Do They Know It's Halloween in Prince George's County?

You won't see this in all-Black cities

Check out VDARE for a huge article on Diversity and Trick-or-Treating that I wrote. Understand that Robert Putnam’s study (which shows a correlation between more ethnic diversity driving down community trust) underestimates the impact of diversity, because homogeneous Black enclaves are deficient in trust.

Across the nation, Black children who reside in Black Undertow cities and counties are bused into all-white enclaves to Trick-or-Treat in safe environments, where parents do not neglect nor rely on the state to rear their children.  

Thus, Putnam’s study needs a caveat: homogeneous Black communities run counter to Putnam’s findings that diversity destroys the social fabric of a city; the greater the percentage of Black people in a municipality, the more atomized and unsafe the environment.

The Washington Post has just published findings that the all-white enclave is a thing of the past, inadvertently putting the final nail in the coffin of Trick-or-Treating:

Today their Silver Spring community of Hillandale is home to people of every race and ethnicity — the epitome of what one sociologist calls “global neighborhoods” that are upending long-standing patterns of residential segregation.

Around the region and across the country, the archetypal all-white neighborhood is vanishing with remarkable speed. In many places, the phenomenon is not being driven by African Americans moving to the suburbs. Instead, it is primarily the result of the nation’s soaring number of Hispanics and Asians, many of whom are immigrants.

The result has been the emergence of neighborhoods, from San Diego to Denver to Miami, that are more diverse than at any time in American history.

As the nation barrels toward the day, just three decades from now, when non-Hispanic whites are expected to be a minority, these global neighborhoods have already begun remaking the American social fabric in significant ways. Their creation and impact have been especially pronounced in the Washington area, where minorities are now the majority.

A Washington Post analysis of 2010 Census data shows a precipitous decline in the number of the region’s census tracts, areas of roughly 2,000 households, where more than 85 percent of the residents are of the same race or ethnicity — what many demographers would consider a segregated neighborhood.

In the District, just one in three neighborhoods is highly segregated, the Post analysis found. A decade ago, more than half were.

So what happens to those communities that are classified as Black enclaves? Well, Black kids vying for initiation into gangs and high levels of Black crime make Trick-or-Treating (and the ability to create lasting relationship and build communities) an impossibility.

Majority Black cities across the country rely on the generosity of non-profit organization and church organizations to bus their children into all-white enclaves for safe Trick-or-Treating. In the “bad” (read Black parts) of Jacksonville, attempts have been made to make the Halloween tradition safe.

Doesn’t this run counter to Putnam’s study, that the more homogeneous the community the greater the trust? All-white enclaves don’t require such programs, but all-Black cities do.

Which brings us to Prince George’s County, that all-Black enclave that his home to some of the highest foreclosure rates (and a horrible school system and high crime rate) that The Washington Post featured as an aberration in the increasingly diverse world.

Why? Because non-Black people don’t want to live there; it isn’t safe:

From Loudoun to Fairfax to Montgomery, communities that are growing are also growing more integrated, with people of every race and ethnicity living side by side. Prince George’s stands virtually alone as a place that is gaining population yet has an increasing number of residents living in neighborhoods that are overwhelmingly one race — in this case, African American. 

A Washington Post analysis of census data shows that the number of Prince George’s neighborhoods where more than 85 percent of residents are the same race or ethnicity — what demographers consider a high level of segregation — has inched up, from 25 percent in 1990 to 27 percent last year. 

Though the increase is small, any uptick is startling in comparison with everywhere else in the region. While the all-white neighborhood has all but disappeared from Northern Virginia, Montgomery and the District, the all-black neighborhood is on the rise in Prince George’s.

Yet the Prince George’s experience also illustrates the limits of integration. Most blacks and whites still live in separate neighborhoods, despite the dismantling of legal segregation decades ago.

Today, integration has moved beyond black and white. Integrated neighborhoods often are created when Asians and Hispanics move into predominantly white neighborhoods, said John Logan, a Brown University sociologist who has studied segregation patterns for 30 years. He says these “global neighborhoods” pave the way for more blacks to move into a community without triggering white flight.

In the Washington region, 90 percent of whites still live in neighborhoods where they are a majority or the largest group. Many whites remain unwilling to buy houses in black neighborhoods, Logan said, and so are most Asians. 

“It’s going to be a long, long time before that disappears,” he said.

White exodus
 
Some whites with deep roots in Prince George’s say they sense that the white exodus from the county is largely over and that Hispanics have helped make the county feel more diverse than ever.

Maryland state Del. Justin D. Ross (D) and his wife are raising four young children in Hyattsville, not far from the University of Maryland in an area that has long attracted a mix of people. His two oldest children attend University Park Elementary School, where the student body is 30 percent black, 30 percent Hispanic, 26 percent white and 8 percent Asian.

“We’re giving [our children] a competitive advantage in a real world that will look much different than the one my parents grew up in,” said Ross, 35, who is white and grew up in Prince George’s.

But most white longtime residents have friends and neighbors who have left the county and made little secret of why, said several who met on a recent afternoon to discuss white flight and diversity.

“A lot of white people don’t want to live around black people. It’s crazy, I know,” said John Petro, a developer who lives in a predominantly black subdivision in Bowie and has no intention of moving away. 

“They don’t always say ‘black,’ ” said Jane Eagen Dodd, a retired schoolteacher who lives in an Upper Marlboro community with a rich mix of people from different backgrounds. “They say, ‘The county is changing.’ ”

It’s crazy? Hmm… in virtually every major city in America that has a high population of Black people, nearly all-white suburbs have been created. It would be crazy if it were only one city; that it is EVERY city where Black and white people interact that has seen an exodus of the latter (with the former then in charge of a city that they inevitably see collapse) means it is definitely NOT CRAZY!

So what is Trick-or-Treating like in Prince George’s County, where crime is a huge problem (thus, disproving Putnam’s study on how communities that are homogeneous are much better than the diverse cities)?

How many of the kids in Prince George’s County are bused into the dwindling few all-white enclaves around D.C.?

The Washington Post can brag about Prince George's County offering Black people a chance to be around "Black role models" while gloating about the end of all-white enclaves.  But where will Black kids be able to Trick-or-Treat when these all-white enclaves disappear?

Halloween is the one night of the year where an entire community leaves their homes and interacts with each other. Interesting that Putnam's study on how racial diversity erodes community trust needs a caveat: the greater the percentage of Black people in a community (even if it is an all-Black enclave), the less the community trust.

