Click here to read Paul Mullin’s Hoodies, Color Lines, and Black Visibility
All Hoodies Matter
By Guillermo Mash
It was an evening, just after the New Year, as I looked up at a person walking by my table at Chico California’s Downtown Starbucks. I remember nothing about that person, not even their gender. It was the man in a hoody casting dark menacing shadows onto his face seated some thirty feet away that stuck. His silhouette startled me for a few seconds while I processed his persona… a man sitting politely erect, cell phone in hand with his head tilted down just far enough to see the phone while leaving his dark complexion face semi-visible. With his back to the street side window he was in the most visible seat in the store, irrespective of his clothing choices and God given genes.
My head began to nod up and down; a wry and deeply appreciative smile crept onto my face as all of societies ingrained stereotypes and racist undertones swept out of my mind… I thought to myself, “I love this guy.”
Over the next two weeks I would often see this man seated in the same spot, wearing his hoodie, holding his phone and keeping to himself. He became a soothing inspiring presence to see; a man living his God given right to be a decent and honorable human being in a public setting, bothering no one, except those who don’t like to see a hooded human being sitting comfortably and decently.
I made a frantic Facebook plea on January 21st after witnessing a Starbuck’s employee ask him to leave their Downtown Chico store for not making any purchases. The images and pain from last January’s arrest of another African American in this very same store compelled me to act, and to act decisively. Starbucks corporate ultimately apologized for last years incident and said they were searching for the victim, Gerard Devaughn Hamlett, to give him a free gift card.
Before leaving I went over to “All Hoodies Matter” and flashed a peace sign saying, “peace to you brother.”
He looked up and nodded, with the same look and smile I had shown him not two weeks ago. In that moment I thought it well could be Gerard Devaughn Hamlett himself coming back to make a stand for civil and human rights. If it wasn’t for the hoodie I would have known for sure.
I love revolutionaries who have the courage to stand up against the status quo. They’re always misunderstood, but they’re the ones who are standing up for human rights. — Richard Hatch
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