Hoodies...not hoodlums.

My best friend has always suggested that I blog about my family and all of the crazy events...I have tried before and I have failed.  But after a conversation I had with my sons last night (all of them including the weekenders) was very enlightening and difficult for me!   I teach my boys to be a LEADER 1- Do not lie, 2- Do the right thing all the time, 3- Do not follow others with a new one being added 4- be the best You you can be.   I can teach them all of these things but reality is not everyone will see them in that same fashion! It's reality...our reality, their reality.  They can be the best they can be but just because they love to wear "hoodies" may cause them to experience....um...well let me just say it (hell it's my blog) Racial Profiling! My oldest Jerry LOVES things with pockets and has been faithfully wearing my old hoodie from 15 years ago.  He walks around the house with it on because he is always cold...okay fine, but PLEASE don't wear it outside...PLEASE! I had to explain to them what they do in here (our home) is not what they should do out there.  They are not thugs because they listen to rap, or because they wear hoodies.  They are athletes...student athletes.   Even though we all live within a mile radius of one another they still can't walk to each others house after sundown.  Not because we don't trust them but we don't trust other people.  We don't trust others that may want to steal from them or the police that may assume they are causing trouble because of the hoodie.  Yes this post goes back to Trayvon Martin, but what sparked the conversation was Michael Brown.   One of my sons says "they both were unarmed".  Yes they were but in society sometimes that does not matter.  I say "we do not know the details of either event so we can not make assumptions, but yes it is wrong to shoot an unarmed man".  As my father raised my brothers- Real Man Fight with their fists and their brains and we should fear no man.  Yes there it is Fear NO man even if he is wearing a hoodie! Hoodies do not equal Hoodlums- a person who engages in crime and violence; a hooligan or gangster.