Hoodie Nation

I asked my wife, Cherese Jackson if she would lend her writting skills to the subject of Treyvon Martin and the racial tension present in our country right now. She agreed, and I hope her article hits home for many.

I oscillated back and forth on whether or not to touch the “Hoodie Nation topic. However my husband went to the barber shop to get his usual edge up. As he entered it was as if he walked into the morgue. As he sat in the chair the barber leaned over and asked how he was holding up during this difficult time. My husband had no idea what he was referencing and asked for clarity. Well, he then said, “I mean how are you holding up with this Treyvon situation”? Then he went on to talk about how he took his son to the store and bought him a hoodie in every color.

I knew then that I would embark upon this emotionally crazed topic. We are usually quite closed-minded about the value of perspectives that run counter to our own but before you close your mind to a view point that may challenge your current thought process at least read on and see if you realize some element of validity to the points presented. Truth is the catalyst of change. Without it we simply relegated to a resolution of what we wish may happen!

It appears we’ve made this more about hoodies than the real issue – which would be the gun laws. I’ve watched the posts that have flooded Facebook along with the millions of tweets that have graced my twitter account.

There has been rally after rally and march after march where people have put on their hoodies in support of the late Treyvon Martin. While this all seems admirable, as it relates to the bigger or real issue it actually minute.

Wearing a hoodie WILL NOT change anything but packing out City Hall on weekends or when town meetings are being held in your communities while they are in session passing the laws that will lead to more tragedies will have a much greater impact.

While we’ve invested time, resources and energy on hoodies, skittles and ice tea the gun laws still remain the same. The issue isn’t either of those three items; the issue is that this young man was shot and killed at close range and the person that pulled the trigger has yet to be charged. Let’s keep the main thing the “main” thing!

If I’m walking down the street and see someone with a hoodie on at night I’m nervous too. It’s a shame that people refuse to be honest concerning this issue. Instead we’re taking pictures in hoodies and posting them on FaceBook and asking if they look intimidating and the answer for most of the ones I’ve seen is YES, you do! That doesn’t mean you deserve to get killed as a result.

The reality concerning Mr. Zimmerman’s actions are:
• He should never have gotten out of his car
• He should never have followed him
• He should never have had his fire arm with him as he followed the young man
• He should have let the Police do the job they are paid to do after informing them of his suspicion

For some reason they felt the need to project an image of a ‘Disney Kid’ to somehow proclaim an innocent kid. He apparently wasn’t this “perfect” little boy and had some behavioral issues and questionable character concerns. However, none of these mattered the day he was killed. But America got emotional and bought into the young child image that was displayed on our televisions and computers and got offended when current pictures surfaced.

The real issue in Florida are the loose gun laws; the unopposed passing of laws that affect certain communities. On the front end, we need to learn to protest instead of all the rallies afterwards. If we don’t handle the front end properly we’ll continue to have temporary “moments” during crisis times instead of a real movement.

Whatever happened to the Jena #6 moment, the Sean Bell moment or the Troy Davis moment? They have faded for the majority of people because they were moments – emotional moments – but not actual movements.

Now what? In the weeks and months ahead what happens? What will we do after we rallied in our hoodies … Will we return to normalcy and await the next injustice or will we exert greater effort to be involved when decisions that affect our lives, and the lives of those near and dear to our circumstance and culture, are being made?

We put too much emphasis on thinking by itself. We have an estimated 40,000 thoughts a day and 96% of them are the same thoughts from yesterday! We have become bundles of conditioned reflexes. Most people are simply prisoners of ‘cultural hypnosis’. This is the cell our family, friends and enviornment have confined us to.

The refusal to develop strategies lays the foundation for a hope based life and creates an incubator for excuses. We have had the conversations, now it is time for all of America to join forces in creating solutions that will make for a better country for us all.

See you at the TOP!
Cherese Jackson
Executive Director
www.earlyjacksoncoaching.com