# The "hoodie" and the "Buffett Rule"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 16, 2012, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943 "2012-04-16T12:18:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/41 "2012-04-17T12:36:09Z")
I searched on Google News in the date range 2009-2010 for “suspect hoodie” and got 198 hits.
I searched for “suspect ‘hooded sweatshirt’” and got 609 hits.
Were all those suspect descriptions using the term “hooded sweatshirt” presaging the Trayvon Martin case?
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/42 "2012-04-17T13:21:57Z")
For me, “hoodie” has indicated “hoodlum” since the Unibomber. But I am ceratin that is because I am an old fart.
I much prefer authorities and newscasters to not use such an imprecise term when giving a description. Much as I want to know specifically if a person had last been seen wearing a blue blazer or a grey suit instead of being told he was wearing office clothes.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/43 "2012-04-17T14:12:48Z")
> [@What\_the](#):
>
> Not becoming a symbol of racism… so then why was the Black Panther Congresman wearing one on the House floor?
WTF are you taliking about?
[Rep Bobby Rush spoke for a few moments in a hoodie](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-la-pn-congressman-wears-hoodie-in-the-capitol-to-honor-trayvon-martin-20120328,0,2930754.story) to highlight that wearing a hoodie doesn’t make one a hoodlum but was kicked off the floor by GOP congressman for wearing a hat.
The only one making the racist leap is you, first by calling Rep. Rush a Black Panther and then equalling the word “hoodie” with “a black man wearing a hooded sweatshirt”. It looks to me as if YOU are trying to make the word ‘hoodie’ into something it’s not.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/44 "2012-04-17T14:19:34Z")
> [@What\_the](#):
>
> Not becoming a symbol of racism… so then why was the Black Panther Congresman wearing one on the House floor?
He was protesting the fact that a black kid wearing a hoodie was shot to death six weeks ago and the shooter had not been arrested. No, the hoodie isn’t a symbol of racism. That doesn’t make any sense. And I don’t think the hoodie Trayvon Martin was wearing had a zipper, so the description in the broadcast you saw contained more information. Bobby Rush also left the Black Panthers around 1974, so calling him “the Black Panther Congressman” seems a little bit off-base.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/45 "2012-04-17T14:19:40Z")
Never mind.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/46 "2012-04-17T19:15:05Z")
> [@kushiel](#):
>
> I say we just call them bunnyhugs everywhere! That will get rid of any negative connotations.
Works for me! 🙂
We bought my husband a nice[U of S bunnyhug](https://store.usask.ca/store/view/product?product_id=159) when we were visiting in Saskatchewan one time - it has “Bunnyhug” and the definition on it.
Uh, what were we talking about again?
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### Author:  [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/47 "2012-04-17T19:28:23Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> He was protesting the fact that a black kid wearing a hoodie was shot to death six weeks ago and the shooter had not been arrested. No, the hoodie isn’t a symbol of racism. That doesn’t make any sense. And I don’t think the hoodie Trayvon Martin was wearing had a zipper, so the description in the broadcast you saw contained more information. Bobby Rush also left the Black Panthers around 1974, so calling him “the Black Panther Congressman” seems a little bit off-base.
So what does it symbolize then? What was he protesting? Just an inefficient prosecutor? Give me a frickin’ break!
Looks like our DOJ is[advising](http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/04/17/secretive-doj-force-watces-trayvon-protests/) the protesters how to do it now…wonderful!
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/48 "2012-04-17T19:35:39Z")
> [@What\_the](#):
>
> So what does it symbolize then? What was he protesting? Just an inefficient prosecutor? Give me a frickin’ break!
Are you uninformed about this very controversial case (even though you’ve posted about it a few times), or do you think you’re making some kind of rhetorical point here? I can’t tell. Rush is protesting the fact that an unarmed black teenager (wearing a hooded sweatshirt) was shot to death and no arrest was made and no charges were filed. Many other people protested the same way. The prosecutor was not “inefficient;” prosecutors looked at the case and decided they weren’t going to bring charges. It took about a month of nationwide protests before charges were finally filed.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/49 "2012-04-17T20:31:20Z")
I’m going to go with protest against judicial apathy, and not necessarily a racial statement. Wil Wheaton also wore a hooded sweatshirt as a show of support for the victim; last I checked he was very Caucasian.
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### Author:  [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/50 "2012-04-18T14:46:58Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Are you uninformed about this very controversial case (even though you’ve posted about it a few times), or do you think you’re making some kind of rhetorical point here? I can’t tell. Rush is protesting the fact that an unarmed black teenager (wearing a hooded sweatshirt) was shot to death and no arrest was made and no charges were filed. Many other people protested the same way. The prosecutor was not “inefficient;” prosecutors looked at the case and decided they weren’t going to bring charges. It took about a month of nationwide protests before charges were finally filed.
What was everybody protesting then??? I know the prosecutor was not “inefficient”…that was sarcasm. They were about our racist society… at least to Sharpton, Farrkahan the NBP Party and most of the other hoodie wearing marchers.
Believe me… the news reader’s delivery and the look on his face was clearly…“Why the hell can’t I just say hoodie”. IMHO its to preserve the “hoodie” as a symbol of our racist society and not to associate it with a criminal incident.
Perhap at least we can agree that if the “hoodie” was an effective symbol of racism in our society then the left would want to preserve it as such.
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### Author:  [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/51 "2012-04-18T14:49:14Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#):
>
> Aren’t you the one, about a month ago, who was wondering when “wetback” became an offensive word?
