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Lynching and blackface: why Halloween really scares me

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According to Global Grind, a family in Kentucky has been forced to remove lynched black figures from their lawn. Yes. Black ragdolls hanging by their necks from a tree is the choice of Halloween decor for some people in 2014.

What really scares me as a black woman, is that this type of behaviour is like taking 500 years’ worth of steps back in a supposedly progressive society.

When I say that Halloween 2014 is really scary, I speak of the many costumes and "gags" that alert us to the state of racial sensitivity, or lack thereof, not only in our country but in the rest of the world.

This goes deeper and has a darker meaning than any scary mask ever could.

The prevalence of blackface and the trivialisation of racial injustice and oppression have been rife this year – even before Halloween.

You may remember the two girls who dressed up as black domestic workers at a costume party, and the boys who dressed up as the Williams sisters in blackface.

The Brazilian World Cup was also tainted with blackface incidents, according to the New York Daily. These instances make me wonder if people are at all aware of the history of blackface and its implications, or if they choose to turn a blind eye in the name of 'having fun' even if they know they’re being offensive.

You would think that the action taken by authorities against these events would curb this pattern, but it has continued into Halloween. I refer specifically to the Ray Rice costume  and more blackface in the midst of it.

But, nothing prepared me for the Halloween decor resembling Billie Holiday’s 'Strange Fruit'. Just when I thought we had emerged from one of the most harrowing and tragic eras in history, the brutal genocide of our ancestors is once again reduced to an attempt at a joke.

However, it is a failed attempt, because the unjust and unlawful murder of black men and women (which still happens by the way) will NEVER be a joke. Neither will the abuse of women and men all over the world.

Thankfully the neighbours of this family complained and requested that the distasteful decor be removed. This gives me a sense of hope that society is moving forward,  even though ignorance still exists amongst us.

For most of my life, I’ve believed that I was untouchable, because I am a born-free. But, emerging stories like these have woken me up to a reality that history can repeat itself. It is up to us not to allow racism to reach the extremities it has before, because in the words of Martin Luther King Jr: "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".

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