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If the aim of this costume was political satire, the joke falls flat. |
Globe Editorial
Every year, Halloween revelers try to scare people by dressing as zombies and vampires. This year, two new costumes have become controversial because they play on vague fears of - and misconceptions about - immigrants.
Somehow, the costumes manage to be both offensive and lame. One, by a company called Forum Novelties, consists of an alien mask, a green card, and a bright orange jumpsuit with the words “illegal alien’’ printed across its front. If the aim was political satire, the joke falls flat. Costume makers take note: A green card signals an immigrant’s legal status.
The other costume mixes images of space invaders with a gross caricature of a Latino; the mask features an extraterrestrial with a thick black mustache and a baseball cap. Its maker, a Chicago mask company, reportedly intended it as a way of calling attention to fear-mongering about immigrants.
But the joke was, at best, poorly executed, and the irony never registered with immigrant advocacy groups, who condemned the image as racist. In response,
There is always a danger of reading too much into a Halloween mask that was intended to be funny. Then again, under the guise of humor, anti-immigrant cartoons in the United States once fueled stereotypes about Irish Americans, Italian Americans, and other groups. Someone thought they were funny and harmless, too.
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