Haunted Houses vs. Ghetto Tours USA, LLC: A Modest Proposal

Across the country, elaborate haunted houses have been created and huge lines of eager people will wait for the opportunity to be frightened by the manufactured and artificial horrors that await them inside.

The scariest Halloween Haunted House in America, the Bates Motel in Philly

Immense investments have gone into the creation of these elaborate haunted houses that feature actors dressed as ghouls and goblins, vivid special effects, hundreds of liters of fake blood, a Halloween Store worth of props,  and the promise of creating fear - if ever so brief - in the people brave enough to part with their money and venture into these massive structures.

Hauntworld.com is a Web site dedicated to ranking the top Haunted Houses in America, where those seeking chills and thrills from people dressed up as zombies, vampires, ghosts, and other assorted creeps can find the most terrifying places to satiate their need for being scared.

Be it a haunted hayride, a walk through an abandoned insane asylum, traversing around an old skyscraper replete with Hollywood quality sets,or even signing a waver that prevents you from suing the company that put together the haunted house sets (you might be scared to death, you never know!), a person trying to find frights this Halloween season has plenty of options available.

Sadly, none of these Haunted Houses are actually haunted. They are all sets, built by corporations after profits. People want to be scared, where even though their life is never in danger, the thought of someone dressed up and chasing you around with a chainsaw still elicits fear.

But the people dressed up as monsters at these Halloween Haunted House attractions are just actors. The blood isn't real. The threat to your life is only simulated. There are no vampires. There are no ghosts. The person being examined and screaming at the 3D torture chamber is probably going to go have a drink after the show with the person doing the "so-called" torturing.

I've been thinking about how so many major cities across the country offer tours of the historic districts; guided tours by bus where people have the opportunity to see important buildings, monuments, and landmarks.

Halloween only comes once a year, though those creating these elaborate houses of horror plan all year (and certainly reap outstanding profits) for how they will build even more frightening sets for the next bewitching season.

What if someone were to do the unthinkable, unfathomable, unbelievable, and undeniably smart move and start offering tours of the worst cities in America; the worst neighborhoods in America; the worst housing projects in America?

People want to be scared. They pay to see elaborately decorated sets called Haunted Houses, where they walk into various rooms designed to test and stress their fear threshold. We already know that no one wants to live in the cities and counties that have been abandoned to the Black Undertow; those cities where Climate Change has made formerly safe neighborhoods into some of the most dangerous in America.

Those cities where the inhabitants offer real threats to those foolish enough to be caught driving in them. Those cities that routinely provide the bulk of the nightly news stories you watch - shaking your head at the depravity and thanking yourself that you don't live there - in utter disbelief.

How many areas of Baltimore would provide real fear in those being escorted around decaying buildings, long ago boarded up and left derelict. Where business from the gas station to the liquor have bars on all the windows? How many areas of Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Buffalo, Washington D.C., Indianapolis, Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, New York City, Providence, Hartford (CT), Philadelphia, etc., have areas of the city "every one knows" not to go near?

Real frights, courtesy of the inhabitants of the Black Undertow in Philly

Those are parts of the town - invariably all Black parts of the own - that people reflexively know not go drive near or be caught in after dark.

Real haunted houses. Not by ghosts. Not by vampires. Not by witches. Not by zombies. Not elaborate sets designed by Hollywood movie set designers and financed by smart businessman looking to capitalize on the Halloween season.  But these "bad parts of town" are the all-Black parts of major cities that white people only venture into if they need drugs or fake IDs.

Ghetto Tours USA, LLC. Has a nice ring to it? You could open up franchises in every city, have an armed guard on every tour and have tour guides relate the most heinous stories that have transpired since white flight occurred and the Black Undertow assumed control.

You could spur economic activity by letting those on the tour purchase food from the few remaining vendors in these depressed cities, such as the infamous Chicken Hut in Tulsa. The tour guide to show people the actual houses where gangs have been known to frequent and where the latest murder transpired; sadly, because of the no-snitching policy in that Black Undertow community, the killer is still at large. Unlike Haunted Houses, where people dress up as murderers, psychos, and nightmarish creatures, the inhabitants of the Black Undertow cities are real. They are the reason Whitopias exist.

Soon the Halloween season will end. The sets will be boxed up and the extravagant Haunted Houses and Haunted Hayrides will end. But that doesn't mean the truly scary places in America will be boxed up.

For those daring, for those entrepreneurial enough, and for those prepared to see the most frightening places in the country, Ghetto Tours USA, LLC is ready to open for business.

No offense to Hauntworld.com, but the scariest places in America are available to go to 24/7/365. It's just most people know that they could lose their life there, and they aren't willing to part with that. Not even if it means experiencing palpable, agonizing, terrifying fear.

#421. The 'Noose' Halloween Decoration

Few things in life conjure images of dread more than the prospect of death. The macabre thought of how we will meet our end is a contemplation few dare entertain.

Halloween is a time of the year where the ghostly, ghoulish, ghastly, grisly, grotesque and terrifying are confronted, traditionally a day where our own mortality is in question.

People visit haunted houses in an attempt to have their senses overloaded with simulated frights, all the while looking at iconography glorifying instruments that have contributed to death. No Halloween decoration induces fear quite like the noose, the hangman’s knot that has horrified criminals for many a century.

Hanging wit silent horror, the noose is a fear-inducing device that spells doom for whoever has the ignominy of wearing it on their neck.

A most garish Halloween decoration, the noose has become a contentious source of angst for Black people who see this particular ornamentation in people’s yards. The noose is the device used in lynchings that history tells us are a prominent scar upon white America that will never fade.

Lynchings have been called the “Holocaust of Black people” though from a span of “1882 and 1951, 4,730 people were lynched in the United States: 3,437 Negro and 1,293 white.” Lynchings have long been looked upon as a form of racial oppression, though the primary reasoning behind using a noose on a criminal was to bring about swift justice and deter illegal behavior in “outlaw” territory.

Lynching was used a tool to discourage rape, effectively sending a message to would be sexual predators. According to FBI statistics, 37,000+ white women were raped or sexually assaulted in 2005 alone in the United States, so this message has long been forgotten.

