parker, i see your point. black males shuold be allowed to wear aything they want without getting accosted arrested raped stabbed arrested. I agree. BUT, guess who made the hoodie and other such garments or accessories like gold teeth a staple look of crime in this country?? so if you cook your soup with too much salt tough, eat your soup and dont complain to others about it or change your own soup.
When I was younger, back in the days of Kwame, I wanted to die my hair like him, have that swirl...at the time my mom wouldn't let me walk down to basketball courts, which was down street about about half a mile. We lived in a predominately white neighborhood, but were one of the first to move there (in terms of when the neighborhood was just being built, we were one of two families), a nice middle class neighborhood. Well, she said, "If you put that damn hydrogen peroxide in your hair and you go down there, with your friends and something happens, who are they going to remember, the black kid with his hair looking like he stuck a damn feather in it?"
she forbade me to go down and play hoops, and would say, "And all they would see is some black kid walking with a ball, and if something goes down, who are they going to blame?"
(Nevermind the fact that other black kids that I knew from middle school would play ball down there)
I soon started to see that there were rules for "me" (black male) and rules for white kids...they could wear anything they damn well pleased, have rings in their noses, have Mohawks, wear trench coats in 90 degree weather...but I was the "criminal", even though many of those same damn kids would brag about stealig from the local Rite Aide.
She told to never run in the stores, because they would be watching me, thinking I was stealig something and try to run out the doors. She also told me that if I bought anything, candy, whatever, ask for the receipt and a bag, so nobody can claim that you stole something.
All of these things have stuck with me. Now, some kids are not properly taught by their parents.
And nowadays, when I visit my folks, I see black and white kids together walking down the street to play ball, never really having to worry about looking "suspicious".
