#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."

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#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.

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#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.

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#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.

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#718. Fraternity Halloween Gatherings

College is a four-year experience in the United States that supplies those who make it through with a degree and the keys to success in life. Most interestingly, many times as the person rides the journey of life with the diploma they received from said school, the memories of what they learned and the experiences they had are lost in a haze of booze and wild parties.

These college-educated individuals collectively comprise the best educated workforce on the planet, regardless of their inability to conjure up memories of parties or minute details of a microeconomics lecture on the comparative advantage of trade with Argentina, as an important Business Week article points out:

"Similarly, 28% have a college degree, a fivefold gain over this period. Today's U.S. workforce is the most educated in the world...

But now, for the first time ever, America's educational gains are poised to stall because of growing demographic trends. If these trends continue, the share of the U.S. workforce with high school and college degrees may not only fail to keep rising over the next 15 years but could actually decline slightly, warns a report released on Nov. 9 by the National Center for Public Policy & Higher Education, a nonprofit group based in San Jose, Calif. The key reason: As highly educated baby boomers retire, they'll be replaced by mounting numbers of young Hispanics and African Americans, who are far less likely to earn degrees.

Black people read this article and cringe, for a work force that was once comprised of 82 percent white people - a majority of which spent their college tenure drinking insane amounts of alcohol - was able to build the most dynamic, diverse economy man has ever known. And yet, the more diverse the United States gets, the worse our economic production will be, regardless of how much booze white people drink in college.

As Business Week points out, it is merely our educational gap - greater percentage of young Black people and less white people in the near future - that will endanger our status as a superpower. Bing drinking whites are apparently capable of unimaginable heights when it comes to dreaming of vast contributions to the nation and its economic development, but a influx of diversity merely dilutes those white peoples ability - who binge imbibed in college - to carry the burden alone.

And what is it that these white people are doing in college, whilst binge drinking? Well, many of these binge drinking white people (and future engines of economic growth in America) are members of fraternities and sororities while at college, for these social organizations give them the ability to network with older, binge drinking white people and grant them access to potential careers that will fuel the American economy, until (as Business Week pointed out) the demographic changes disrupt that economic engine completely.

All across the United States, fraternities and sororities help men and women become model citizens, contributors to society and instills a valuable code of conduct and work ethic through character building and lessons in the importance of group bonding.

Greek letters are not an uncommon sight upon the inside shin of a white male, who takes just pride in his fraternity and girls are known to have their letters on all forms of clothing, their cars and more importantly,belonging to said Greek community helps create friendships that will last for life.

Black people tried to emulate fraternities and sororities, to mixed results, with one prominent Black sorority seeing hard earned dollars go towards a $900,000 wax statue:

"Members of the country's oldest black sorority are suing to remove their president, alleging that she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of the group's money on herself – some of it to pay for a wax statue in her own likeness.

In the suit filed in Washington, D.C., the Alpha Kappa Alpha members also alleged that international President Barbara McKinzie bought designer clothing, jewelry and lingerie with the sorority credit card

The lawsuit says $900,000 was spent on the McKinzie wax statue, but Gray said he has since learned the amount was for the two statues. The statues reportedly are to be displayed in the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, Md., he said."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/29/barbara-mckinzie-alpha-ka_n_247388.html

You would think that every person who lives in the United States and benefits from these binge drinking white peoples economic prowess would be happy that these benevolent palefaces create economic production that can employ millions. Alas, many of the memories that are forgotten by the binge drinking white people are remembered vividly by these (as Business Week said) soon to be thorns in the side of any economic expansion in the US.

We are discussing Halloween this week at SBPDL, and what better holiday that white people adore to drive home the point of Black people's angst and unflappable disgust at these binge drinking whites actions while they are co-eds, then a Black-themed party?

For Halloween offers white people the opportunity to dress in fantasy, since we all know in an Absolute World, everyone would be Kanye West, and white people all secretly wish to be Black. Thus, the reason for Gangsta-themed parties, Pimp & Ho parties and the ultimate form of impersonation, Black face.

You see, on Halloween, people get to dress up in ways that on any other day would probably sentence that person to the insane asylum, but on this most auspicious of nights, the opportunity to indulge in the most carnal of fantasies is allowed

Binge drinking white college students dress up as Black people on Halloween - not to be racist - but to emulate their favorite people whom they all wish to secretly be, for the pressure of holding up the American economy before (as Business Week stated) the rising tide of color capsizes it soon, is a great pressure indeed.