The rate of lynching’s by race from 1882-1951 correlates interestingly to the disproportionate amount of crime committed by Black people in today’s America. Even in the days when lynching was “prominent”, the nation only averaged 68 a year. A cursory glance of Thugreport.com shows you more than 68 horrible stories of death transpiring daily across the nation.

Yet the pernicious myth of lynching continues unabated, leaving Halloween displays exploiting a noose as a scare prop quite vulnerable:

A Halloween display in Springfield, Ill., will be modified because of concerns that it is racist, the local NAACP said.

A compromise was reached Thursday in meeting of city officials, Springfield's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and homeowner, Josh Witkowski, The Springfield State Journal-Register reported.

Springfield NAACP President Archie Lawrence had complained at Tuesday's city council meeting that the display was an effigy of a black man hanging from gallows. The hanging figure was dressed as a cowboy, its legs tied with rope, with a dark-colored skull.

Witkowski said he will change the color of the mask to silver with red and brown tones underneath. The cowboy hat will be removed to prevent casting a shadow on the mask. The rest of the display will remain the same, he said.

"After talking to Mr. Witkowski, one thing I am certain: It was never his intent to have a racist prop in his yard. I am absolutely certain of that," said Lawrence. "And to show the goodness of this man, what he did was he changed the prop to clearly reflect that it's just a Halloween image, nothing more and nothing less."

This happens all over the nation as those exterior decorators daring to employ nooses in their shrines of fright quickly cast themselves in league with mephistophelean white devils of the past:

In a dozen incidents during the weeks before Halloween this year, black and white Americans around the country faced a kind of Rorschach test of the national psyche: Is that a funny Halloween ghoul in a noose hanging from your neighbor’s tree? Or is that a racist symbol of lynching hiding in the Halloween tableau?...

The Rev. Johnny Gamble, pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church in Stratford, heard complaints from parishioners and went to see it for himself.

“At first, I couldn’t believe my eyes. But there it was. A mannequin of a black man, hanging from the neck,” said Mr. Gamble, who is black.

When he knocked at the door, Joyce Mounajed, Miss Cervero’s mother, told him the figure was not meant to be a black man, but was dark-hued to convey the idea of decaying flesh. It was “just a decoration,” he said she told him.

“I told her, ‘We don’t decorate like that. That is a symbol of lynching,’” Mr. Gamble said. “What if my great-grandfather was lynched? There are no two ways of looking at this; that thing is extremely offensive.”

The origins of Halloween are murky, with links to pagan traditions, All Saints Day (a Christian holiday celebrated the next day) and the great Hollywood tradition of Freddy Krueger’s undead tribe. But in all its versions, sociologists say, it has been a holiday that celebrates transgressions of one kind or another.

Richard Lachman, professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Albany, said the noose is a fairly new part of outdoor Halloween displays, hardly seen until the last few years.

“It cannot be taken as a joke,” he said, considering the history of lynching in the United States.

Jokes are no longer tolerated in America, especially on Halloween where a noose will always be construed as a device used for the impending lynching of a Black person. The connotations are just too obvious, even when turned around:

It's a still photo taken of a Halloween decoration in front of a house here in Houston. In that video you see two stuffed decorations.

One represents a Black man with a noose around a White man's neck. That White man appears to be picking cotton.

The family in Houston that posted that decoration on their lawn has since taken it down. But they described it as just a Halloween prank.
What do you think? Is this a joke in bad taste?

Any white offender who dares exploit the noose for frights will be dealt with quickly and swiftly. Just like offenders of the rule of law were dealt long ago:

Philip Dray's new book on lynching fits into that conventional wisdom.  Unless one is predisposed to question the Left's image of white Americans, a reader will be inclined to accept its narrative at face value.  Dray has written a readable chronology of lynching, with emphasis especially on the South, and shows the product of considerable research into the subjects he considers important. 

            This said, it remains important to note the ways his book lacks perspective.  (What follows is a discussion of just some of those ways, since a complete examination of them would go far beyond the scope of a book review):

            1.  His entire theme ("the lynching of black America") repeats the now-customary premise that lynching was primarily an expression of racism.  "Lynching," he says, "was a form of caste oppression... the white world's cruelty"; and, elsewhere, "victims were chosen for their race."

            What is odd is that he cites quite a lot of counter-evidence, but never reflects about it.  He tells about the San Francisco Vigilante Committees of 1851 and 1856; about the hanging of the white gamblers in Vicksburg; about the lynching of eleven whites in New Orleans in 1891 after the Police Superintendent was shot from ambush; that half the thirty lynch victims in Illinois after 1882 were white; that thirty-five whites were lynched in North Dakota in the mid-1880s for cattle rustling; and much more.  Lynching was not limited by race or by region of the country.

            Robert Zangrando's The NAACP Crusade Against Lynching, 1909-1950, cites the figures compiled by the Tuskegee Institute: that during the 87 year span between 1882 and 1968 a total of 1,297 whites and 3,445 blacks were lynched.  If racism were the prime mover, the almost 1,300 whites require some explanation.  The major explanation as an alternative to the racial one is the amount of crime to which local communities were reacting. 

            We know, of course, of the cattle-rustling and other crimes committed in the "wild west."  What most people today don't know about is the extent of black crime in the South.  In his book on lynching, James Elbert Cutler quotes with favor a statement that during those years "the worst instincts of the negro came to the front; the percentage of criminals among negroes increased to an alarming extent; many were guilty of crimes of violence of the most heinous and repulsive kind."  Another author tells that "in 1921-22, the homicide rates in Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans per 100,000 Negro population were 103.2, 97.2, 116.9, and 46.7 respectively, while the corresponding rates for the white population were 15.0, 28.0, 29.6, and 8.4."  W.E.B. DuBois, the black-activist leader whom today's conventional wisdom perhaps respects most from among the black leaders of that day, spoke candidly of "a class of black criminals, loafers, and ne'er-do-wells who are a menace to their fellows, both black and white."  That three-quarters of those lynched were black isn't surprising under those circumstances. 

            Dray makes the point that some of the lynchings were for trivial offenses, but fails to mention that there were whites as well as blacks who ran afoul of this.  In Pine Level, North Carolina, in 1908, blacks themselves lynched a black entertainer for "putting on a poor show."

No one wants to look upon a noose and have the chilling final thought that this rope will be their apparatus of doom. Chances are, though, if this was your final thought then you broke the law and the noose was warranted.

