'I'm worried my kid's Halloween costume is offensive - I feel uneasy about it'
Halloween is the one night of the year when children and adults can let their imaginations run wild and dress up to their heart’s desire. And while it’s important to be respectful and not choose anything tasteless or offensive, most traditional options like witches and ghosts, or even movie characters, are considered OK, right?
Fearing her choice might be troublesome, one mum has revealed she’s worried about her choice of costume for her child, questioning whether it could construed as racist. Taking to the parenting forum Mumsnet, the distressed parent wrote: “My child wants to be an Oompa Loompa for Halloween. Green hair, white dungarees, orange face.
“I thought it was a good idea but my husband is worried people [will think it] might come across as racist if we change their face colour. It won't will it? Since nobody has orange skin? Other than Donald Trump obviously but I'm not worried about offending him. If it is offensive I guess we could just not do the face paint but I reckon he's worrying about nothing.”
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While many people were quick to comment on her post assuring her it wasn’t offensive, lots took the opportunity to educate viewers with some disturbing facts about Roald Dahl’s characters from his famous book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
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One person wrote: “I believe it may be size-ist. Not sure, but might have read this somewhere.” A second reader, agreed and commented: "There has been some controversy over Oompah Loompas around the appropriation of dwarfism and the author's original characterisations. I'm with your husband on this and wouldn't feel easy about it.
But another person added: “I don't think it would cross my mind, let alone a child's, that an Oompa Loompa costume would be racist.” And someone else assured them: “Painting your face orange is no different than having your face painted as an animal at a kid’s party.”
However, a fifth person advised: “Oompa Loompas are a bit problematic actually. They were originally depicted as African pygmies that Wonka enslaved in his factory...the description/illustrations changed in later publications and then obviously they were portrayed as orange in the film.”
And a sixth reader agreed, adding: “I think your husband will have heard that originally the Roald Dahl characters were 'natives' ie people of colour. Dahl changed the text of the book in the Seventies because he realised/was forced to accept the fact that it was racist. My daughter has a typical Gen Z worldview and she would definitely avoid anything to do with Oompa Loompas. They are definitely constructed as 'Other' and therefore even if they aren't literally black anymore, they definitely referred to blackness as it were.”
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