Back in the 90s, at least in France they were pretty rare. My dad bought a huge one in Canada in \u201891 and I would totally use it a few years later because it\u2019s great when it rains and in Paris, it rains often. I still have this hoodie and still use it to skateboard.<\/p>\n
Hoodies are much better than any umbrella, especially on crowded sidewalks. I think a tight hoodie is super sexy on women.<\/p>\n
But anyway, I was walking in the suburbs of Paris, in Champs sur marne (East Paris, a bit shady, projects around etc). Winter, rainy, 6 or 6:30pm. Dark. I\u2019m wearing this hoodie and I remember thinking how neat the sound is inside the hood and how when rain is fat like it was, water was going through the hood like it was a piece of paper. I was a little lost and I needed the time.<\/p>\n
I approached this woman who is trying to enter her car. Nobody around but me and her. I already feel tension as I’m getting closer. She tries to speed up. I try to get there before she jumps in and can\u2019t hear me. I use my best white voice possible, avoiding the scary \u201cHEY!\u201d and ask her \u201cexcuse me madame, what time is it, please?\u201d and she freaks the shit out of her before I end my sentence.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s scared, she\u2019s a middle aged white woman who doesn\u2019t know what time it is, she gradually sees a creepy black dude under a hood. She\u2019s not surprised and going on with her life, she\u2019s fucking scared. Frozen until I leave.<\/p>\n
That day, I sadly understood that wearing a hoodie and being a black dude was socially incorrect, unstable. Annoying because I loved me some hoodie. Especially with no hair. It feels so good. But as it\u2019s also used by thugs to hide, I\u2019m screwed. Can\u2019t wear them. I realized later that whatever I wear, I\u2019ll be suspicious. A suit will make me suspicious. A hoodie too. But a suit is better.<\/p>\n
This year, I bought my first two hoodies ever. Everybody is wearing some so I figured fuck it, I\u2019m doing it too. I\u2019m a musician\/developer, not a criminal.<\/p>\n
And then Trayvon.<\/p>\n
Now I look at them and I kind of want to cry. Anger. Desperation.<\/p>\n
The only constant between me scaring this woman with a hoodie 15 years ago and Trayvon Martin is the stigmatized young black man who\u2019s simply wearing something convenient. Yes, at the end appearances are deceptive.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the shooter is free, and defended to death . Oh god, the anger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back in the 90s, at least in France they were pretty rare. My dad bought a huge one in Canada in \u201891 and I would totally use it a few years later because it\u2019s great when it rains and in Paris, it rains often. I still have this hoodie and still use it to skateboard. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}