Stuff Black People Don’t Like includes the noose decoration, for Disingenuous White Liberals constantly bemoan the Holocaust against Black people that transpired from 1882-1951. Those who celebrate Halloween are warned not to use the noose in terrifying displays they create, for Black people who have been told of the past evils of white people by Crusading White Pedagogues will find nothing but racism in these hangman’s knots.

Sometimes that might be warranted, but most of the time it’s all done in good fun to elicit a fright.

There is nothing more frightening then the silhouette of a human swaying back and forth, with the sun departing in the background. The noose decoration is a reminder that law could once again be restored to the lawless; Black, Brown or white.

The Return of Halloween: Devils Night is Back

Trick or Treating. Halloween movies for kids. The ‘ghost’ costume and Halloween fraternity parties. McDonald’s old-school celebration of Halloween. Barack Obama costumes.

Is there a date that plays to the memory of Pre-Obama America with greater emotional power and iconography then Halloween? No.

Halloween evolved into a celebration of community, where neighbors would open their doors to children on the prowl for candy. Only in cities where a sense of identity, cooperation and civic pride converged could such a holiday mature.

Those cities with high rates of volunteerism seem to provide a window into the areas where Halloween flourishes. Zillow.com, a popular real-estate Web site, took on the task of identifying the top 20 cities for Trick or Treating and came out with an interesting list:

We theorized that homes in more expensive neighborhoods would give out bigger, better candy. However, wealthy neighborhoods are not always the best for harvesting the most Halloween candy. For parents and kids alike, the walkability and density of a neighborhood is key to covering the most ground, in the fastest time, to collect the most candy. Safety, of course, is also a primary concern for parents on Halloween, thus adding crime data to the Index was a no-brainer.

Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Washington DC, Chicago, Milwaukee, Phoenix and San Diego are on the list, though Zillow then breaks down the data further offering the top five neighborhoods to Trick or Treat.

In every major city, gentrification is underway. SWPL whites have created enclaves that ward off undesirable elements from contaminating their sociological experiments. Zillow profiles the top neighborhoods in Atlanta to Trick or Treat and trust us; these are some of the whitest areas in the city:

Top 5 Atlanta Neighborhoods to Trick-or-Treat in 2010

1. Virginia Highland

2. Morningside / Lenox Park

3. Inman Park

4. Brookhaven

5. Garden Hills

Odd that the Atlanta neighborhoods labeled the most dangerous in America recently aren’t environs profiled by Zillow as highly conducive locals for collecting candy.

Even worse, the failure to include Detroit into this list of top places to Trick or Treat makes us question the legitimacy of this study. Devils Night in Detroit is the type of community building exercise that one normally associates with civic-minded individuals:

Devil's Night in Detroit dates as early as the 1930s. Traditionally, city youths engaged in a night of criminal behavior, which usually consisted of acts of vandalism (such as egging, soaping, or toilet papering). These were almost exclusively acts of petty vandalism, causing little to no property damage.


However, in the early 1970s, the vandalism escalated to more devastating acts, such as arson. This primarily took place in the inner city, but surrounding suburbs were often affected as well. In addition, property owners unable to sell in the city's rapidly declining housing market would use Devil's Night as an opportunity to burn down their homes, collect the insurance money, and claim that an arsonist was at fault.


The crimes became more destructive in Detroit's inner-city neighborhoods, and included hundreds of acts of arson and vandalism every year. The destruction reached a peak in the mid- to late-1980s, with more than 800 fires set in 1984, and 500 to 800 fires in the three days and nights before Halloween in a typical year.

While some people bemoan Devils Night as a sign of decline in Detroit, we believe it exemplifies and embodies the true character of Halloween as practiced by Black people. This year, Halloween celebrations in Detroit are being stymied with the institution of a city-wide curfew to off-set any potential conflagrations started by young Black arsonists:

This weekend, Detroit could feature a rivalry between angels and devils. However, the team of angles is working hard to make sure the good guys win this battle.


Plenty of Detroit neighborhoods have really embraced the idea that Devils' Night is now Angels' Night. The Detroit Police and Fire Departments are working to make sure it stays that way.


"We like to turn around and make it into something positive," said Detroit Police Sergeant Daniel Williams.


A night that once prompted fear is being transformed one year at a time. For years, Devils' Night was marked by flames, but today Angels' Night has a far different purpose…


Normal curfew hours for Thursday, October 28:
For minors age 15 and younger: begin at 10 p.m. on Thursday and end at 6 a.m. on Friday.For minors ages 16 and 17: begin at 11 p.m. on Thursday and end at 6 a.m. on Friday.


Emergency curfew hours for Friday, October 29:
Minors 18 years of age and younger: begin at 6 p.m. on Friday and end at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday


Emergency curfew hours for Saturday, October 30:
Minors 18 years of age and younger: begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday and end at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday


Normal curfew hours for Sunday, October 31:
For minors age 15 and younger: begin at 10 p.m. on Sunday and end at 6 a.m. on Monday.For minors ages 16 and 17: begin at 11 p.m. on Sunday and end at 6 a.m. on Monday.

Halloween. A holiday that should indelibly showcase the great divide that exists in America between incompatible cultures.

With this, let us reinstitute Halloween week at Stuff Black People Don’t Like.

#714. Trick or Treating

On the 31st of October, children dress in their ghoulish best and go forth in their respective towns to knock on neighbors doors in hopes on receiving delicious treats.

Trick or Treating is the ultimate source of community building - a fact Mein Obama should have taken into consideration during his days as a community organizer in Chicago - for parents sending their children alone into the night is not a common practice for people who live on the other side of the tracks or in rough where crime is rampant.

Obviously, Whitopia's are the worst area for Trick or Treating to occur, for the hallmark of these cities is the high amount of crime and disunity that follows white people wherever they go. Wait, Whitopia's are the cities that offer the best places for children to safely Trick or Treat, without fear of molestation or gang rape.

Where does Trick or Treating come from, you might ask? Is it part of the Out of Africa theory, the continent where anything and everything good and decent has originated. To be frank, no. It comes from that dour continent where only evil, blue-eyed devils were conceived, and it is these Ice People who came up with the oustanding tradition of community building through the honesty-inducing practice of sending children out into the night unsupervised:

"Trick-or-treating is a custom for children on Halloween. Children proceed in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy, or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The "trick"is an idle threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property, such as eggs and flour being thrown at householders windows if no treat is given....

The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy.

Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona
(1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a
beggar at Hallowmas."

