Thread: Do you ever worry about racial overtones in your display?

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This incident goes back many years, but I'll bet there are a few Chicago-area haunters who remember the stink of it.

A home haunter had a character hanging by a noose as one of the props in his yard. Some passersby decided that the figure looked African-American and caused quite a fuss over what they said looked like a lynching as part of the display. The furor hit all the local papers and I believe even local TV. I remember thinking that I could not, for the life of me, determine the race of this hanging corpse, let alone interpret the scene as a lynching; if I had, I would have joined the outrage but I just couldn't see it.

I'm reminded of this incident because this year I'm including a very scary bogeyman who is black. I don't mean African-American black, I mean black as a politician's heart black, and with a high gloss surface to boot. (The effect will be similar to this commercial costume but much, much bloodier). Still, he's going to be the most overtly frightening character in the bunch, and as someone whose skin color can best be described as fishbelly white, I worry a little that someone will interpret the display in ways I don't intend. If I'm going to offend someone, goshdarnit I want to do it deliberately

Does anyone else ever worry about such overtones, and if so, how do you adjust your display?

I have generic ghouls, zombies, reapers and the like. Doesn't apply to my current lineup of dead and mostly dead props! I was gonna do a whole scene once were a ghoul was being stuffed into a big faux furnace- like a brick oven. It didn't take long for me to conclude it was probably in poor taste and I dropped the idea. It's a tough call sometimes. Anything can offend anyone really. Can't please them all. But you can avoid the obvious if you care to.

Dan

You will get answers that go both ways on this one. We had a hanging man as part of our display one year, and you couldn't tell what race was intended.

After that, a few years ago on the forum there was a very ugly argument about this subject and how a hanging man is perceived and I didn't repeat my hanging man. One of my forum friends had her feelings hurt very badly by the argument and I really felt horrible. I think it depends on your audience. Personally I err on the side of caution. BUT like I said - others have the same prop - even the big haunts like Knott's Scary Farm, so go with your gut.

I received a lecture from a little girl the year I had a pirate skeleton hanging in a noose. He was just a skeleton, no racial identity. It was the noose - not an acceptable decoration in the South. I grew up in the sixties up North watching Westerns on TV - of course you hang bank robbers, horse thieves and cattle rustlers. And pirates were routinely executed by hanging. So even though I think it's totally appropriate in my haunt, it's not worth making anyone uncomfortable. I'd probably use it if I lived in a different neighborhood.

I was in the dollar tree shopping looking at the halloween severed hands and feet and this young african american boy came by and said "wow, mom look! can we can get some of these?" to which she angrily replied "NO! do you see any black hands there!!?" i stood there confused. if there were black ones would that cause her to be angry too? i think people get too touchy on the subject of race sometimes especially if they are already offended by the setting i.e. halloween displays. so honestly i would adjust things if they look even slightly racially offensive

No, there are no racial overtones in my display. And there weren't any in that man's display either. People have been getting hanged for a very long time.

Racism only has a hope of disappearing when we stop looking at the differences between each other under a microscope. Racism will only proliferate when we have to stop and look at every little thing to evaluate whether or not it offends someone.

I guess I could get into trouble since the only people in my display are Charlie Brown and snoopy. If Al Sharpton shows up tomorrow on my front lawn I'll take pics

[semi-offtopic]I saw a black severed hand at Big Lots this year. Just one, among a score of white hands and feet. It struck me as strange and led to a train of thought where I pondered just how one ended up being dark-skinned (plastic) and the rest not.[/semi-offtopic]

I don't know who decided that the noose was an anti-black symbol, but the vast majority of lynchings here in Washington were NOT black people. Mostly whites, a few Asians and an unfair share of Native Americans. What if you made an overtly white hanging victim? Would someone be offended at that? Who knows?

I grew up in the '80s watching six-gun heroes on Saturday mornings and I too think of a noose as a punishment for a horse-thief or bank robber, I don't associate it at all with any racial undertones. In fact, I never did until I read last years' discussion on this forum. So, that all being said, if you want to use the noose and it is, in fact, NOT a symbol of hatred to you, and you are also prepared to deal with the consequences, (legal, vandals, publicity, etc.) then I say go ahead and use it. For me, though I have plenty of other props that are just as effective as a noose, and not so controversial.

I am pre-emptively offended that anyone might be offended by this post.

ya know what worring does? makes ya feel sick, while changing nothing what so ever.



" don't care bout the color of ones skin, i just see dead people"

We are totally Pirate here ( go figure ) and we do have a hanging guy in our yard as part of our display. It just happens that the pirate in question is whiteish so I don't think we will have this problem. We bought ( gasp ! Sorry, I'm still working on the skills to do this stuff myself !) this prop at Spirit a few years ago and have not had any complaints yet. The only thing I did to him was to put a bandana on his head to make him a pirate, he just screams and goes up and down and is the only animated thing in our display.

I hope that no one would have a problem with it but who knows.... What if he were black ? I don't know if we would have bought him since our next door neighbors are African-American and we are friends with them and wouldn't want to offend ..

So to answer your question, I guess we think about it a little but don't let it rule our display. A lot of our stuff is store bought and then "fixed" to make it work, we can't control how they are manufactured....