Contrast if you will Obama's comments on the tragedy with those of Fox News's Geraldo Riviera, who drew typically dubious conclusions on the significance of adolescent sartorial tastes:
“When you see a kid walking down the street, particularly a dark skinned kid like my son Cruz who I constantly yelled at when he was going out wearing a damn hoodie or those pants around his ankles,” Rivera said. “Take that hood off. People look at you and what’s the instant identification? What’s the instant association? Its crime scene surveillance tapes. Every time you see someone stick up a 7-Eleven, the kid is wearing a hoodie. Every time you see a mugging on a surveillance camera or get the old lady in the alcove, it’s the kid with a hoodie. You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a gangsta — you’re going to be a gangsta wannabe? Well, people are going to perceive you as a menace. That’s what happens. It is an instant reflexive action.”I feel remotely dirty giving Riviera's comments airtime on your monitors, and suppose I really ought to apologize for subjecting you to them. The money quote from the segment? "I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was."