The custom of wearing costumes and masks at Halloween goes back to Celtic traditions of attempting to copy the evil spirits or placate them, in Scotland for instance where the dead were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white."

Interestingly, Trick or Treating is practiced in most European countries, as well as Australia and the United States, but little knowledge of the tradition being celebrated in Africa is documented. Perhaps African people employ the Trick method much more frequently then the Treat method, as evidenced by the interesting career of Robert Mugabe and the white farmers of Zimbabwe.

Again, it is in Robert Putnam's study on diversity that we understand the truth of why Trick or Treating is a phenomenon in only Whitopia's, for the idea that children being safe to explore the vast cityscape of Washington DC, Memphis, New York City, downtown Atlanta or Richmond High School in California alone is a hard pill to swallow:

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, is very nervous about releasing his new research, and understandably so. His five-year study shows that immigration and ethnic diversity have a devastating short- and medium-term influence on the social capital, fabric of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities.

Putnam’s study reveals that immigration and diversity not only reduce social capital between ethnic groups, but also within the groups themselves. Trust, even for members of one’s own race, is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friendships fewer. The problem isn’t ethnic conflict or troubled racial relations, but withdrawal and isolation. Putnam writes: “In colloquial language, people living in ethnically diverse settings appear to ‘hunker down’—that is, to pull in like a turtle.”

In the 41 sites Putnam studied in the U.S., he found that the more
diverse the neighborhood, the less residents trust neighbors. This proved true
in communities large and small, from big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago,
Houston, and Boston to tiny Yakima, Washington, rural South Dakota, and the
mountains of West Virginia. In diverse San Francisco and Los Angeles, about 30
percent of people say that they trust neighbors a lot. In ethnically homogeneous
communities in the Dakotas, the figure is 70 percent to 80 percent.

Diversity does not produce “bad race relations,” Putnam says. Rather, people in diverse communities tend “to withdraw even from close friends, to expect the worst from their community and its leaders, to volunteer less, give less to charity and work on community projects less often, to register to vote less, to agitate for social reform more, but have less faith that they can actually make a difference, and to huddle unhappily in front of the television.” Putnam adds a crushing footnote: his findings “may underestimate the real effect of diversity on social withdrawal.”

Few words are needed to elaborate on why the practice of Trick or Treating will die out in the America of 2042 then the ones that preceded this sentence, for Putnam's study is a damning critique of the future of Trick or Treating. The practice will be forced to seek refuge in Whitopia's and forever remain a holiday that acts as an immutable bond for white children to understand their attachments to their community.

Sadly, the joys of diversity will never come to Trick or Treating. For if Diversity is our Strength, then Trick or Treating should be a shared practice in all communities:

"Two-thirds of parents say their children will trick-or-treat this Halloween, but fewer minorities will let their kids go door to door, with some citing safety worries, a poll shows.

The survey found that 73 percent of whites versus 56 percent of minorities said their children will trick-or-treat on Wednesday.

That disparity in the survey is similar to the difference in how people view the safety of their neighborhoods, according to the poll by The Associated Press and Ipsos. Lower-income people and minorities are more likely to worry that it might not be safe to send their children out on Halloween night."

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes Trick or Treating, for this practice is just too white to bring into the Black community and can only work in cities that have a solid amount of trust and altruistic-sense of pride in their citizens.

In a phrase, Trick or Treating is just too much of an Acting White proposition for Black people to add to their lives.

For next year, utilize Zillow.com, an excellent website that has tabulated the best places in major cities to Trick or Treat for kids, based on a variety of variables, including safety:

"The folks at Zillow.com have created their first Trick or Treat Housing Index, which draws on the site’s real estate data to determine the top-five neighborhoods in Seattle and Los Angeles to maximize candy intake this Saturday.

"How’d they do that? “There is a common belief that wealthy neighborhoods are the Holy Grail for harvesting the most Halloween candy,” blogs Zillow’s Whitney Tyner. But to provide what it calls a more holistic approach, Zillow factored in home values alongside additional data on population density, neighborhood walkability, and local crime. “Based on those variables, this Index represents neighborhoods that will provide the most candy, with the least walking, and minimum safety risks,” she wrote."

#715. Barack Obama Halloween Costumes

The 2009 edition of Halloween went off with few hitches, save for the potential cavity down the road from an over abundance of candy consumption.

Apparently white people got the memorandum that was floating around the water-cooler, for this year few dared to dress as others have at Halloween Fraternity Parties in the past.

For in 2008, word was beginning to spread that Mein Obama himself, General "Barack" Zod would soon be voted in as the President of United States. A darkness befell Halloween unlike never before, as candidate Obama's mask was outselling that of rival for the presidential throne, Sen. John McCain:

"Supporters of either candidate can buy rubber masks of each to wear for Halloween. So far, 57 percent of the masks Amazon has sold have been Obama masks, versus 43 percent for McCain masks."

Unlike the four horsemen of surfing and bank heist perfection from Point Break, the Obama mask was not purchased for jest, but for adulation and idolatry. In fact, Mein Obama has been the subject of an untold number of items that display his likeness in a manner befitting a King:

"His image is on everything, and his name is inscribed in everything from hats to fine china to music.

Never mind the recession. The business of Obama is booming, CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason reports.

"We even sell an Obama dollar bill now that has his picture on it for $10. So even his money's more valuable," said Jim Warlick, owner of the Washington, D.C., store Political Americana.

By some estimates, the Obama industry is worth at least a quarter of a billion dollars.

QVC expects 200,000 customers will have purchased Obama items by the end of Inauguration Day.

"This is our button room where we've produced 10 million buttons over the past two years," said Steve Swallow, CEO of Tiger Eye Design.

In Greensville, Ohio, Tiger Eye Design makes more than 1,000 different Obama buttons.

"This is the largest effect that any candidate has ever had," Swallow said.

The button room there operates around the clock, seven days a week. Two years ago, Tiger Eye was a $2 million a year company. Today, in the era of Mr. Obama, they do more than 10 times that in business.

"We've gone from 20 full time employees to over 60," Swallow said."

And yet, whereas Patrick Swayze and friends donned the presidential masks of past white men who occupied the Oval Office in Point Break, once Obama stepped into the White House the days of poking fun at the president (or at least Mein Obama) were over. Remember, Black people don't like jokes at their expense.

