A Brief History Of Hoodies by Rick London Owner Of PlanetHoodie.com

  

 

Though hoodies have been worn since ancient times, the contemporary popularity of hoodies began in the 1930’s following the Great Depression. This was mainly out of necessity as they served several purposes from carrying belongings to keeping one warm.

   Fox News’ obscure reporter Geraldo Rivera chimed in for a bit of publicity on Fox & Friends  morning show that “The hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.” He continued his absurdity on “The O’Reilly Factor,” warning minority parents not to let their kids wear them.

    To add insult to injury, he added, “Who else wears hoodies?  “Everybody that ever stuck up a convenience store, D.B. Cooper, the guy that hijacked a plane; & Ted Kaczynski the Unabomber.”

     Geraldo, what about America’s top entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg or top teen heartthrob Justin Bieber? Oh wait, you were on a Fox News show; that wouldn’t work there.

     Not that too many educated persons take Geraldo seriously, but I could add a few more who have often been depicted in art donning hoodies such as ancient monks of the Middle Ages and Jesus, most of the apostles, & Moses and his flock just to add a few.  I feel relieved Moses was not the landscape artist at Zimmerman’s condo unit….what if bushes had begun burning? Now that could raise suspicion.

      But I guess to Zimmerman, they too, would have looked suspicious carrying Skittles and Arizona Tea in his territory. Who knows what he may have done to the three wise men?   Geraldo was considered much more credible when he found a few cigarette butts and an empty coke can in Al Capone’s tomb.  

     So how did this ubiquitous sweatshirt with a built-in head cover — worn by college students and soccer moms, entrepreneurs and skateboarders come to be associated with “people up to “no good”?

     “Most pieces of material culture have symbolic qualities associated with them “The hoodie generic clothing that crosses all age, race and financial demographic barriers, but because of the contexts and the groups it’s associated with, it took on different meanings. Just like sagging pants, though it became a part of macho, hip-hop culture, its origins are from medieval Europe.”

     Dante Alighieri, the 14th-century Florentine poet Dantie Alighieri’s  who wrote “The Divine Comedy”’s trademark was his hoodie. He was never seen in public without it.

     My wife nature/photographer for Mature Arkansas never leaves home without a hoodie and hikes the mountains nearly daily. In the fall and winter, the same goes for me. And neither of us are ever eyed suspiciously.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

     Today, it is estimated that nearly 30 million Americans, many of whom used to work in corporate America such as my wife and me, and used to wear suits, now wear sweats and hoodies to our offices, about a 100 foot commute by foot from bed to office.  Statistics have shown that more than half of home office workers either wear pajamas or sweats (or sweats with hoodies while working. 

     During the last Oscar Ceremonies one of the hosts said, “I can’t wait until the show is over so I can get back into my work clothes, my sweats”.

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Rick London is a mountain man who can often be found atop one of his beloved Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas (Wearing A Hoodie).  He founded Google’s #1 ranked offbeat cartoons & funny hoodies & funny gifts such as PlanetHoodie.com and RickLondonGifts.com.  He often hikes with his nature photographer wife @LeeHillerLondon owner of the popular blog Hike Our Planet.  Both are wildlife and animal lovers and vegans.  Rick says he’s also quite uncoordinated.

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Just Another Dead Black Kid Wearing A Hoodie In Sanford, Fl? by Rick London

A little over a month ago in Sanford, Fl, a suburb of Orlando,  an unarmed minor named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by an armed self-appointed Neighborhood Watchman George Zimmerman.  Zimmerman called 911 before shooting Martin.  He’d called 911 “for suspicious-looking characters” 46 times this year before encountering and stalking Martin and “finding him suspicious too”.  The call before Martin was about a week earlier “Two black youths, about age 7 and 9”.  Martin had been at the neighborhood convenience store where he’d walked to buy Skittles and iced tea where he was described as “Not suspicious and just fine” and was on his way walking home. That was approximately 5 minutes before Zimmerman found him “suspicious” and began pursuing him in his SUV armed with a loaded Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm pistol. Zimmerman is the son of retired Judge Joe Zimmerman, whose career was in Va. but retired to the Sanford area of Florida where he was known to be “very well-liked”.

Now the U.S. Federal Department Of Justice has landed in Sanford and both Zimmerman and the Sanford Police Department are under federal investigation.

Here are some of the major items bothering the DOJ:

1. Trayvon weighed significantly less than George Zimmerman.

2. Trayvon was not armed.

3. George Zimmerman was armed with a semi automatic gun.

4. George Zimmerman admits he shot Trayvon Martin.

5. George Zimmerman was told by the 9-1-1 dispatcher not to pursue ‘Trayvon Martin.

6. George Zimmerman did not want to give the police dispatcher a location where the police could find him, but instead indicated that they should call him when they arrived, suggesting that he might be moving around, or that he wanted some warning before the police would see him.