>
> Oh , yeah [When did "wetback" become a slur? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=645150)
One and the same…how’d you like the fact that it was locked before the question got answered?
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/52 "2012-04-18T15:01:26Z")
> [@What\_the](#):
>
> What was everybody protesting then???
Didn’t I just answer this? Adding extraneous question marks doesn’t change the question. They were protesting the shooting and the lack of an arrest, which had not happened at the time of Rush’s House floor protest.
> [@](#):
>
> IMHO its to preserve the “hoodie” as a symbol of our racist society and not to associate it with a criminal incident.
This is a nonsensical projection of other people’s motives, so I’m not really seeing the humble part of this opinion. The broadcast you’re complaining about actually _added_ information since hooded sweatshirts don’t always have zippers, and the newscaster specified that this suspect did have a sweatshirt with a zipper. It’s a wordier but more detailed explanation, and isn’t more detail a good thing when you’re describing the suspect in a crime? I’ve already said I think it’s possible they avoided the word “hoodie” so they wouldn’t call to mind a case that had nothing to do with the gas station robbery being discussed, but it’s not because anybody is trying to preserve the notion of the hoodie as a symbol of innocence or some other nonsense. And the garment (which is a very common piece of every day wear) is already associated with a criminal incident because it’s associated with the Martin shooting. 😛
> [@](#):
>
> Perhap at least we can agree that if the “hoodie” was an effective symbol of racism in our society then the left would want to preserve it as such.
I’ve never seen anyone argue the hoodie is a symbol of racism. That doesn’t make any sense at all since the guy wearing the hoodie was the guy who got shot.
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### Author:  [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/53 "2012-04-18T15:17:46Z")
> [@Shodan](#):
>
> It’s incorrect to say it has nothing to do with Buffett’s secretary - Buffett proposed the rule because he was paying a lower tax rate than his secretary. But his secretary was, in fact, making more than most administrative assistants do, by quite a bit.
No, it’s incorrect to say that it had something to do with Buffett’s secretary. President Obama, \*\*NOT \*\*Buffett, proposed the Buffett Rule as part of his deficit reduction proposal on Sept 19, 2011. The name was an homage to Buffett who has criticized our system for allowing the rich to pay a smaller portion of their income in taxes than the middle class do.
It is utterly incorrect to say that the Buffett Rule, which President Obama proposed and named, is about a secretary in Nebraska. Simply because President Obama named the rule after a man who many times has advocated fairer taxes and occasionally illustrates that point by mentioning his secretary doesn’t make Obama’s Buffett rule about some secretary.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/54 "2012-04-18T15:52:55Z")
It seems to me you’re also attaching a lot of importance to the actual word “hoodie,” as if the word itself is important to some aspect of the debate about the shooting. I don’t think the word itself is significant, and anybody who knows what a hoodie is would understand that “a zip up sweatshirt with a hood” is a type of hoodie anyway.
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### Author:  [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/55 "2012-04-18T16:17:09Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Didn’t I just answer this? Adding extraneous question marks doesn’t change the question. They were protesting the shooting and the lack of an arrest, which had not happened at the time of Rush’s House floor protest.
And why was he shot??? And why wasn’t he arrested as soon as some would like??? And why wear a hoodie???
Answer: Racism. Racism. Symbolic of the events which were colored in racism.
What about my other question: Perhap at least we can agree that if the “hoodie” was an effective symbol of racism in our society then the left would want to preserve it as such. (whoops… I didn’t even use one question mark…must have used up my quota).
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/56 "2012-04-18T17:22:49Z")
Perhaps we are missing something.
What is it about about the term “hoodie” do you think could act as “an effective symbol of racism in our society?” And why would this be a problem?
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### Author:  [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/57 "2012-04-18T18:13:44Z")
> [@What\_the](#):
>
> What about my other question: Perhap at least we can agree that if the “hoodie” was an effective symbol of racism in our society then the left would want to preserve it as such. (whoops… I didn’t even use one question mark…must have used up my quota).
OK, what the heck is a “symbol of racism”? Something like a noose or the Confederate flag? If not, can you give me any examples of things that are “symbols of racism”?
Regardless, given all the white kids I see wearing hooded sweatshirts and the advertisements showing white kids wearing hooded sweatshirts and calling them “hoodies”, I think it would be a real upward climb for “liberals” to maintain either hooded sweatshirts or the word “hoodie” as a “symbol of racism”.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/58 "2012-04-18T18:34:18Z")
> [@What\_the](#):
>
> Answer: Racism. Racism. Symbolic of the events which were colored in racism.
I would say people are wearing hoodies to express their frustration with the shooting and the lack of an arrest and to express support for a grieving family. What you are saying about the hoodie being “a symbol of racism” doesn’t make any sense, and I’m a little skeptical of your ability to correctly interpret the motives of people who you think are dead wrong about everything.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/59 "2012-04-18T18:34:34Z")
Perhaps “hoodie” is a dog whistle and the non-racists are only now becoming aware of it and **What the** is actually [Geraldo Rivera.](http://www.mediaite.com/tv/geraldo-rivera-the-hoodie-is-as-responsible-for-trayvon-martins-death-as-george-zimmerman/) So the hoodie isn’t a “symbol of racism” but a symbol _for_ racists.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoodie-and-the-buffett-rule/618943/60 "2012-04-18T19:01:48Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#):
>
> A newscaster would probably also say _sleeveless t-shirt_ rather than _wifebeater_.
If it has no sleeves, it can’t be a T-shirt. It’s a sleeveless undershirt.
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