To offend Mein Obama, as we are all certainly aware by now, is to violate one of the new Protocols of the Learned Elders of Hyde Park, and thus punishable by excommunication from the paradise on earth that is 2009 America:

"Dressing as your favorite presidential nominee for Halloween could be socially risky this year if you're white and don't want to spend $20 for a mask.

No problem if you're a John McCain supporter: Wrinkles and white hair will do the trick.

But if Barack Obama's your man, do you darken your face to resemble his African-American skin tone?

"It's uncharted territory that we're in," said state Sen. Ray Miller, a Democrat from Columbus and one of several black leaders who commented on the subject. "We've made a lot of progress in America on the issue of race relations, and we need to be careful not to move backwards. Something like painting your face I would discourage."

Saturday Night Live was criticized in February when white comedian Fred Armisen was chosen to impersonate Obama on the television show. Armisen wears dark makeup when he's playing the Democrat, who is the first black presidential nominee for a major party, reminding some people of the negative connotations of blackface.

The Costume Specialists store in the Town and Country shopping center has had a few people come in looking for makeup to pose as Obama, manager Kathy Hyland said.

"I don't get the feeling they're trying to mock him or disparage him in any way, shape or form. A lot of times, they're going with a whole group in political costumes and one person has to be Obama," she said.

It is not yet officially a rule or law, but in the near future merely making a joke about Black people in America will be deemed grounds for immediate extermination. The reality of the United States' collapse is so painfully evident now, and the extent to which this ailment has spread is now irreparable, so the only way to keep peace is will be to codify any mentioning of Hate Facts as an unlawful offense and a deafening form of tyranny will overtake the land.

A new religion has replaced Christianity in America as the leading source of faith and spiritual guidance for the citizens of the nation, and those who practice this growing belief live in a world where reason and logic is all but dead: Black people are the embodiment of God, and to deny this is to partake in a cardinal sin for which their is no indulgence.

And like any God or religion, massive amounts of money is to be made by those who peddle the wares of products that feature the visage of Mein Obama:

"Despite a stagnant economy and a presidential campaign that set new fundraising records, many political junkies still have money to burn. Luckily, savvy entrepreneurs found a solution for that: put Barack Obama on anything and sell it. Here are the most ridiculous items Obama is selling right now (click on the link above view the products)."

Paradoxically, this year, more Barack Obama Halloween costumes were available:

"Rendering the President into a brain-eating zombie and blood-sucking vampire, the Zombama and Barakula masks will be huge hits this season. As Random Good Stuff comments, “Evil Obama wants your healthcare blood.”

Halloween is a time to dress up so we can live vicariously through our heroes, whether they be ghosts, goblins, superheroes or Barack Obama. However, Stuff Black People Don't Like includes Barack Obama Halloween costumes, for just as Obama depicted as the Joker knocked him off his throne a notch, having people dress as Mein Obama at the same time people dress as Teletubbies and Power Rangers is too demeaning to take.

Obama is more than just a Saturday morning cartoon, and associating this great man with cartoon characters will continue to add to his monumental collapse in the eyes of the nation.

The great hope though, is that a Point Break II can be made with a Barack Obama masked character leading the charge in stealing money from banks and robbing people. Wait... that might be racist too.

#716. The Ghost Costume for Halloween

Already, we have discussed that Black people don’t particularly enjoy Ghosts (registered mail and dogs are also on that list). Halloween is closely linked with reverence for the dead and an understanding that on Halloween, the thin line that separates the land of the living from the realm of the deceased is blurred:

“On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future.”

Black people find ghosts abominable, for these other worldly specters have the ability to bestow sudden frights upon them that leave Black people petrified (after the initial striking back, as SPBDL: Sudden Frights, teaches us).

Scary movies that are shown at theaters are a wonderful place to see Black people being frightened by make-believe ghosts, which send Black people into a permanent frenzy of non-stop chatter, as they deliver play-by-play during the movie to avoid being scared.

However, apparitions in movies and the thought of a real-life floating ghoul hardly create the fear and dread in Black people, that a person donning white sheets and impersonating a ghost does.

The decision by an individual to mimic the appearance of a ghost sends shivers of paranoia and fear down a Black persons spine, for the potential of multiple people adorned in ghost paraphernalia is a thought to dreadful to contemplate.

The inscrutable and inveterate fear that Black people have of ghosts and of those who dress like ghosts on Halloween is one that SBPDL hopes they are soon manumit from, for the seemingly scurrilous nature Black people view this Halloween costume is reaching truly frightening dimensions:

"The Halloween garb worn by a Westview student last week was a ghost costume, not a Klan outfit, the boy's father said yesterday. “My son is not racist. He was more naive than malicious,” said the father, whose name is not being used because he said he feared his son could be subject to harassment.

The father called The San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday after print and broadcast media publicized reports of the incident, one of two that has prompted a parents group to call for diversity and tolerance training in the Poway Unified School District.

The group, Concerned Parents Alliance, said the Westview High student wore a costume resembling a Ku Klux Klan outfit on Halloween. The group also was concerned about an incident last month in which a noose was found hanging in a boys bathroom at Poway High School in Poway….

“It was a ghost costume made by his aunt 10 years ago,” he said. “He and his brother had worn it on and off for years.”

Superintendent Don Phillips said he's been told that the boy has friends who are black, and they have said the teen is not racist.

“Sometimes kids don't understand that some symbolism can be really, really powerful and hurtful,” Phillips said.

“Whether it was meant to be a ghost costume or not, it was not interpreted that way,” Phillips said. He said the district recognizes the need to create greater sensitivity among students.”

Black people have a distinct fear of ghosts that has a correlation to their great dislike of Halloween, and for their continued fear that a resurrection of a largely irrelevant organization (whose membership consists of people living with their parents and FBI agents) is just around the corner.

There can be no denying the similarity between the robes of those who are members of a long immaterial organization and those of children or adults enjoying Halloween wearing the sheets with cut-out eye holes in a moving deference to the traditional image of the ghost.

Think back to the classic film, ET: The Extra Terrestrial, and the importance of the traditional ghost costume in helping our beleaguered illegal alien attempt to contact his friends in space to pick him up:

“On Halloween, Michael and Elliott dress E.T. as a ghost so they can sneak it out of the house. Elliott and E.T. ride a bicycle to the forest, where E.T. makes a successful call home. The next morning, Elliott wakes up to find E.T. gone, and returns home to his distressed family. Michael finds E.T. dying in the forest, and takes the alien to Elliott, who is also dying.”

