When I received a video about a controversy not too far from my stomping grounds that involved Halloween and Black outrage, I felt compelled to write.

In this case, social media posts started floating around about a house with a disturbing Halloween display. It looked like people were wrapped in trash bags and hanging by their feet. This type of display has been around for years, but this time it struck a nerve, and Black people spoke out.

Take it down or else

The man who allegedly started the social media campaign showed up at the woman’s house, beat on her door, and demanded that she take down the offensive display.

The woman apparently agreed to take it down even though she was confused about what could be offensive. She did say she needed to wait on someone to help her because of her injured leg.

The man didn’t seem to care and went to his car to get a megaphone before marching in front of her house and chanting “take them down.”

The woman eventually got a ladder and took down the decorations herself. She was still confused until people explained it to her; around the same time, she learned she was receiving death threats because of the display.

Death threats.

We’ve lost the plot

In case you don’t understand why the man was offended, there is a long tradition of hanging Black people in America, especially by trees. For many of us, it conjures up traumatic thoughts.

However, Black people were hanged by their necks, and they were not wrapped in trash bags. In a lot of cases, they wanted the Black people to be very visible to show the consequences of acting out in a white man’s world.

This display hangs by the feet, and it has been around for years with no complaints. As a Black man, I think of horror movies when I see this display.

Even if one isn’t as obsessed with horror, is the assumption that this display was put up with malice? The woman said she has used the display for years, with hundreds of kids coming through her yard.

I believe her. There is the clout-chasing, social media obsession that now blows everything out of proportion. Sadly, it seems to do more dividing and distracting than anything else.

We are fighting the wrong battles. Are we really spending energy on a display that can be construed as mildly racist if we squint, tilt our heads, and ignore almost everything about it? We need to do better.

Halloween is a time people like to get a little racist

Don’t get me wrong, I know white people like to wild out on Halloween, and when they wild out, the racism comes out. The racism is real, but where do we draw the line? How much energy do we spend on it?

Recently, Target, a store already on Black people’s watchlist, released a Halloween costume that looked purposefully racist. The image clearly calls back to minstrel shows, and they even used a Black boy to market it.

The big grin and everything…I’m not sure what image this costume was supposed to evoke, but I can only see one thing. It kind of feels like Target was trying to get payback after Black people boycotted the store. How much energy should we spend on a racist costume? I’m not sure, but the backlash was loud enough for Target to remove it from shelves.

Honestly, minstrelsy and Halloween are almost synonymous for a certain type of white person. I was just talking about how every year there is some party where white people put on Blackface and portray some Black stereotypes. When I was younger, I used to let these people slide. They are coming from a place of ignorance. They don’t know the painful history of minstrel shows and blackface.

However, after seeing the same stuff for years and years posted all over social media, they know. They know, and they still do it because they don’t care about the humanity of Black people.

Call this out. For me, it crosses the line. However, how much energy do we really want to spend on it? There are so many bigger battles out there. Are we going to protest a frat party because some drunk kids painted their faces?

I mean, I don’t know. I just know I hear Black people say they are tired all the time. I’m tired too. I only have so many protests in me. I only have so much anger to give.

We can worry about the Halloween stuff when they stop rolling back civil rights.