Halloween should be inclusive, TOO!
Happy Halloween my favessss! We've made it through yet another October! Isn’t that Amazing?!? This season I have been particularly intrigued with the notion of equality and inclusion as it applies to the celebration of this “frightacular” holiday.
Each Halloween season myself and my peers, of a similar complexion, face a very unknown form of discrimination. As we struggle to throw together the perfect Halloween costume we are often confronted with a lack of inspiration. Which can be credited to the massive disparity of black and brown representation within American Media. And even more so a lack of positive representation of minorities within Westernized culture.
When you’re a person of color you realize just how important and necessary representation is… As a little boy when all of my peers were able to dress up as super man or barbie or the little mermaid my siblings and I were pushed to think outside of the box. We had to come up with even more unique costumes because there just weren’t a lot of black or brown characters to dress up as.
And there is nothing worse than trying to dress as something or someone for Halloween that you JUST KNOW you can’t pull off… IF YOU DON’T RESEMBLE THE CHARACTER in the least bit it’s REALLY difficult to portray them in a convincing fashion.
And after a while you get sick of seeing the Green Lanterns, the Michael Jacksons, and the Princess Tianas. So this year I made it my mission to celebrate diversity and create Halloween looks and fashions that were symbolic of the whole. That allowed for the representation of the great melting pot that we call America!
If you review the images and videos below you will find characters from all walks of life represented. I had so much fun crafting these looks and taking time out to celebrate the great people and characters that have helped to shape the culture of our great nation…
My first costume was, Cody Griffin from The Thirteenth Year… This is one of the few films that utilizes male characters to represent mermaids and actually celebrates them in a positive and creative light!
For this particular look I decided to celebrate the incomparable Will Smith and Chris Garner whose story is told through the film, “The Pursuit of Happyness.”
Up next…..The great ZORRO as portrayed on screen by the Legendary Antonio Banderas!
Last but certainly NOT least I recreated two day of the Dead looks for Halloween & Dia De los Muertos inspired by the Pixar film, Coco.
