Law Schools, Minority Issues, Racism

Hoodie Law Follow-Up: More Law Students Want Justice For Trayvon Martin

Law student protests over Trayvon Martin are truly going on from coast-to-coast...

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On Monday, we posted pictures of law students protesting the Trayvon Martin killing. We had pictures from Yale and Harvard and a few other top-14 law schools.

But these protests aren’t just going on at elite law schools. Since our post on Monday we’ve been inundated with photos from other law schools. There have been so many scary looking people wearing hoodies around me that I’m almost out of bullets.

Seriously though, I can’t remember another protest where students from so many different law schools stood in solidarity with each other. Let’s look at some of the protests…

One thing that has become clear from all the hoodie photos is that there are a lot of people, white and black, who own hoodies. To me, that fact alone ends the ridiculous argument that a hoodie is somehow a mark of being a dangerous gang member or something. Why would so many law students have gang paraphernalia in their wardrobe? Obviously, there must be a significant non-gang use of this particular piece of apparel that could survive even the strictest of scrutiny.

As obvious as it is that a “hoodie” is not grounds for suspecting somebody of illegal activity, these protests are happening because a lot of people are trying to show that Trayvon somehow did something that justifies somebody else gunning him down.

The photos don’t tell the full story of what is going on at law school campuses across the country. For instance, here’s the protest photo from Cornell Law School:

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In the picture, we see a diverse group of Cornell students, standing together. But if you dig deeper, the Cornell listserve is aflame. I’m not going to reprint it because the arguments are just unnecessarily upsetting, but reflective of where we are in the country. You’ve got one group of people who really want to see what George Zimmerman did as reasonable. And another group who really don’t want black people to get shot for no freaking reason.

There are two sides to every story, but in this case there was only one gun.

Accusations of racism and race-baiting aside, I wonder if there’s any chance to get broad based agreement on this issue? Perhaps we could all agree that this would have been better if the cops did a thorough investigation at the time instead of taking Zimmerman’s word for it?

I don’t know. I don’t know what you do when even the most obvious form of racism is doubted by so many.

And yet, there are many, many more standing out against it. White, black, Hispanic, people who I can’t immediately put into a racial box because their pictures were in sepia tones. The death of Trayvon Martin might be an indication of the racism that’s still in this society, but the outrage over his death is kind of a sign of progress.

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Let’s take a look at the pictures. They’re in no particular order. Sorry if I missed anybody. Thanks to all who took the time to send one in.

Earlier: Hoodie Law? Law Students Around the Country Stand Against Profiling

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