Mama to Mama: NO MORE HOODIES

Yes, I said it. It's time to have a mom-to-mom talk with all of the Black mothers across America. Saggy pants with the underwear showing, over-sized T-shirts and neon green sneakers must officially be put back in the damn closet! We are giving white America an open invitation to hate and stalk your sons.

I was just as outraged with the outcome of the George Zimmerman verdict as my neighbors. Feelings of shock, fear for my three sons and thoughts of their future are still reverberating in my head But, I realize that we can not continue on the path we are on.

Trayvon was not to blame for his murder. His Constitutional Rights were violated when he was stalked and preyed upon by a grown man with anxiety and paranoia problems. George Zimmerman should have done time, period.

But, like my mom says: what's good for the goose is not always good for the gander. I am pleading with my brown mommas: it's time to put hard-bottom shoes and button-ups on your sons. Just because 2 Chains and ASAP Rocky are doing it, wearing it and being it doesn't mean its cool for your lower or middle-income, brown baby to do the same. We ( I am a 30-year-old married mother of three sons from the hood) don't have access to Jay-Z's resources if our children are shot, or put in jail or even end up pregnant.

Trayvon's hoddie symbolizes something to White America. It is a red flag that the person in my presence is reckless. So as responsible parents we must learn how to make our children blend in to the society they currently inhabit. This does not meaning becoming homogeneous or leaving behind our African-American culture. What it means is being more covert in our actions and appearance so that our children are not obvious prey for someone looking for a willing participant to their own prejudice and racism.

If we have learned anything from this trial it should be that we as a group of colored people cannot change those who sit in their cesspool of hatred, we can only change ourselves and the way we adapt to American culture. Our justice system is just that, a system that works for JUST US (meaning the people who created it). As African-Americans we have to protect ourselves. These are our children being murdered and put in jail.

Nothing hurts my soul more than when I see a 5-year-old wearing tight jeans with his pull-up showing and wearing a pair of Nikes when I know his mother likely doesn't have a college education. Just as I have these vivid images in my head, and I am hoping that they make it, a white person with no cultural context for this image thinks: he'll grow up to be a gang banger. So, why even give that person the luxury of making that assumption.

Solution: next month is the perfect time to re-up your son's (and daughter's) wardrobe, it's back to school time. Button-up shirts, khaki cargo pants and cologne should be at the top of your list. And throw in a yes ma'am, and no ma'am. Get back to the old school, so that when they do come for us next time, there will be no excuse for anything except a full-blown, worldwide uprising.

For mommy-brand ways to raise African-American children join the Facebook page in support of the Martin family The Sybrina Revolt.