My First Experience of Hoodies Went in to a pub last night for a quiet drink with my brother wearing a hoodie (hood down).
Got served without any event. In walks a young chap who is clearly a barman and he gives me the look of death then walks to the barmaid and whispers something.
He scurries off round the corner and she then politely asks me to remove my hoody. After having a good old laugh I remove it without fuss but I then felt a bit annoyed that the guy didn't have the decency to ask me himself and even ran away round the corner when she asked me.
So when he reappeared I told him in a slightly condescending voice "sorry for upsetting you my friend". He then told the barmaid not to serve me anymore and when me and my brother objected he told her not to serve either of us and asked us to leave. We decided to finish our drinks before we left and during this time he stayed round the corner out of view so the barmaid was subjected to any resulting abuse (not that we'd give any) even though it was his decision.
Anyway. We finished our drinks then took the piss out of the guy a little (not in a nasty or offensive way) and left.
My question is. Do you think he was right or wrong? I can understand they may get trouble makers wearing hoodies but surely they get an equal share of trouble makers NOT wearing hoodies? This was not a 'trendy' bar either, where you might expect them to be objective to certain types of dress.
I'm quite ammused at the whole situation to be honest. I didn't think hoodyism had hit my 'out of the way' home town yet but maybe all the media attention has made everybody 'hoody aware'.12
Hoodies: Hiding the Real Issue Over Social Breakdown? I've just seen yet another "hoodie" news article -
this time bedfordshire cops claim 60 street robberies were committed by people wearing "street clothes" which include hoodies....
so they are now openly stopping people wearing these garments
Quote:
To tackle the problem, police in Luton will be increasing the number of uniform patrols in the area and proactively stopping and searching anyone wearing a ‘hoody’, or similar clothing, which conceals their identity or might be concealing weapons. Most teenage ‘robbers’ dress in a similar way so by targeting people wearing these types of clothes directly, may prevent offences as well as detect them.
We also want them to think about what they are wearing when they go out as they will be stopped it they are wearing this type of ‘street’ clothing.”
TBH I can understand the reasons why they are doing this; you can indeed hide a fair bit of stuff in a hoody and 60 muggings is a lot for one city, and also unusual for this time of year.
but hoodies have in fact been street fashion for 15 years. I remember them in 1990, along with daft medallions of peace signs etc which slammed into your chest whilst dancing..
isn't the real issue the fact that kids have become so angry and dysfunctional they feel its OK to rob one another for their stuff instead of working for your own stuff and getting it by legitimate means, and if you stop people wearing hoodies they will still do crime wearing other garments?
perhaps making the 5-stretch for robbery be a real 5 years instead of 2.5 might help (but only if there is proper rehabilitation and re-education within that time)
I’m Selling my Spiral Tribe T-Shirts im selling my spiral tribe t shirts
lot 1.grey make some fuckin noise (minus the sleaves)
lot 2.black spiral t shirt with the pictue of a truck on the back and a spiral tribe text on the bottom right hand side (front)
serious offers only
will swap 4 err other things than money
email ontopnonstop@hotmail.com
Are the Hoodies the Goodies? no flippant comment this time - this genuinely seems like a brilliant idea..
Quote:
Are the hoodies the goodies?
BBC News community affairs
The mere sight of a hooded teenager is enough to make some people hurriedly cross the road. But appearances can be deceptive. Not every street-wise youth is out to terrorise you. Meet Mr Hoody Two Shoes.
Sharmarke Hersi fits the description. He's tall with cropped hair and wears a hoodie and trainers. And for those whose fear of teenagers is driven by something more troubling still, the colour of his skin will no doubt make them cross the road.
But he's not happy about society's impression of him or his peers. In fact he's pretty angry about it - not least after he was stopped by police officers last year who were looking for a knife-wielding robber in north London.
When the A-level student asked why he had been stopped, he was told he fitted the description of a tall black man wearing a hoodie. If he meets the same officers again, he will be telling them that, subject to getting the grades, he's probably off to study international relations at university.
