I got that snow... Man!

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a student of mine... a respectable enough young man (he has since been expelled from school) who told me that people on the street called him the "Jeezy Snowman." He said he would go around the hood in his Jeezy Snowman t-shirt. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I sensed it was important to him so I nodded my head and pretended to be interested.

That same night, I was reading the news online when I saw an article like this one, which said that this t-shirt that my student was talking about is being banned at schools across the country. Supposedly, this "Snowman" symbolizes a coke dealer and anyone who wears this shirt is (of course) promoting the distribution and consumption of this illegal narcotic.

I really couldn't care less about Young Jeezy and his stupid ass music, but I really had to have this shirt the second I was made aware of this controversy. The fact that schools would be banning a shirt that bears such a harmless symbol just because it just might have some sort of drug-related innuendo is really shocking to me.

I have worn this shirt out on two occasions, and NOBODY has asked me to sell them coke. Putting on this shirt does not make me feel like a coke dealer at all... it makes me feel like an opponent of censorship and a friend of the First Amendment!

When asked about the shirt, Jeezy himself says, "Snowman is a cool dude. He's a gangsta, too. There's a snowman in every 'hood, several snowmen in the 'hood. You gotta be that dude to look up to with the car and the girl. Whatever you do, be the best at it, because that's what the snowman is going to do."

I've got a car and a girl and a Snowman t-shirt and I'm taking a stand. That's gangsta. I suppose that makes me the snowman in my 'hood.