This spooky season, the worst of specters that continues to haunt us all is that of blackface. Scarier than the masks of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, this skeleton in the closet emerges every year just in time for late October.
The origin of blackface in America stems from caricatured stereotypes of black people, typically as plantation slaves, in minstrel shows. The purpose of these performances was to mock and, therefore, reinforce the notion of inferiority of African Americans. Perhaps, I tend to take for granted the group of close friends and family that I have who understand the painful and degrading history of this practice, because it shocks me every year that people still break out the brown face paint as a main component of their costumes.
Yet, it’s late October and here I am, shocked and horrified, but not because of any old haunted house or scary movie. It’s because it’s 2018 and people still do not comprehend the dehumanizing nature of reducing an entire race to mere costumes.
This lack of understanding was exemplified by the now former host of NBC’s “Today” show Megyn Kelly, when she defended blackface during her Oct. 23 morning show. Most people highlighted her saying that “you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween – like back when I was a kid, that was okay, as long as you were dressing up as a character.” I can’t help but also pointing to other moments throughout the wildly insensitive, nearly seven minute segment titled “Halloween Costume Crackdown,” in which she expressed genuine confusion about basic respect for members of other racial groups.
Kelly started by complaining that “political correctness has gone amok.” Interesting, I didn’t know something as simple as basic human decency could go amok. She seemed truly baffled as to why wearing Mexican or Native American inspired garments is offensive and promotes stereotypes that insult the intelligence and civility of these groups. Her responses to what I’m sure she and her former Fox colleagues would call “liberal snowflakes” were: “I can’t keep up with the number of people that we’re offending just by being normal people these days” and “isn’t the whole purpose of Halloween to dress up and pretend you’re something other than yourself?”
Well, Megyn, to answer your question, yes, provided that the “something other than yourself” you speak of doesn’t demean an entire race of people. Comments like these continue to prove that times of minstrelsy are not quite as distant as we like to think. Though the former host has since apologized after harsh backlash, she perfectly portrayed the disturbing mindset of so many Americans that fail to understand that blackface is one of many ways that deeply rooted racism shows itself in modern culture.
So for this spooky season and all to come, please leave the brown face paint and disproportionately dark bronzer out of your makeup bags. Realize that the scariest threats of Halloween are those of antiquated, racist stereotypes perpetuated by blackface and all forms of cultural appropriation.