I've been asked to help plan a Halloween party with a couple of work colleagues. One of my colleagues said, "we [our other colleague] already started planning and invitations because we thought you wouldn't be interested."Yes, you guessed it, they are white. They were both under the assumption that I would not be interested in party planning because of my race. So this got me thinking.
Back when I was a kid Mom dressed my brother and I up in crazy costumes and led us around our mostly white neighborhood to beg for candy. I remember wearing costumes like a princess, the pink panther, a witch, and a baseball player. It was fun running around and dressing up. I looked forward to Halloween every year!! I think I stopped dressing up by 9th grade, although our high school senior class officers dressed up one year as our mascot "Red Devil" to collect can goods for the local food bank. (We collected 2 pick up trucks worth!!) In undergrad, our Homecoming fell on Halloween every year. I went to an HBCU, Norfolk State University, So all we ever did was tailgate and party, and never a costume party. When I got to grad school, my department was largely white. Along with the whiteness came invitations to Halloween parties. I was so excited to attend my first party, but when I asked some of my Black friends I went to church with to come along they all looked at me like I was crazy! Not until my last year did I convince two of my Black friends to come to the party with me...that was four years later! I skipped out on the first two years of costume party/Halloween party invitations because I went back to NSU for homecoming... but the next 3 years I was a willing participant.
My first adult costume was a "Kenyan Villager." I wore garments I had bought from my recent trip to Kenya. I was invited and figured I wouldn't go because I didn't want to be the only Black person. So at the last minute I pulled out my scarves and tied one on my body as a dress and another on my head. My second adult costume was "A Dissertating Graduate Student." I came dressed in a bathrobe with a SIUC t-shirt, Norfolk State basketball shorts, knee high socks with slippers carrying a bottle of 2 Buck Chuck Chardonnay (Charles Shaw) and my Prospectus that I was asking everyone to read over and edit. It was quite hilarious. Everyone really got a kick out of it because I was really serious about folks looking over my draft. My third and final costume dress up event I actually put some effort into. This was the party a couple of my Black friends were attending, so we were striving to out do each other. I came as Cleopatra Jones (the original). I had my HUGE fro then, a fly brown leather coat my great aunt had given me (straight out the 70s), some corduroy beige bell-bottoms and some brown platform pumps. I didn't have a huge gun to tote around so I had my butterfly knife that I kept playing with all night. It was so fun! I talked in jive, happenin lingo all night. Of course my Black guy friend came as Kat Williams (it was 2009). We had a great time and they vowed to attend sociology parties with me in the future (and they did!).
So back to my question. What's up with Black people and Halloween? I had this convo with a friend of mine who grew up in a Black neighborhood with Afrocentric Baptist parents and she said her parents called Halloween a time for "N*gga Knocking." I had to LOL on that one. Her parents did not want her associated with the hoodlums who came around playing practical jokes on families in the complex. She also mentioned the fact Jesus wouldn't like Halloween because it is the devil's night. I talked to another Black girl friend and she said she didn't have a problem with Halloween, she just didn't like to dress up in costume. Personally, that's why I LOVE Halloween. You get to dress up as someone you aren't, you want to be, or you wouldn't dare become. It's just for one night! Although, I still haven't worked up to the point of purchasing items for a costume.
So back to my two colleagues. We all went shopping for decorations and they were amazed at my enthusiasm (this was the first time I had ever been involved in the planning of a Halloween party). So we all bought decorations and necessities for the all work colleague/significant other party. All the while, I was thinking about what I will dress up as and if it was possible to create a Black couple's costume.
So as far as couples costumes for Black folks, all I came up with were:
Michelle and Barack Obama-- My hunny is too dark to play Obama. Sorry boo!
Beyonce and Jay-Z--NO
Ike and Tina--Hecks Naw
Crack Whore and Pimp--Just for sh*ts and giggles.
Doctor and Nurse--My hunny is a doctor, so wouldn't be cool for him to dress as his everyday profession.
Don Cornelius and a Soul Train Dancer--the white folks wouldn't get it
Queen Nefertiti and Pharaoh Akhenaten--Still thinking about that one, but it would take me buying materials.
I even typed in "Halloween costumes for African American couples" into Google. I got a lot of random Halloween info on black (as in the color, not the socially constructed concept of race) costumes. No help there...
So it has come down to a phrase I heard once. "I'm going to keep my wife barefoot, pregnant, and chained to the refrigerator." --Patriarchy at it's worst!
Our costumes for this year will be me as a (not so) typical suburban 50s housewife, barefoot, pregnant, and chained to a refrigerator. Of course I couldn't let this fly without any agency from the female! So I will be a murderous 50s housewife, barefoot, pregnant, and chained to the refrigerator (I may come with a plate of warm cookies!). Why will I be murderous you may ask... because of my "Cheating Husband."
All of the materials will be coming from the house. I have a polka dot dress and an apron (that I will stuff a pillow into). I'm going to flip my Sisterlocks into a 50s hairstyle.I'm going to carry around a fake bloody knife for good measure. My "cheating husband" will be wearing slacks, a white shirt with lipstick prints on the collar, suspenders, a sweater or jacket, and a black fedora. His accessory will be a stab wound to the chest and a nice silver flask.
Sociologically speaking, taking on this white privileged role of the 50s housewife is amusing to me. The real deal is that as a typical Black woman in the 50s I would most likely be working to provide for their family, not standing in the kitchen baking cookies, waiting for the kids to come home. An article on Society Pages by Wade and Sharp (May 2010) discussed Sade and Beyonce's use of this image in their music videos "Baby Father" and "Why Don't You Love Me" respectively. So this is not an unexplored concept. If I were my age in the 50s I would probably be out getting arrested for protesting against racial discrimination. Haha.. there's another idea, but I wouldn't want to scare the white people (Rosa Parks and MLK, Jr.--probably not appropriate for Halloween though).
Ok, that's enough ranting for tonight.
