Racism During The Halloween Celebration

For my current events #4, I found an article by the New York Times, Discussing Halloween decorations that go far into racism. Halloween: Nooses and Blackface Decorations Prompt Backlash by Azi Paybarah, Oct. 25, 2019, “You’re in a community that is predominately black, yet you don’t know what the noose symbolizes?” a Brooklyn parent asked.

Drawings of children hanging from nooses in a Brooklyn elementary school, an empty noose swung from home, and three black pumpkins with white eyes, noses, and mouths in front of a law firm. Halloween decorations sure have changed from simple carved pumpkins, cotton spider webs, and witchy decorations. As of recently, it seems that Halloween decorations have become more offensive and downright done with malicious intent. It’s no wonder this has caused an outcry from people all around New York who’ve said the images were hateful and dangerous.

This has led the people of Brooklyn to shout their opinions, which has caused a recall of pumpkins at a major retailer and on Long Island, the United States Postal Service briefly suspending deliveries to one man’s home.

In a neighborhood of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn a mother named Love Jones was picking up her 4-year-old twins from kindergarten. That’s when Jones saw across the street from the school the terrible display. On the left side of a window, two children were hanging from ropes around their neck, with their eyes and mouths wide open. On the other side of the window, one child was hanging from a rope around the child’s foot. A fourth child with no rope attached was peeking out from the side of the windowpane, smiling. Jones complained to the school, to which the school contacted the homeowner, a white woman named Daniela Rose, where she promptly removed the display. Ms. Rose wrote an apology saying, “homemade Halloween paper dolls” were based on “Annabelle,” a horror movie about a demonic doll. Ms. Rose. added that “because they were made of brown kraft paper and hanging from nooses, they were deeply racially offensive.”, “No one should have had to point out this obvious fact to me” and “right now I am exploring ways in which I can make amends that will be both meaningful and acceptable to the community,” she said. The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, L. Joy Williams, made a statement saying “the lesson here is for people to note how their decorations can be perceived, no matter of their intent, whether it’s their body and their property.”. Ms. Williams also stated that Ms. Rose’s apology showed that she understood “the onus is on her to learn, to know better and do better, and that the onus is not on the people who were harmed” to educate her.