Good Mornin’! Good Mornin’!
Seriously.
I got an email from my youngest daughter’s high school giving us Halloween costume advice and guidelines. I felt like going all Allen Iverson and his “Practice? We talking bout practice?” rant a few years back.
Halloween? We talking ’bout Halloween Costumes? Come on, man and “Let’s Go, Brandon?” What the heck is that all about? Kids are gonna be kids, idiots are gonna be idiots and this email, if adhered to, is gonna leave a lot of life lessons undone. Now I’ve never been one to jump in the middle of a Halloween fracas and create a costume that is tasteless, stupid and offensive.
But I’m leaning toward it this year now.
Here are some of the “tips” to help students with their Halloween attire this year from what one of my bosses entitled her, the “Costumeolgist.”
“Here are some questions to ask before dressing your kids (or yourself) this Halloween:
• Does the costume make a reference to a culture that is not my own? (a headdress, turban or kimono) …. Me: shaking my dang head. Of course, I wore a turban thing. I was Karnack.
• Does the costume include religious or spiritual symbols? Me: You ever seen a Madonna video?
• Does the costume require you or your child to change the color of their skin to resemble someone? (You can dress as Beyoncé for example without coloring your skin). Me: A white/red/yellow Beyonce just ain’t right. I mean, if you’re trying to dress up like somebody, go all in. It’s your costume choice, poor or not. And hey, trying to get off whatever you decided was good to change your skin color is another whole level of education as well.
• Does the costume represent a stereotype or generalization about a group of people (Indigenous people (Indians))? Me: I was Spiderman once, then Groucho Marx and later Pee Wee Herman. I’ve been ridiculed for each but I’m still standing. Never been an Indian. I couldn’t find Mingo hair and no one would let me carry a hatchet around anyway.
• Is the costume based on tragic historical events or violent acts that actually took place? Me: I’m forbidden toteach history now on Halloween?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might want to consider another costume. Instead, consider fictional or imaginary characters like Cinderella, Superheroes, even the Golden Girls. Use your imagination!” Me: Exactly! Use your imagination. How ’bout just send out this paragraph and dump the rest. Let parents, parent. Let kids make mistakes and learn from them?
How about, Lighten up, Francis! Geez! If a kid has bad taste, let him get ridiculed or perhaps whoever is offended can “enlighten” an idiot to their poor choice, here’s your sign! Man, oh, man. Do we have to be protected from everything in life? There’s just not a common sense fits all size out there in the world. Some learn by doing and the rest learn from our mistakes both big and small.
How about this?
Life is short enough, don’t take the fun of making fun of some folks’ poor decisions from us…lol. Happy Halloween and let me know how that works out for you!
