An Open Letter to Geraldo Rivera: You did a disservice to all youth

What you failed to realize when you made the comments -- and sadly, it did not dawn upon you later when you tried to explain yourself -- is that you were buying-into classic stereotypes concerning urban youth, particularly young African-Americans and Latinos.[/blockquote

Ediberto RomanProfessor of Law, Florida International University
An Open Letter to Geraldo Rivera

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That beautiful child that was killed was no more a "gangsta," to use your own language, because he was wearing a hoodie than he was one for being African-American. You did a disservice to all youth by engaging in a classic form of implicit bias, a bias that I have written extensively on because of the actions of those in your profession, and particularly of those on your Fox cable channel (an issue, though related, better left for another day).

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Sadly, Mr. Rivera, in your comments concerning hoodies being the cause of young Trayvon's death, not only did you in effect blame the victim, a classic insensitive and ill-informed tactic, you also used your mental shorthand association of criminals with a common everyday reality for American youth of all colors and backgrounds. Simply put, teenagers wear hoodies. Heck, all athletes wear hoodies! Indeed, as a fellow parent, I do not find such attire all that urban, or a cause for any particular identification. Sadly, you did. In your comments, you associated hoodies with urban criminals or thugs. I suggest you reflect on your own mental shortcuts and associations. There may very well be something far more sinister in your implicit thinking.

I suggest your next step should be an apology to the public, and it should not be motivated by your son's reaction. It should be an apology because in your comments you displayed the same type of association the shooter displayed by virtue of young Trayvon's use of a hoodies (or his skin color).

I for one was proud, yet saddened, this past Friday when after I picked up my boys from elementary school, a group of roughly half a dozen African-American and Latino students from Miami's American Senior High walked into my local Blockbuster store. And yes, they were all wearing hoodies! They showed a solidarity and social responsibility that ideally can lead us all to learn, and perhaps eventually lead us to not make rash decisions that prove tragic.

the rest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ediberto-roman/geraldo-rivera-hoodie_b_1376453.html