The ghost costume is much maligned, for you have to remember that any attempt to defame Black people in America is grounds for social and immediate expulsion, as Black people are a protected class from any criticism or from seeing people dressed as ghosts.

One of the easiest ways to end a debate with someone who is using Hate Facts is to say they must be a member of an organization that finds great delight in dressing up in ghost costumes on days that aren’t Halloween, for the KKK inference is one any person will immediately back off from. Even Hate Facts have a kryptonite:

Two students in Leesburg were suspended for wearing Ku Klux Klansman-like costumes to class amid apparent rising racial tensions at a high school, according to a Local 6 News report.

Local 6 News has learned that besides the costumes, there has been at least one other incident reported during the week of homecoming festivities at Leesburg High School.

Two black students were arrested and charged with felonies after allegedly getting into fights with white students.

"There is a problem," student Gilliam Kamken said. "If there wasn't a problem, all of this would not be going on. Nobody would be fighting. Nobody would be in the hospital, and nobody would be in jail."

"It is not just white people against black people and black people against white people," student Elese Stein said. "I think it is more of an attention thing."

No one ever bothered to ask these students (this happened during the month of October) if they were just massive fans of Halloween and were eager to engage in trick or treating. You see, Halloween is 365white, not 365Black.

This incident has been repeated numerous times over and the confusion of the similarity between the ghost costume and the KKK accoutrements is eerie, but has had harsh ramifications for those who dare to blur the line between phantom and hate:

"A dozen Tri-state high school students made quite a scene at the school halloween dance when they put on Ku Klux Klan outfits.

Students and administrators in Rising Sun, Indiana, say they're upset it happened and shocked the students would do it.

The principal made the students take off the outfits right away, but the damage was done.

9News learned the students were told they have to go through sensitivity training or risk suspension.

People in the community are also being asked to reach out to each other.

"I think you're surprised if one person shows up [in KKK garb], but sometimes good people, whether they're adults or kids, do things that aren't the best and make bad decisions and that's what we had. We had about 12 individuals make a very bad decision," said Superintendent Steve Patz.

The students, all boys, came to the dance wearing sheets, dressed as ghosts and pulled out hoods a little later.

There was one African-American girl at the dance, 9News learned.

Although the superintendent says he's under the impression the act wasn't done maliciously, it doesn't matter.

He says this kind of action regarding race, religion, cultures -- just can't happen.”

Halloween brings out the ghoul in everyone who participates in the revelry of the day, and some parties (Fraternity parties) have been mistaken for hate filled congregations of bigots. The ghost costume was a major hit in Pre-Obama America, but still was viewed as a risqué costume for the odious connotations it inspired.

So, be careful when wearing a ghost costume to your Halloween party, for Stuff Black People Don’t Like includes the ghost costume for Halloween, as this ensemble combines a number of variables that elicit fear in Black people.

For in reality, Black people believe all white people have a ghost costume in their house ready to don at any moment, and that upside down T's will appear everywhere.

#717. Halloween Movies for Kids

In but a few days time, millions of youth will take to the streets to trick or treat for candy from neighbors; fraternities will once again be host to parties that leave little to the imagination; and adults will dress up in fantasy gear to engage in vain attempts to replicate their youth by searching for a new type of candy.

There are people who don’t celebrate Halloween out of religious convictions, largely because Halloween's origins are derived from pagans (more on this in a later post):

"The word Halloween is derived from the term "All Hallows Eve" which occurred on Oct. 31, the end of summer in Northwestern Europe. "All Saints Day," or "All Hallows Day" was the next Day, Nov. 1^st. Therefore, Halloween is the eve of All Saints Day. Apparently, the origins of Halloween can be traced back to ancient Ireland and Scotland around the time of Christ. On Oct. 31^st, the Celts celebrated the end of summer."

As we will soon learn, Halloween is one of the ultimate manifestations of white people and their history, but today is not the date necessary to discuss this, for another topic exists that showcases exactly why Black people find the entire notion of Halloween fatuous and beneath the need to include it in the 365Black celebration.

We have discussed how Black people love movies in numerous posts, for movies offer one of the purist forms of escapism from the doldrums of life that one can encounter. Yet, many movies are highly offensive to Black people (Good Hair being one), and one genre of holiday film leaves Black people fuming: Halloween movies.

Pre-Obama America has never been more glamorized than when Oct. 31 is celebrated in celluloid, for the major films about Halloween produced by Hollywood exist in an entirely alternate universe where Black people scarcely exist, save for a token Black in a minor, minor and completely uncredited role.

Why is this? Well, SBPDL will elaborate on this in a later post, but the reason is simple: the United States once resembled a Whitopia from sea to shining sea, and now, these same people are being forced into hiding on 21st century reservations that have golf courses, almost no crime and plenty of gracious home owners dispensing candy to children who live in these bubbles, or Whitopia's.

However, Halloween films offer a unique view of America that not even Norman Rockwell could immortalize in one of his paintings, for few children who have experienced the glory that is Halloween have been able to articulate the feeling of anticipation and dread that exists for this holiday.

For, Halloween is about friendship, community and family, but beneath the flashy candy exterior lays the reality of Halloween in its Pagan roots: the celebration of those dead. You see, Halloween is essentially a date where the young of the Western World learn about mortality, for one day they too will perish.

We have learned that Black people have little reverence for the dead, and for this reason Halloween must be day that befuddles them greatly (some would argue that Black people have little respect for the living as well).

It is in Halloween movies that the former land of Pre-Obama America is canonized, and it is in these films that white people can view all that is lost and that Black people can see how real communities are organized.

Take for instance The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a story by Washington Irving that tells the tale of a post-American Revolutionary War town, where white people are building a community and a nation:

"The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel.

As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head"."

It is in a story like this, and the cartoon movie version that children can see for themselves just who the founders of the United States were and where Black people can view Pre-Obama America in her infancy.

A land of hope and change it was, where the English had been defeated, and communities were being built with a watchful eye to a collective future of prosperity.

