Even without the tragic echoes of the Trayvon Martin case, this new 40-foot-high mural in Edinburgh, Scotland, would pack a wallop.
This giant hoodie icon was painted by Joe Caslin, a student at Edinburgh College of Art as part of a series of public images called Our Nation's Sons. According to the his website, five other large-scale works will pop up around the city during the next 10 days. Caslin tells the BBC:
"These drawings of young men will be used as a tool to re-establish young men as legitimate participants within today's society by giving them a voice and a tangible presence within our city. Community cohesion and participation is fundamental to the project."
Legitimate participants within today's society. Our nation's sons.
Yes. Exactly.
(Image: Screengrab from Caslin's movie about posting the murals. One of the kids kicks something -- a ball? a potato? -- around 2:30. Anyone know what it is?)
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Went for a walk yesterday and bumped into a group of young men all wearing hoodies, and would you beleive not a yobbo amongs them. Yes they were black if that counts for anything, and when I got to them they moved out of the way and said "sorry we didn't see you"
A hoodie does not a yobbo make.
What in the world is a "yobbo"?
Yobbo is another word for bully.
Now go google what dilatory means.
I would guess that he's kicking a half-round sponge, perhaps used for painting parts of the mural? BTW, great video. Shows that prejudice haunts and follows young men who seem guilty of engaging in suspicious activities simply by virtue of just hanging around and casually kicking innocuous objects.
A hoodie does not a hoodlam make. HOWEVER...it is human nature, perhaps, to look another human in the eye and do a momentary update of ones position. I have been thinking about hoodies for well over a year and trying to figure out why they bothered me. (This is long before the recent horrible incident.) People are suspicious of other people (no matter the race of either) when they can't see the other persons face. Even when a young man is sitting opposit me on the train and he has his glowering face put on under his hoodie for scarifying of his fellow passengers...I'm not afaid of him, but I do want to tell him off but good. That face and that damn hoodie he's hiding under are doing himself and me no good at all. I will never get to know him...not even if his own mother introduced him to me. He just looks miserable and I'd rather not bother.
Hoodies do not cover your face, they are not illegal, my sons wear them, I have a jacket with a hood, they protect your ears & neck from wind. I do not see anything threatening about them. I do not believe a child should be followed, chased, or shot for wearing one.
Annie E - that makes no sense at all. He's entitled to his privacy just as you are, and thus does not deserve to be "told off" by you or anyone else just because he doesn't do as YOU want him to. He's not hurting you, only your obvious fear which you deny exists. Live and let live.
If it is really, really cold I will wear a coat over my hoodie. My grandson never wears a coat unless he goes to Alaska to visit family. He just wears his favorite hoodie of the week. We realized a long time ago that a lost hoodie is cheaper to replace than a new coat. He is almost fourteen years old now and looks just like these boys in the film.
The hoodie is now the offical uniform of the working class.
It is sad that the only thing that inspired George Zimmerman to follow, chase, get into a fight with and shooting Trayvon Martin just because he was wearing a Hoodie. What I would like to know is why the police excepted his excuse for killing the boy without an investigation. From what I saw, it was George who was following and chasing Trayvon, it was Trayvon that is heard yelling for help, and even though he was much smaller then George, he is charged for attacking the man who was chasing him. There is no evidence that he was a gang banger, but he is being called one. He had friends or family who lived in the gated community where he was killed. He had a right to be there, he was not commiting a crime, and the 911 calls prove he was the one being chased by a man with a gun. How can George claim he was in fear for his life? If he were, wouldn't he be running away from Trayvon? Why were the calls for help made by Trayvon, not George? Why doesn't the "Stand your ground" law apply for Trayvon? It is obvious to me that he was the one who was in fear for his life, do you think that if he had a gun and he shot George, the police would have let him go?
First, it was NOT because he was wearing a hoodie. And from what I understand, he actually had the hood DOWN first, then put UP after he noticed Zimmerman. My daughter owns a hoodie because her school doesn't allow for jackets to be worn inside the building..... just a school hoodie or a plain blue one. She doesn't wear it ANYWHERE but to school. It is basically part of her uniform.
There are a lot of questions that will probably remained unanswered. However, I doubt that Trayvon was PURELY innocent. BTW, he was under a 10 day suspension from his school in Miami. Definitely NOT someone who was a rule follower, but a rule breaker.
Yeah, Trayvon was suspended for normal kid punkery... and Zimmerman was practically a convict as it was already. Don't try oeggin this on some kid, heck I way more than he did (and I'm a chick and pretty short).
- pegging, not oeggin (my bad)
With the new GOP contract on unrepresented Americans the crime of driving while black was just extended to walking while black. Give it another year or so, we'll be back to indentured servitude.
And the daughters? Oh wait.
Young women are not seen to be threats in the same way that young men are.
Our youth in the western world and around the world are more than fodder for a capitalist society. This presentation touched me deeply. These representations are our children and grandchildren. They are the future. At this impresionable age they must be taught about their own power and how to channel that power. This is our adult responsibility in families, communities, and organizations. "It takes a village to raise a child."
I'm an overprotective mom and I can't tell you how many times I've said, "Put your hood up, it's raining out there, or put you hoodie on, you'll catch a cold." It never crossed my mind that it would be seen as anything but practical, but then again, I'm white. My skin color aside, I think Travon's mom probably told him the same thing. If it is cold, if it is raining, you cover up your head. My heart just breaks for her.
It is a depressing thing, but a lot of black mothers and fathers will send their child out with different rules, like:
Don't put your hands in your pockets.
Don't run.
Don't look around too much.
Don't pull that hoodie over your head.
Because, sadly, these are things that racists will see and associate with "thug" "gangster" or "hoodlum."
And Trayvon knew this, according to his girlfriend, who told him to run but he refused. To know that even with those precautions, a child could die anyway makes me want to cry.
Oh, Mme2Cents, I like you...
Finally, a sane person.
why thank you! :) That was my sentiment when I signed on for this blog.
First let me say that I have supported civil rights and civil respect for many years. However, I do not "get" many of the responses to the Trayvon Martin incident. The threats that have been made to George Zimmerman and the threats of race riots - I do not understand these. Demonstrations are fine, but threats are not. These threats are effecting my view of blacks. I will always be respectful of others, but I am looking at blacks differently after all these threats of violence. We need to work together to get better gun controls in this country and to get rid of the Stand Your Ground laws. We do not need to threaten each other. And as to the hoodies, I learned many years ago that, if I wanted respect, I needed to dress a certain way. Hoodies and jeans-to-your-ankles are not pereceived with respect. With so many important issues on the line for black males, I do not understand the vehement defense of the insignificant hoodie!
I will wear my hoodie when it rains and when it gets chilli in South Florida, point blank!!!!
Cookie, hoodies and jeans are not perceived with respect because it is a hallmark of young people, and young people are not respected.
See with both eyes open.
I have a velveteen hoodie. If I love it enough will it become a real hoodie?