7. Somebody was yelling for help before the sound of the gun shot.

Trayvon is not around to give his version of the events leading up to his murder. However George Zimmerman suggests that the killing was in “self defense” and that he was entitled to stand his ground, and protect himself. Here a just a few problems with his story, assuming only the undisputed evidence.

1. Why would George Zimmerman call out repeatedly for help if he had a gun?

2. Why wouldn’t George Zimmerman agree to wait for the police at an agreed upon location?

3. Why didn’t George Zimmerman go to the hospital to be checked out before going to the police station? If he had actually had his head beaten into the sidewalk, shouldn’t Zimmerman and the police be concerned about a bleed in the brain, or at a minimum a concussion? The broken nose and lacerations on the back of his head would have been sufficient reason to seek medical treatment. However the potential for a cranial bleed or concussion would have necessitated medical evaluation.

4.  If George Zimmerman was afraid for his life, why didn’ t he wait in the safety of his car or Mary Cutcher’s apartment until the police arrived?

 Ever wonder how George Zimmerman eluded court or jail in two cases of domestic violence, 1 case of resisting arrest w/o violence, and one case of resisting arrest with battery against a police officer?  And now after interviewing Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin, (Sanford’s one honest investigating homicide officer) Chris Serino (who demanded charges of manslaughter against Zimmerman as he says none of Zimmerman’s story added up), was overridden by “friends of Zimmerman’s dad from the state attorney’s office”.  Serino fortunately knew something was rotten in Sanford City and wrote out an official protest and an Affadavit” anyway and which is on  record and why.

Had the state or DOJ not gotten involved, that would have been the end. Just like Syria. Just like Iran. No court case, no nothing; just a police state; exactly as is utilized in countries we are trying to teach how a civilized society operates. The DOJ, though hard at work,  must be having a field day with all these new discoveries coming in at almost an hourly basis. 

Every single honest police and/or judge in this great land, should be furious over the way this is playing out.  How would you like all your hard work to go down the drain because “somebody knew somebody’s dad (a judge)  4 times (at least 2 of them felonies with no court trials, one battery on a policeman!!!)”?  PS Zimmerman’s “best friend” Joe Oliver now admits they are only “casually acquainted and he knew nothing of Zimmerman’s past” but please “trust me based on my gut feeling”…..; so his major defender is now useless to him with zero credibility. 

But….again lets let the DOJ (Sanford’s new justice system) do their work.  But for those yelling that, it does not mean to censor or intimidate anyone posting news  and/or opinions as they happen.  That is the way its done in Iran, Syria etc. not America.  We all get to speak our minds here no matter our opinion.  Make sure of that, no matter how you feel about this case.  It’s our duty to let everyone with every opinion speak out; if they find it important to do so. 

By the way, I find it hideous that the “New Black Panthers” have latched  on to this tragedy and turned it into “their cause” to put their name in the limelight. They are not needed and impede the important work of the DOJ. It is clear their motive is not justice in this case, but to provide their own justice in this case. They already have stated publicly they do not follow U.S. law, which means they may try to impede it.  They have every right to be there, however, until/unless they do, and if they do, they too, should be arrested, and sent back home.  America will not let them impose their own “law” on a case this important, a case that almost didn’t even make it out of the morgue, except for a ringing cell phone that went unanswered for three days.

It is tacky that Sharpton et al show up but what does he not show up at? He never met a media event he didn’t like.  But that doesn’t change the facts of this case. I happen to find it important because it sets the bar for justice for everyone which is very important.  No case should end with a state attorney office opinion and no court trial. Sharpton and friends find it important because it makes them feel important. And that’s sad.

No matter what the outcome, that is, whether George Zimmerman is found guilty or not guilty, the fact that this case did not end at the morgue, and that there is now a chance that justice will be served because of one honest homicide police officer, a dead child’s cell phone that didn’t quit ringing, and a panicking coroner, the world now knows the story of Trayvon Martin’s trip to get Skittles and Tea.  And the case may or may not turn out the way we think it should.  But at least it will not end up as the corrupt Sanford Police Department and State Attorney’s Office Of Florida (who has now thank God been taken off the case) wanted it to turn out.  Just another dead black kid wearing a hoodie who ran out of luck in Sanford, Florida.

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Rick London is a writer, songwriter, cartoonist, designer and Internet entrepreneur.  He founded Londons Times Cartoons (LTCartoons.com) in 1997 which have been the number one Offbeat Cartoons (Google & Bing ranked) and funny gifts since 2005.  He recently founded Planet Hoodie which sells funny hoodies featuring LTCartoons.  He also is fond of hiking with his wife nature photographer Lee Hiller-London, the founder of HikeOurPlanet.com.