portraying hospital patients in straitjackets=blackface minstrel shows?
"Halloween costumes portraying hospital patients in straitjackets, or haunted houses presented as insane asylums, are no different than the blackface minstrel shows in an earlier era, when African Americans were cruelly caricatured, segregated and marginalized in our society."
http://www.nami.org/Content/ContentGroups/Press_Room1/20021/October_2002/NAMI_Lists_Nations_Worst_Halloween_Horrors_.htm
Seems a little extreme, but I do wonder if the frequent portrayal of the mentally ill in straitjackets fuels stereotypes. The place I went to last night did make use of them... http://www.ultimateterrors.com/hauntedhouselegend.html ... but I did have a good time.
http://www.nami.org/Content/ContentGroups/Press_Room1/20021/October_2002/NAMI_Lists_Nations_Worst_Halloween_Horrors_.htm
Seems a little extreme, but I do wonder if the frequent portrayal of the mentally ill in straitjackets fuels stereotypes. The place I went to last night did make use of them... http://www.ultimateterrors.com/hauntedhouselegend.html ... but I did have a good time.