By: Michelle Young, Opinions Editor
Content warning: mentions of racialized violence, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, sexual harassment, and Islamophobia.
The season of ghosts, pumpkins, and candy is upon us. While its roots are quite different from what we know today, Halloween is associated with dressing up and indulging in “scary” things — witches, spirits, and horror films. However, there are specific prejudices and insensitivities that seem to show up during Halloween under the guise of being frightening, and therefore, in the spirit of the holiday. Just because it’s Halloween, doesn’t mean you get to break out the racism, sexism, and ableism.
A few years ago, there was a violent residential display in Maple Ridge accused of being “reminiscent of lynchings.” The residents who put up the display were shocked it was being accused of racism and being “too gruesome for children.” Others pointed out the area the display was put up wasn’t far from where Louie Sam, a young Indigenous man, was lynched. Without going into much detail, the family claimed it was a medieval display that they added to every year. Despite the critique, they refused to take the display down as they “didn’t intend” to be racist and plan to continue their display every year. Their response entirely ignores the historical context of oppression and puts comfort above a genuine care for how racialized children are affected by violence.
This year, a Vancouver Island landfill has “been ordered to remove and destroy a Halloween decoration amid complaints that it is cruel and distasteful, particularly towards Indigenous women.” The sign displayed a cheap price where you could supposedly pay to bury a body. This is entirely inappropriate considering the “discovery of human remains in a Manitoba landfill last year” and the belief that there are other Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in landfills. While the sign was removed, it comes off as anti-Indigenous because there was little regard here for those who have been violently targeted here, too.
In both cases, these people claimed they didn’t mean harm, but the reality is they did. We cannot ignore the historical context of racialized violence during Halloween just because others put up these decorations “for fun.” There are real people who have suffered, and that shouldn’t be swept under the rug.
If there is a true commitment to equity, there needs to be an understanding of the historical events that have disproportionately affected marginalized groups, and we should make an effort to avoid making light of them. This doesn’t only apply to displays or decorations. There are also a variety of costumes that either rely on prejudiced tropes or stereotypes or downplay serious issues. Costumes of “terrorists” stigmatize Muslims while costumes of flashers make fun of sexual harassment. For similar reasons, there shouldn’t be costumes of real serial killers — or even worse, their victims. This is scary in all the wrong ways.
Halloween is supposed to be fun. Recreating violence or stigmatizing others is not fun. You should not ruin someone’s day because you decided people who are offended are “too sensitive.” This silences genuine concerns about the messages people send when they dress as confederate soldiers or use cultures as costumes. These things wouldn’t be OK at any other time of the year — Halloween doesn’t give you a free pass. There are countless ways to decorate and dress-up for Halloween that don’t involve prejudice and insensitivity.
Halloween isn’t supposed to be something grotesque. While costumes like witches and Frankenstein aren’t free of prejudice either, we should be moving further away from this direction, not closer towards it. If you need to rely on violence and stereotypes for a “scary” Halloween, you are boring and unoriginal. Get creative, there are so many interesting characters and styles that can be incorporated into a costume. Don’t perpetuate bigotry.