Impersonation, it has been said, is the most sincere form of flattery. These binge drinking white students dressing up as pimps and hos for a party or as gangstas is but a modest attempt to show solidarity with their Black brethren, who find Halloween insufficiently 365Black.

At schools from Auburn University, John Hopkins University, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Richmond have all seen students partake in emulate Black people out of respect for their cultural practices:

"Although many students’ Halloween costumes elicited laughter this past weekend, one person’s controversial choice ignited outrage and a flurry of discussion among the University of Richmond community.

Around 1 a.m. on Oct. 28, witnesses said a person was seen walking around the 800 block of the University Forest Apartments wearing a painted black face, a dreadlock wig and large, painted pink lips. Those who saw the person said the costume reminded them of blackface, a style of theatrical makeup that was popular in the United States during the 1800s, and one that carries a strong tones of racism in today’s society."

The binge drinking white person who dared dress in Black face, has nothing on the binge drinking white fraternity brothers at these colleges:

"For example, when three white students tried for their own laughs by dressing up as African Americans (one as Uncle Sam in blackface, the other two as tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams) for a fraternity costume party, few administrators at the University of Virginia were amused.

The public reaction has run the gamut from amusement at a sophomoric attempt at humor, to a laissez-faire "boys will be boys" attitude, to mild discomfort at white students having acted in such a politically incorrect fashion, to outrage at what some consider to be blatant racism.

Far from being an isolated incident, the flare-up at UVA over the blackface costumes follows a string of blackface controversies at college fraternities elsewhere in the country. For example, two fraternities at Auburn University were suspended after students attended a Halloween party dressed in blackface, do-rags and Afro wigs; at another party, one fraternity member came dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan and another came as a black man with a noose around his neck. After ruling that the school had violated the students' right to free speech, however, a circuit court judge lifted the suspensions.

In another incident, the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at the University of Louisville in Kentucky was tried by a school hearing panel and found guilty of conduct that "seriously alarms, intimidates or harasses others and serves no legitimate purpose" after several of its members wore black face paint to dress as characters such as Snoop Dogg and the film character Shaft at an off-campus Halloween party. Another fraternity member, an African American, wore a white sheet and came in a Ku Klux Klan costume, which he later burned at the party.

The University of Tennessee suspended the Kappa Sigma fraternity after complaints arose over several students who wore black paint on their faces, dressing as the Jackson Five for an "air guitar" competition at a campus party; another student attended as Louis Armstrong.

One member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at Syracuse University faced disciplinary charges of harassment and disorderly conduct after attending graduation costume parties at several local bars dressed as golf celebrity Tiger Woods.

The University of Mississippi suspended the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity after a Halloween party where a student who was dressed in a police uniform pointed a toy gun at another member who had painted his face black and was wearing overalls and a straw hat."

The Auburn University fraternity event of 2001 was so horrific that a book was written, "An Auburn Autumn", to describe the emotional baggage that Black people carry from binge drinking white people (who as Business Week stated, carry the US economy):

"The issue of free speech is at the heart of a lawsuit filed last month by suspended members of the fraternity Beta Theta Pi against Auburn University. The university suspended 10 members of two White fraternities -- Beta Theta Pi and Delta Sigma Phi -- following a Halloween party where members performed mock lynchings, paraded in blackface and donned homemade Ku Klux Klan hoods. Members of Delta Sigma Phi said they are also considering legal action.

"This is the hardest thing for people to understand: The First Amendment protects free speech, regardless of how offensive it is," says Robert Sedler, a constitutional law professor at Wayne State University and an expert on First Amendment law. "And that means tolerating an awful lot of hurtful speech. It's similar to flag burning. No matter how much that turned patriotic people off, it was protected by the Constitution."

So, even though these binge drinking white people engage in the most sincere form of flattery by dressing up as Black people, Fraternity Halloween Gatherings has the makings of Stuff Black People Don't Like.

For, as Business Week stated, the US economy might be running out of steam and nearing the end of its global dominance with the more Black people and less white people in the workforce, yet the benevolent nature of dressing up as Black people for Halloween is one of the most evil things a person can do.

Even though binge drinking white people might be performing these acts of Black face and flattery far removed from said Black people, the hurt feelings caused by these events are the ultimate form of insensitivity.

Worse, though it is flattery, Black people have a hard time taking jokes at their own expense. In the end, as Business Week pointed out, the US economy will be in the hands of precious few former binge drinking whites, who once had the audacity of dressing up in homage to Black people.

And it will be these Black people who decide the fate of America's status as a superpower.

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