NEW YORK – Last week on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” Geraldo Rivera said that on the night of his death, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was “dressed in that thug wear– look at the size of him, he’s not a little kid.” This follows comments Rivera made in March, also on Fox News, about the unarmed teenager’s appearance. At that time, Rivera claimed that “the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was,” a comment for which he later apologized.

The following is a statement from ColorOfChange Executive Director Rashad Robinson:

“After Trayvon Martin was killed, people around the country began reaching out to our organization to see what they could do. On ColorOfChange’s social networks, we saw pictures of people young and old, rich and poor and from every racial group wearing hoodies and sending their messages of support to Trayvon’s parents.

“Make no mistake, there are those who see tragic moments such as this as an opportunity to use race to stir up fears and drive us apart in order to serve their political agendas. Geraldo’s comments are part of this strategy, a page out of a tired playbook. ColorOfChange members will continue to speak out and hold the media accountable.”

More than 170,000 ColorOfChange members signed a petition calling on the Department of Justice to take over the case, arrest Martin’s killer, and launch an independent investigation into the Sanford police department’s mishandling of the case. The petition can be found here: http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/Trayvon

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With more than 800,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest African-American online civil rights organization.