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Musicians Rally Around Death of Trayvon Martin

Frank Ocean, posting to his Tumblr, wrote "suspicious black" as this photo's caption

As Vibe reports, Frank Ocean, Diddy, Swizz Beatz, Nelly, Ludacris, and Jamie Foxx have all posted photos of themselves wearing hooded sweatshirts on their social media accounts to protest the death of 17-year-old African-American high school student Trayvon Martin, who was gunned down by a self-appointed neighborhood watchman for looking “suspicious” (he was wearing a hoodie, but was unarmed) in Florida on February 26. Other musicians, incuding Bun B, Talib Kweli, Janelle Monáe, Macy Gray, Cher, John Legend, Monica, Neko Case, and Wyclef Jean have tweeted their support of the Martin family (using the hashtag #IAmTrayvonMartin), as well as the Million Hoodie Marches that have been taking places across the country, and the Change.org petition calling for the prosecution of the gunman, George Zimmerman, which has gathered more than 2 million signatures and become the fastest-growing petition the site has ever seen.

Frank Ocean posted words of support on his popular Tumblr account, while Sinead O’Connor went so far as to write a well-meaning open letter to Martin’s family (and African-Americans in general) and created a new public account on Twitter solely to raise awareness of the Change.org petition. Florida is currently re-examining the law that has allowed Zimmerman to walk free; meanwhile, Million Hoodie Marches are scheduled in Los Angeles and Cincinnati for this afternoon, both of which will no doubt be joined by more celebrities.