Just a costume?

Each year after Halloween, controversy erupts over some poor fool’s limited judgment and social consciousness in selecting a racially-charged costume. Consider some recent unfortunate Halloween costume tricks:\nSix football players from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., sparked campus-wide controversy and discussion after putting on blackface and body paint in order to portray African tribesmen.\nAt the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, four white kids donned blackface to portray the Jamaican bobsledders from the movie “Cool Runnings.”\nAt a Halloween party and government fundraiser in Washington, D.C., hosted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, a guest sported a striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and makeup to darken his skin.\nI’m sure these folks thought they were oh-so-clever, original and harmless. That is evident in their reactions to criticism of their costumes. The typical dismissals go something like this: “We didn’t mean to offend anyone,” “It was just a costume” and “This costume isn’t racist, so don’t make such a big deal about it.”\nThe peculiar thing is that most of us would agree it’s a bad idea to dress up in a white sheet, pointy white hood and carry a noose for Halloween. It would also be ill-advised to don a Hitler-esque mustache and parade around wearing swastikas. Why? Because we know these performances will undoubtedly invoke horrible historical baggage.\nToo bad we have such an anemic understanding of the history of race. These blackface folks could’ve used a history lesson before applying their makeup.\nIn the early 1800s, slaves gathered in the evenings to sing, laugh and dance – a way to stay sane and survive in the face of oppressive conditions. Slave owners used to mimic these “plantation shows” by rubbing burnt cork on their faces and mocking their “property” in order to further ridicule and dehumanize their slaves.\nWhen slavery ended, these popular blackface minstrel shows continued, and white folks continued to use the performances to perpetuate destructive, damaging and degrading caricatures of blacks as bumbling, lazy, foolish, over-sexualized buffoons. These racist images carried into the mid-1900s through the popular radio and television show “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” The caricatures also appeared in places such as the popular Merrie Melodies cartoons, thereby indoctrinating children with these dehumanizing messages.\nLike it or not, this baggage comes along with blackface. When white people decide to darken their skin and play black, they have to accept the racist ideologies linked to that performance – no matter how much they protest that they “didn’t mean to offend anyone.” The fact that so many white folks don’t know this history and seem surprised when blackface creates controversy is a sad comment on how little we know about the history of racism and its lingering presence in U.S. culture.\nWhite folks have the freedom to put on any costume they like, as long as they’re prepared to take responsibility for their ignorance and accept the reactions. But we cannot dismiss and erase history when it’s convenient for our entertainment.\nThat’s the scariest Halloween trick I can imagine.