The folks at Hot Air are not the only ones who are puzzled why a school in the town of Walpole, Massachusetts decided to declare war on Halloween, except that the school and town reside in a state that sent Elizabeth Warren to the Senate and is thus capable of anything. In any case, school officials have decreed the Halloween is “not inclusive” and have thus canceled the annual Halloween Parade in which children get to wear their costumes while marching about.
In its stead, the school will sponsor a “Black and Orange Spirit Day” party after hours.
How is Halloween not inclusive?
If the gentle reader is confused about how Halloween is not inclusive, he or she is not alone. Halloween is, in a sense, a religious holiday for Wiccans and some fundamentalist Christians object to the whole focus on spooks, witches, and devils. However, pretty much any kid of any ethnic background or religious tradition can put on a costume and stalk through the neighborhood pestering people for candy. It’s all in good fun.
And what is “Black and Orange Spirit Day” anyway? Isn’t that just Halloween by any other name?
The name is as silly as called Christmas “Winter Holiday.”
Some costumes are politically incorrect
Some universities have banned or have strongly discouraged specific costumes, especially those of specific ethnic groups such as Native Americans or Hispanics for being “culturally appropriative.” To be sure, with the scary clown craze going around, dressing in a red wig and a red nose might serve to take one’s life in one’s hand. The story about an online retailer that was selling an “Anne Frank” costume was certainly eyebrow-raising. The Burnt Zombie child costume seems to have triggered a lot of people in Great Britain so soon after the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
It used to be that Halloween was not a political minefield that one had to traverse in order not to enrage the social justice warrior crowd.
Now just about anything can cause outrage and demands that a holiday that has been celebrated for generations be banned in order to coddle the hurt feelings of the few.
One safe character one can dress up as is that of a vampire. As “True Blood” taught up, the undead bloodsuckers are not all well dressed East Europeans with thick accents and suave mannerism. A red neck in overalls and a red and black checkered shirt can drink your blood and turn you into one of the undead just as well as Bela Lugosi could. As the Gabriella Doria novels prove, so could high born Italians, the whole garlic thing aside.