"It's like some kind of moral panic," he says philosophically. "I was on the train not long ago and a lady was holding her bag tight because of my dress code. You sometimes see people crossing the road to avoid you or putting their phone away."
Gang culture and youth crime is something that Sharmarke and his friends grew up seeing around their neck of Camden in north London. But after one student died in a knife attack in 1994, the head of one of the biggest schools in the area vowed to turn it around and instil in all his young charges a sense of community solidarity. Huw Salisbury, now retired, was nationally recognised for his efforts at South Camden Community School, particularly because of his pioneering work in integrating refugee children into the mainstream. But Sharmarke says it's the former head's mantra of doing what is right for those around you that stuck with him.
Tackling gangs
"My little brother and his friends were hanging around in groups and had nothing to do. There was violence between the white community and the Asian community and people like me, Somali kids, were sort of in the middle. I didn't want to see them following in the footsteps of others, younger boys looking up to the older ones and thinking that gangs were the thing to do."
That's when youth charity Envision turned up. The organisation works with hundreds of teenagers, predominantly in London, and helps them take leading roles in shaping their communities. Unlike most volunteering organisations, it doesn't tell them what to do. Instead, it supports them in all their ideas - good and bad - and teaches them how to negotiate the roadblocks of officialdom which stand in the way.
"You don't know what's going to work sometimes because every school or community is different - but it's about being willing to put some trust [as adults] in someone's ideas
James Williams of Envision
In the case of Sharmarke, he wanted to set up a sports club, based around the martial arts he enjoys, to provide a focus and discipline for younger teenagers at risk of getting into gang culture. Run on a shoe string budget, the project eventually attracted up to 40 people per session - 40 people who could very well have been hanging around on the streets. As a result, gang culture may be a little bit weaker today in one area of north London than it was two years ago.
"We believe that young people have the ideas and we want to take their ideas and turn them into action," says James Williams of Envision.
"You don't know what's going to work sometimes because every school or community is different. But it's about being willing to put some trust [as adults] in someone's ideas."
Active citizens
Demos, a think tank that looks at what makes communities tick, says Sharmarke's experience and Envision's other projects have wider lessons.
Its new report looks into what makes Britain's most active volunteers. And it argues that fear of hoodie culture, and the branding of teenagers as apathetic or a threat, is damaging efforts to rebuild communities.
Crucially, argue authors Paul Skidmore and John Craig, society and officialdom's reluctance to listen misses a trick: if government wants to strengthen communities, then people like Sharmarke need the chance to do the work, rather than just be told what to do. Rather than focus on Asbo-aggro rhetoric, those in power should actually be asking the hoodie two-shoes in society for help in finding the way out.
The report's publication is timely. This month sees the first Children's Commissioner for England sit down at his desk. Professor Al Aynsley-Green argues that government needs to stop consulting young people and start properly involving them in society as citizens, albeit young ones. It's a view shared by Demos' John Craig who says the approach needs to be applied to volunteering.
"Young people expect to be able to engage and participate in communities on their own terms," says John Craig. "They don't want to sit on a committee and so on. Now that's a challenge for politics and politicians because some of the things that they may want to do are difficult to measure in terms of what they do for a community.
"But that's why we called this report Start with People because much more needs to be done to go to young people and challenge preconceptions that we may have.
"There's this desire [in Whitehall] to 'build capacity' into communities. I think that communities and people are pretty capable already and it's the politicians and policy makers who have to learn from them, not the other way around."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/magazine/4639235.stm
Personal Spirit in Your Outfits There is so much creativity which can be linked to music and dance, everything from expressing yourself to creating the music that people will love to dance to.
There is also a personalized touch to the outfits you wear in many cases, i'm wondering if anyone here designs and makes their own outfits? Everything from pants up.
I've seen some really amazing designs and not by the factories that make overpriced rave gear. It seems to me that the best thing to do is to make your own stuff, whether its from scratch or by altering old clothes. It makes the stuff you wear all that much more special and "just right".
I'm working on a pattern for the flare / phat pants, (have you noticed that no one ever publishes stencils of the clothes they make?) and hopefully once that figures out, will be able to share it with people. Anyone else have any ideas?
