Geraldo Rivera To Trayvon’s Parents: “I Am Sorry If Anything I Said Added To Your Misery”

Geraldo Rivera, after weeks of enduring public outrage for his remarks that Trayvon Martin’s hoodie was just as responsible for the 17-year old’s death as George Zimmerman, apologized last night in person to Martin’s parents.

“Rivera held a six-minute interview with Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton on Geraldo At Large,’ offering sympathy from the start,” The Huffington Post reported. He opened the interview by thanking them for coming on the show and “please — this is the first time I’ve spoken to you — accept my condolences for your awful loss.” The Huffington Post added:

In unison, Martin’s parents responded with a “thank you.”

…

“What I was trying to do was caution parents that allowing kids to wear hoodies or similar clothing in certain circumstances, particularly if they were minority young men, could be dangerous,” Rivera explained. “But I never intended to hurt anyone’s feelings and certainly Sybrina and Tracy, I never intended to hurt your feelings. I want to personally convey my deepest apologies to both of you. I am sorry, Tracy, if anything I said added to your misery.”

Tracy Martin added his own thoughts on that part of Rivera’s apology, thanking him for his words.

“Your apology is accepted,” Martin said. “Let me just add one thing with the wearing of the hoodie. I don’t think America knows that, in fact, at the time of the incident when he initially made the call, it was raining. So Trayvon had every right to have on his hood. He was protecting himself from the rain. So if being suspicious, walking in the rain with your hoodie on is a crime, then I guess the world is doing something wrong.”

 

Yesterday, The New Civil Rights Movement reported on the upcoming apology that Rivera had announced he was going to make and we ended with these thoughts:

But as an influential member of a minority community and as a journalist with a huge platform, Geraldo Rivera has a responsibility to work hard to make sure that what happened to Trayvon Martin doesn’t happen to anyone else — and he has not.

Which means, for Geraldo, not railing against hoodies, but railing against racism and racial profiling, and, good lord, guns.

Because Trayvon Martin’s death has everything to do with racism, racial profiling, and guns.

And I pity America, and all of America’s children, who for some strange reason, refuses to see that.

10,000 Americans are killed each year due to gun violence. More Americans die from guns in one weekend than in an entire year in all of the U.K.

We don’t have a gun problem?