Trayvon Martin Hoodie

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Trayvon Martin, a 17 year-old boy, was tragically killed by George Zimmerman on suspicion of murder. In Rashwan Ray’s essay, “If Only He Didn’t Wear the Hoodie.,” he examines the tragic case of Martin and the significance of the piece of clothing he was wearing in this fatal encounter. On this day, Martin was wearing a hoodie that aroused Zimmerman’s suspicion of him at first glance, which Ray points out how some might speculate, what would have occurred that day if Martin was not wearing the hoodie? It is insinuated by people that if you see a man with their hood on at night stay away. Therefore, it becomes instilled in this generation, and to every upcoming generation, that the man with the hood on at night is a threat. However Martin was …show more content…

They would stereotype me as insecure, but it wasn’t a stereotype, they were right. I become the person making the stereotype the truth and consequently make it true for everyone else around me. Knowing these stereotypes, why do we allow hoodies to deceive our perception of people? In the essay, “Generation why?” by Zadie Smith, there is mention of how humans tend to “reduce” themselves in various forms. It is clear that there is a prevalent case of people wanting to reduce themselves to a certain character or acceptance, as talked about throughout the essay. Smith explores this by going into the ideas of Jaron Lanier in which they express an interest “in which people “reduce themselves” in order to make a computer’s description of them appear more accurate” (Smith). Smith mentions this because people will often lessen themselves in order to be approachable and likable. Similar to what Smith was saying, a hoodie will reduce a person to a stereotype, whether that be on purpose or not. People will purposefully modify their character into a singular description, which will only reveal a specific aspect of the person's character, not the full …show more content…

We diminish our brains to only think as far as the stereotype, and therefore restrict our thinking to go beyond it. Billie Eilish had influenced the stereotype that anyone who constantly wears hoodies is depressed and insecure because she herself had come out and expressed her phase with baggy clothing and poor mental health. In another case, we have Trayvon Martin who, although he was wearing a hoodie and said to have looked dangerous as a result of it, faced racial profiling. People like them are illustrations of how destructive our society is. I come to wonder why people judge, but my thinking comes across a wall when I realize we can not prevent our human nature from thinking and forming opinions. Humanity becomes caged to ideas popularized through ancestors and media, that it makes people wonder whether any of their ideas were original to begin with. I ponder whether my opinion on a topic is actually mine or if I followed everyone else's opinion. For instance, do I really like a show or do I force myself to like it because everyone else does? It's astonishing how I can think something and find out how another person has thought the same

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