How to Avoid Racist Subtext in Halloween Decorations

I usually enjoy my walks at this time of the year, even though the weather gets a bit chillier. But, the colorful trees and Halloween decorations make up for it, especially when I try to push myself to keep up with regular walking exercises (in particular since I ate more than I needed to over the weekend).

However, no matter how inventive your neighbors get when decorating their yards for Halloween, somehow you're still never prepared to be insulted - or, worse - to suddenly find yourself fearful for your life.

This morning, while taking my usual route through my neighborhood to get to a nearby park, I came across a house that thought to hang ghosts from its front yard tree. I've seen many ghost decorations in trees before and in previous Halloweens, but this time, the spectacle gave me a jolt. The ghosts were hanging from NOOSES!

Now, before anyone accuses me of paranoia and overreaction, please keep in mind the number of noose hangings that have occurred this season, not to mention the far too regular appearances of blackface costumes at fraternity parties on college campuses; plus, I had recently seen a Klan member at one of my favorite coffee house hangouts. Needless to say, the appearance of these ghosts hanging from "lynch ropes" gave me a very bad vibe.

I do want to give my white neighbor the benefit of the doubt, to not imagine him as a card-carrying member of the Klan or any other white supremacist group, to instead imagine that he and his kids innocently hung their ghost decorations without any thought about the racist subtext implied by the ropes used.

But that's just the problem, isn't it? A friend and I had recently discussed over the phone how the prevalence of racism precludes either group to be able to successfully perform racial satire, because racism functions in such a way that one group might get the "joke," while the other one cannot take it for granted that the racial performance isn't to be read literally. How do we really know if somebody hanging ghost decorations from nooses isn't really trying to create racist subtext, especially if - when called on it - (s)he can pretend innocence or, worse, "Can't you take a joke?"

Obviously, as we've seen from the Jena 6 incident and other noose hanging incidents, there's nothing funny about racist jokes, performances, decorations, or costumes. When people are still being targeted for violence, based on their skin color, we are certainly not in a particular historical space where we can assume that everyone is in on the "joke."

So, now that it's Halloween and everyone is pretty much invested in stepping out of their own skins, perhaps to try on someone else's, and even to slip under the radar some of their racial baggage, which pops up in unexpected ways (like in Halloween yard decorations and costumes), I thought I might offer a helpful guide to those of you who don't consider yourselves to be white supremacists on how to avoid racist subtext.

1. Don't use lynch ropes in trees: Here's a useful website, Without Sanctuary, that provides the kind of lynch iconography (as captured in lynch photography) that has shaped racial history in America. It might be helpful to see what actual lynch victims looked like and also why African Americans are particularly sensitive to any references to nooses and ghosts hanging from trees with ropes around their necks. Yes, when I passed that yard this morning, I thought about the "ghosts" of lynch victims and how their relatives and descendants have yet to receive any reparations since our nation is very much in denial about our own history. When we forget the pain of that history, we're likely to see its repetition in various displays. If you must hang ghosts from trees in your yard this Halloween, use wires, hooks (as shown in the above image), duct tape, anything else but rope.
2. Don't use blackface for your Halloween costume: It has already been noted that far too many college youth are "innocuously" dressing up as their favorite black person (usually some "gangsta" rap artist) and darkening their faces to do so. BAD IDEA! Do you need a Minstrelsy History Lesson? If so, please visit this informative PBS site. I once had a friend who talked about how hurt she was, back in grade school, when her white friend thought to "flatter" her by dressing up as "Aunt Jemima" (replete with blackened skin); my friend was a heavyset kid and she still is, so, you know, there is nothing like the betrayal of a white friend who you thought was cool until they do something completely demented as to don "blackface"! It's meant to be insulting, I don't care what Eric Lott says in his book, Love and Theft (he basically claims that, behind the mockery of black skin, white people are really acting out some complicated homoerotic stuff). I don't care if it's based on "love" or "hate," it's racist, pure and simple.
3. Don't choose racist icons for your Halloween costume: I'm sure you remember all the hullabaloo when Prince Harry showed up at a costume party wearing a Nazi arm band. Yeah, I'm still not over it, and again, I don't think our society has evolved enough for anyone to even attempt racial satire when they dress up as a Nazi soldier or a Ku Klux Klan. What they represent is systemic slaughter against an entire people. Sure, Halloween is a time to dress up as somebody dark or evil, like the devil, or a witch, or a vampire. Take note, however. One kind of evil is based in mythology (although, being that I'm Christian and believe in an afterlife, I believe the devil is real and so are some ghosts), the other evil is all too real, and again, what kind of racist subtext are you trying to send out when you show up at a costume party with a swastika on your arm band?
4. Don't arrange your ghosts so that they resemble racist icons: I'll never forget the horrendous feeling a group of my friends experienced when attending a museum exhibit, around Halloween time, on the history of African American's migration from the South to the North. In the exhibit, we reached a hall that focused on the reign of terror that supremacist groups visited upon segregated black communities. Why did that demented curator think it was cool to arrange a Klan costume in the style of a ghost, hanging right above our heads? It was hideous, and I imagine the curator wanted us to experience what that kind of reign of terror was like at a historical point in time. However, considering that they're still around and that victims like Megan Williams was nearly lynched, there's nothing "cool" or "spooky" about creating Halloween-type decorations with racist icons.
5. Use your front door when answering trick-or-treaters: How about the story a friend of mine shared with me of when she was young and growing up in the South, how one of her racist white neighbors insisted that she and her other black friends who were trick or treating come around to the side of the house to get their "treats." No sooner than she and her friends moved on that she saw another group of trick-or-treaters, this time, white kids, who were greeted at the front door. Apparently, this was a standard way for whites living during Segregation times (with remnants today) to treat black people as inferior, by deeming them unworthy to greet at their front door. My friend said she didn't know any better and promptly told her parents, who then subsequently threw out the candy. Because such actions are based in a historical attempt to demean people, I think it behooves all of us to avoid perpetuating such actions, whether or not you have a reason to not use your front door. It's best to treat everyone with respect, including the little ones who come to your home for trick-or-treat.

In other words, the obvious lesson here is this: Avoid the very appearance of evil. Yes, Halloween is a time to step out of ourselves, have fun, and dabble with the darker side of the season. But, it's just one day, why spoil it with racist actions that will then spill out to ruin the rest of your year? If we learned to address racism out in the open, maybe we wouldn't let it seep inside of us, until it spills out in the most inappropriate ways, like in the racist subtext of Halloween decorations.

I offer this post, not to encourage censorship, but to foster respect and accountability. Have a Happy Halloween, but please don't exhibit your racist side this season. I'd rather answer my door to a devil-wearing reveler than a Nazi!