Last night [Halloween] is participated in a race experiment of my own devise.  Sick and tired of white people dressing as people of color in Afro wigs, Rasta dreadlocks, and Geisha outfits for Halloween, I thought of a great way to be both subversive and political while protesting “race costumes”.
It is growing increasingly common for some people to be a black person or an Asian person for Halloween.  The costumes are never a black doctor or an Asian construction worker.  People create their race costumes based on preconceived notions, and often racially stereotypical notions of what they believe that particular non-white racial group to be.
In an “all’s fair in love and war moment”, this Halloween I wanted to dress as a white ethnic group, so I chose to be a male Hasidic Jew.  I thought it would be an interesting social experiment to a.) Go dressed as a male, and b.) Go dressed as a Jew.  I also think I chose to be a Hasidic Jew because it wasn’t my interpretation of Jewishness that would dictate my costume, but the costume of Hasidism itself would be easy to mock.  Like pretending to be Amish would be relatively easy, considering Amish people have a uniform of sorts.
I got my Hasidic costume together and I tried to be funny with certain elements.  My peyis’ were telephone cords and I had Jewish bling sprayed painted on my white button-up.

I had a trial run of my Hasidic costume a few days before Halloween, and it was determined that I was not to walk the streets of NYC alone for fear of anti-Semitic violence and possible violence from offended Jews.  I understood the anti-Semitic fear, Jews, especially “out” Jews are frequently the targets of hate-crimes, but I didn’t really believe that Jews would beat me up because of my Hasidic costumes.  Blacks and Asians don’t beat whites up for their costume parodies…I was sure that kind of violence would not happen.
On Halloween night I linked up with two of my friends, Davita Robinson and Brenda Vollman.  We wanted to watch the Halloween parade and walk around and check out the costumes.  Their presence was for camaraderie and protection, just in case anything jumped off.
I walked the 14 blocks to meet my friends as a Hasidic Jew by myself and no one so much as blinked an eye at my appearance.  I began to get paranoid…did I look so convincing that I actually am passing as a Hasidic Jew.  I was obviously delusional; my costume was good but it was pretty clear it was a costume.
I got to my friend’s place to pick them up and they loved the costume, but they said that both my femaleness and my blackness was not overt and so much of the irony of the costume might be lost.
We watched the parade, walked around, and then walked home, I counted about 25 afro wigs, 4 Rasta wigs, 1 ninja, and 1 white man dressed as Flava Flav…in black face.  There were nearly a million people participating and watching the NYC Halloween parade, so I am certain there were more race costume offenders.
At some point in the night, I met up with my friend and out gay Filipino comedian, Kevin Nadal, who was dressed as a gay Jesus.  We met at a bar and at the bar there was another Hasidic Jew costume...I was not alone.

[Kevin Nadal as gay Jesus, BW as a Hasidic Jew, and Brenda Vollman as Ms. Beaverlick, KY 1986]

All night people laughed at my costume.  I was told how great it was and a couple of folks took my picture.  No one was overtly offended and one nice old man asked me if I was from Brooklyn [a large Hasidic community lives there].  The vast majority of the attention I received for the costume was positive in terms of people pointing and laughing at me, but I began to feel a little weird about it.  On my way home, I stopped at the Arab deli on my corner to buy some soda.  I brought my items to the register and the Arab guy behind the counter started laughing uncontrollably…and weirdly.  I left the deli and a couple of deli workers began chanting with their fists in the air, something that sounded like, “di-a-lo, di-a-lo”!  I had no idea what it meant but it definitely made me feel a bit strange.
I got home and I began to process my night with my girlfriend.  I told her that I didn’t have as much fun as I thought I would have dressed as a Hasidic man.  Yeah, people laughed and I was, as Davita said, “the Belle of the ball”, but something didn’t feel right.
Even though I was being subversive and hyper-politicized in my decision to “fuck” with race and identity this Halloween, I couldn’t help but be offended every time I saw a white person in an Afro wig or a Rasta wig.  When I saw that white guy in black face, a rage came over me, but I had no power to say anything because I was doing it myself.
I also felt that the same people laughing at me dressed as a Hasidic man weren’t laughing because I was a black lesbian and how ironic my costume choice was; they were laughing because they thought Hasidic Jews were funny, even ridiculous.  And they were the same people who would laugh at a white person dressed up as a black person or an Asian person.
I felt as though it would have been better to be subversive and political by going up to every race costume offender and let them know I thought their choice of costume was distasteful and problematic, but dressed as a Hasidic Jew…I was one of the offenders.
I had a great Halloween, but I definitely learned a lesson.