It was Charles Schulz who wrote the timeless comic strip, The Peanuts, and who gave the world that perpetual loser with the awe-shucks attitude, Charlie Brown. But his Halloween special, "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown":

"With autumn already in full swing, the Peanuts gang prepare for Halloween festivities. Meanwhile, Linus writes a letter to The Great Pumpkin; to Charlie Brown's disbelief, Snoopy's laughter, Patty's assurance that the Great Pumpkin is a fake, and even to Lucy's violent threat to make Linus stop. Linus laments in the letter that "more people believe in Santa Claus than in you [The Great Pumpkin]". Linus decides to spend his Halloween in the pumpkin patch, waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive...

When 4:00 AM rolls around on November 1, Lucy gets out of her bed to check on Linus. Seeing that Linus' bed is empty, she goes out to the pumpkin patch only to find Linus lying on the ground, shivering and covered in his blanket. Showing how much she cares for Linus (despite thinking that the Great Pumpkin is nonsense), Lucy walks him home to his room and takes his shoes off, and Linus passes out in his own bed as Lucy puts the covers on him before storming out of his room.

Later on that day, Charlie Brown and Linus are at the rock wall, talking about last night's events. When Charlie Brown tries to console Linus saying, "I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, too.", Linus blows a fuse and angrily vows to Charlie Brown that the Great Pumpkin will come next year, and his ranting continues as the credits roll."

It is myths that people build identification with their past, solidify cohesion in their present and thus, have a foundation for a future. Sleepy Hollow and the The Great Pumpkin, both represent Halloween in vastly different ways, but have a sound correlation: children need enduring myths that bind them together, and from fertile minds have sprung wonderful stories that promote Halloween to white people, yet strangely leave out Black people.

Recent stories only punctuate the importance of Halloween to the cannon of Western Man, and the nearly complete Black-out of Black people from these celebrations of the macabre. Ray Bradbury gives us a haunting tale of The Halloween Tree, a story that teaches children respect for the dead, and that Halloween is far more than just a date to collect free candy:

"A group of eight boys set out to go trick-or-treating on Halloween, only to discover that a ninth friend, Pipkin, has been whisked away on a journey that could determine whether he lives or dies. Through the help of a mysterious character named Moundshroud, they pursue their friend across time and space through ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures, Celtic Druidism, Notre Dame Cathedral in Medieval Paris, and The Day of the Dead in Mexico.

Along the way, they learn the origins of the holiday that they celebrate, and the role that the fear of death has played in shaping civilization. The Halloween Tree itself, with its many branches laden with jack-o'-lanterns, serves as a metaphor for the historical confluence of these traditions."

The movie version of this tale is a story that oddly glorifies a Whitopia, and follows the five friends, one of whom is on his deathbed:

"This kids travel to Halloweens past learning why they are dressed as they are- first to Egypt, to learn of the day of the dead, and the significance of mummification. Next they witness old rituals carried out by Celtic Druids, learning the origin and myths of witches. They travel next to an unfinished Notre Dame (which they finish in a matter of minutes with Moundshroud's magic), to learn of the Cathedral's use of gargoyles and demons to ward off evil spirits. The at last arrive in Mexico, where the significance of skeletons is revealed, and where Halloween is celebrated as a means of overcoming one's fear of death. It is in an old tomb in Mexico that they catch up to Pip finally, too late to save him.

Moundshroud tell the children they didn't make it in time and Pip is now his property, symbolized by his pumpkin. The children, eager to have their friend back, bargain a year from each of their lives, in exchange for Pip's- Moundshroud accept the deal, and they are teleported home. The children rush to Pip's house once more, to see if the entire ordeal was in fact real, and are delighted to see their friend back from the hospital. He recounts the journey as a dream he experienced during surgery."

Friendship, loyalty and respect for the dead are glamorized in this story and the movie offers a touching denouement that is a metaphor for all the people who have sacrificed before us, to ensure that we would have the right to live. The need to always remember those who came before us on October 31 has never been more beautifully displayed than in this film.

And yet, Black people are not to be seen.

Disney put out a film in 1993 that has become a hit - Hocus Pocus - for this film acts a simple lesson in the Salem Witch Trials and connects it to contemporary Salem, a Whitopia if there ever was one:

"The movie opens in 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts where three witch sisters — Winifred, Sarah, and Mary Sanderson — lure a young girl named Emily to their house in the woods, where they prepare to suck out the girl's lifeforce. Her brother, Thackery Binx, attempts to rescue her, but he is caught by the witches and forced to watch as they drain Emily's lifeforce, killing her in the process. As the witches are about to do the same to Binx, he angrily calls Winifred a hag, declaring that there is not enough children in the world to make her beautiful. This prompts a livid Winifred and her sisters to instead turn him into an immortal black cat capable of speech, punishing him for the insult by forcing him "not to die, but to live forever with his guilt".

Not long after this occurs, the witches are caught by the town elders — including Binx's grieving father — and are sentenced to death for their use of witchcraft. The Sanderson sisters are hanged by the Salem townsfolk, but not before Winifred's spellbook casts a curse which would raise the three of them from the dead if and when a virgin lit the Black-Flamed Candle in the witches' home. Unable to return to his family, Binx dedicated his immortal life to guarding the Sanderson home so this curse could not come to light.

Three hundred years later, in 1993, a teenage boy from Los Angeles named Max moves to Salem with his parents and younger sister Dani. Max falls for a girl named Allison who has good knowledge of the history of the Sanderson sisters. On Halloween, Max, Dani and Allison visit the old house of the witches which has since become a museum, and Max lights the Black-Flamed Candle, which summons powerful magic to raise the three witches from the dead."

Scenes of children trick or treating blissfully through the streets of Salem, families gathering to celebrate Halloween and the deep bond a brother has for his younger sister is shown in this film that once again - oddly - leaves out Black people.


Other films have been made that fit in with this piece, but the ones mentioned have one shocking similarity that is glaringly obvious: they all have a paucity of Black people and omit them completely from Halloween in Pre-Obama America.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes Halloween movies for kids, for you would have a better chance of seeing The Great Pumpkin then seeing a Black person in any of these films. Halloween has nothing to do with 365Black, for when you get past the candy aspect of the holiday, a much deeper narrative unfolds that has its origins in Europe and grew profoundly in Pre-Obama America.

Black people worry that white people might one day look with great reverence on their ancestors again, and that Halloween (and these movies) will remind them of all that has been lost, and more importantly, all that will be worth fighting to restore.

For it is in Halloween that kids learn that "death be not proud, though some have called thee." Instead, it is a date to celebrate, and in these movies, children have a template to understand that a nationwide Whitopia once existed where a shattered Union now rests wearily.