Introduction

On July 13, 2013, a Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty for murder of African American youth Trayvon Martin (Botelho and Yan 2013). The case captured national attention, sparking strong responses with rallying cries from the African American community, such as “justice for Trayvon” and “the system has failed” (Neale 2013). In the following month, Ebony magazine announced special issues for September, which would have four cover designs dedicated to concerns of racialized violence targeting African American youth. Celebrities Spike Lee, Dwayne Wade, and Boris Kodjoe each appeared with their sons on three of the covers, and the fourth issue cover was dedicated to Martin’s family. In each of the special celebrity covers, the individuals donned gray hoodies, similar to the one Martin wore when he was killed. The Ebony cover title read, “We Are All Trayvon” (Loinaz 2013). The hoodie, then, served as a symbol of both victimization as well as racial solidarity. This and other events in the years following, such as Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson, Missouri, and the racially motivated killing of police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in New York City, exemplify racial tensions and demonstrate the need for American society to continue to have dialog about the complexities of racialization (Buchanan et al. 2014; Moore et al. 2014). According to Romero (2013, 308), “Racism in American society has not diminished; rather today it is more sophisticated, equally damaging, and perilous.”