racism existed.

Before Trayvon Martin was murdered.

He easily owns over 20 of them. Hoodies are his favorite thing to wear.
Why should he have to be afraid to wear one now?

As his mother, I can tell you exactly what lies beneath his hood.

Right now– a fresh haircut.
On any given day– an inquisitive mind and handsome, young boy who would easily trade in his video games to curl up to a good book (btw, he's almost finished reading 'The Hunger Games'...that's another post).

There's nothing suspicious about him (unless you count the times when he's being overly nice to his Dad and me, which usually means he wants to go to GameStop...but for the most part, he's not on anyone's radar)!

I can see how this may be confusing; a young, black boy who's a honor roll student, athlete and who loves to read, hiding under a hood.

Pretty scary, huh?!