Being Black is a Permanent Halloween Costume

This is everything I’m tired of saying.

Zone of Non-being

Halloween costumes are notorious for being racially and/or culturally insensitive. Each year, there are scores of people who utilize this creative outlet to display ignorance and hatred of the highest order. Sporting a sombrero or a native headdress are just a few of the tactless examples in circulation. Playing fashion police, however, is not the sole focus of this blog. I am more interested in the relationship between appearance and fear.

At the core of this unofficial holiday are deliberate fixations with death and a desire to experience or cause fear. A popular attraction are haunted houses: controlled environments, like those of horror films, where people pay to be chased by monsters. Another ritual is trick-or-treating: ushering children from door-to-door in spooky disguises to collect candy from strangers who pretend to be afraid.

The relationship between one’s appearance and the fear that is caused and/or experienced is voluntary and temporary 

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