Bostonist: Winner of Worst Halloween Costume Ever: The MBTA

laurinsane

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:14:12 -0500

I completely agree with the above comment. The writer is obviously as ignorant as I because I must be out of touch with society and social issues as well. I did not here of the Jena Six hangings until I read the article about Mr. Gramendia in the Globe. It seems the only person who was discriminated in this event was Mr. Garmendia, who has freedom of religion to celebrate the MExican religious holiday of "The Day of The Dead". The kid wore this same costume last year and no one was offended by it. This was blown completely out of proportion. It was Halloween!!!! I saw people walking around in Devil and Angel costumes, but no atheists moaned that it offended them. Let us not forget that being hung by a noose was a common way for white criminals in the wild west to be killed as well as witches in Salem. I believe most of them were white too. Poor kid.

48x17

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:20:55 -0500

So I don't really understand all of the anger over this costume. My heart bleeds at least as much as the next massachusetts liberal, but by all accounts this guy did nothing to antagonize African-Americans. Yes, the noose has a very charged history for African-Americans and to use that symbol as a form of intimidation is absolutely despicable. What happened in Jena, and countless other places where nooses where put in a place to intimidate is so maddeningly hateful that it leaves me speechless. At the same time, this noose was around his own neck, and to say that the noose is only a symbol of racism kind of takes away from the countless people who've been hung over time in Europe, Latin America, and South America. And again, it was around his own neck. Maybe I'm just white, and can't relate and I'm just being callous but the noose has never been solely a symbol of racism.