Forum Post: OWS And Iconography

Months back, in October, there was serious debate about what kind of symbols this movement should adopt to further it's message. The Guy Fawlks mask was one of the symbols advanced, and it came to be fairly widely adopted. Some said they saw it it as a quasi-sinister image, and I happen to agree with them.

At that time, I wrote a piece about Thomas Jefferson, and the ways his idea's, to my thinking anyway, fit perfectly with the message of this movement, and that we should adopt him and the flag as a patriotic and unifying image for this movement. That was done to a real degree, and I think it had a very positive effect in rallying others to our cause.

Now I'm going to say something I'm afraid many will find conreoversial, but which I think needs to be said: When did the "hoodie" start to become a symbol for this movement?

I realize that Trayvon Martin was wearing one when he was shot, and that it would be appropriate to honor him this way, by adopting the "hoodie" as a symbol.

The problem is, that wearing a hood has real symbolic power and most of it, unfortunately, is negative. People generally associate hoods with all things clandestine, hidden, and therfore to be feared. Many of the evil archtypes of film and literature have worn hoods, particularly black hoods, because of the reasons above. The uni-bomber was pictured in a hood and sunglasses, and furthermore Whites have come to fear the image of a Black man wearing a hood, as symbolic of gang violence and lawlessness.

I am not going to argue here whether that's justified, or what the truth may be behind this feeling on the part of many Whites; I am just going to say that that is how it is. Therefore, I think that while the hoods were fine for the rally to protest Trayvon's death, they should afterwards be dropped.

I think the movement as a whole has to grapple again with this question of iconography, and Blacks who are in the movement, or who see themselves alligned with it's goals, particularly need to come up with a symbol that is broadly unifying. Since WWII, Blacks have been in the armed forces, and fought in disproportionate numbers compared to Whites, and furthermore their roots often go back farther and deeper in America then those of many whites, so who has a greater right to adopt patriotic symbols than Blacks do?

In any case, we must be careful about the way the symbols we do adopt reflect upon this movement and the way it is perceived.