October 17, 2009 12:00 PM
Unsure What To Be For Halloween?
Target Stores has an idea for you: How about being an "Illegal Alien"?
That's right, complete with Area 51 alien rubber mask orange prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words "Illegal Alien" and your very own green card, you can show your neighbors your grasp on the issues of the day and get candy too!
As one of the reviews for the costume reads:
The costume is a sick sign of the times we are living in this country where those who are not "people like us" might as well be from another planet and are considered less than human. I am surprised Target would promote such a mentality.
Stay classy, Target.
here's another review. That costume is actually quite funny. It lampoons the mind set of people who consider undocumented workers or visitors to be equally alien. To each his own.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I see the irony in it.
I laughed. It's awesomely comical. They need a GITMO version with a bearded alien
Radix Omnium Malorum Avaritia
it must be a joke by Target, which--for a big corporation--is actually pretty with it, and definitely tries to appeal to younger shoppers, so I'd say it's more likely ironic than not.
I'm going trick-or-treating for the first time in years, dressed as a Wall Street banker and asking for a couple billion at each house. I'll be happy if I can take home even a small a fraction of that....
everyday you can find some story about some undocumented immigrant getting his ass kicked or killed in america. i find it shockingly fucked up that target thinks that shit is ripe for yuks, ironic or not.
will find opinion is divided. Just out of curiosity, how many incidents of space aliens getting their ass kicked or being killed have there been recently? Link please.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I heard that Lou Dobbs was going to put a rubber over his head and go as a prick.
and said that he is putting peanut butter around his mouth and will be going as himself - an a$$hole.
the KY.
Kentucky?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Every time I've been to a Target...about 70% of the customers I see there are Hispanic/Latino.
As for me...I'm Halloweening as Orly Taitz.
"Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?" - General Jack D. Ripper
I would predict you'd get a 50-50 laugh/eyeroll response. A few would be offended, most could not be bothered to get het up over a thing like that. That OMGOFFENDED response is something you see on the part of well-meaning liberal whites, for the most part.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
I have to agree with Peter. The costume is a tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic statement bashing immigration nuts. I think it is a riot.
It says, "At least all of your immigrants are earthlings!"
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
If anything, the costume is making fun of the people that "see illegal aliens everywhere." :)
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
If you have a green card, then you aren't here illegally, no?
...a fake green card.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
How about Walmart's line of Death Panelists costumes?!
illegal alien
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZI4zIsXSr4
it's no fun.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
.
A suit and a tie on the kiddies...
... Be a Health Insurance CEO!
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Feed Americans.
...the key accessory to complete the costume:
A rubber stamp that says "DECLINED!" :)
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
You dont use as rubber stamp
You make the customer call back 20 times and keep saying
"it's under review"
It’s not demagoguery - It’s enhanced political marketing
a pillow to smother patients with.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
In this country PROFIT trumps "classy", morality, compassion, and clear understanding of the issues. Can't you just imagine a kid being encouraged to wear this outfit by his/her homophobic parents, and later learning how stupid they made him look to his friends and neighbors who DO understand the immigration issue?
dandy
I agree--I took this as an amusing pun first, and maybe backhanded social commentary second. Then again, it takes a lot to offend me, and my workplace is swimming in bad puns.
And on the pun, I know someone who had a costume that consisted of an eye and a sweet potato on his right arm, an A on his chest, and a pie and a rat hanging from his left arm. (Say it out loud.)
"Eye yam A pie-rat"?
Isn't that a bit esoteric? (and yes, I know it's not a food.) :)
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
Since sweet potatos are not yams
(I'm just in a snippy mood)
It’s not demagoguery - It’s enhanced political marketing
About 4:15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLM2SN2P86Y&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Good one!! ;o}
I had a co-worker once show up with flattened, single serve cereal boxes all over her jeans and t-shirt. A little fake blood on the boxes finished the look.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
The "Illegal Alien" thing has been around for a long, long, long time.
Halloween is supposed to be a scary time. Come to my house wearing a Glenn Beck mask and I promise that will scare the hell out of me.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
was a caveman costume coarsely stitched together from a couple of blue furry bath mats decorated with about a dozen smurf heads. I exed out their eyes with black marker. It was, at least, unique. I've never seen anyone else with a smurfskin coat.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
"I've never seen anyone else with a smurfskin coat."
There's probably a reason for that. ;)
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I think SNL did a skit with muppet skin coats
It’s not demagoguery - It’s enhanced political marketing
According to the Contra Costa Times, Target has reconsidered and withdrawn the costume, which it says was only available on-line, not in stores.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_13584686
The withdrawal seems a bit mealy-mouthed, but at least they did it.
I thought it was very funny.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
It's been taken down. And rightly so.
I guess even some liberals don't have a well developed sense of humor. This is a fabulous satirical statement on the de-humanizing strategy of the right wing who see anyone different (be they immigrants or gays) as "non-human."
I love C&L, it provides a great service and is one of the few places that stays on top of the liars and scumbags in America, but.. this... unless it's sarcasm, this is really making a mountain out of a mole hill.
The "illegal alien" pun has been around since I was a little kid. We thought it was the height of humor on the school yard, just like how the word "insects" sort of sounds like "in sex." It's the kind of stupid thing that children giggle about, and it seems a bit over-the-top and knee jerky to get huffy about it. It makes it look like you're just quick to be offended, for yourself and for others, and it's kind of embarrassing.
It really is embarrassing. I hope the post gets taken down, not the costume.
and I'm sure I'm risking the ire of regular commentors and moderators for even saying this, but I do it because I link a lot of people, conservative and undecideds to C&L to offer them information they wouldn't get elsewhere. If they saw something like this, it would pretty immediately turn them off, and you know, it'd be hard to blame them. It gives them ammunition to mock and disregard the site.
Obviously, this bit of silliness doesn't negate the facts and research done in other articles, you and I both know that; what's true is true regardless. But it certainly makes it easy for people who are resistant to those facts to have a great way to distance themselves from it. "Oh, look at them, they got offended by a dumb and innocent pun, making it out to be some horrible racist attack. How is that any different than Michell Malkin thinking that the scarf was a Muslim code in that donut ad?"
This costume offends you? Good lord.
Overreact much?
The fun part of Halloween is to dress in costumes that shock-
One might as well argue dressing as corpses on Halloween makes light of death, and is insensitive to those who lost a loved one....
My favorite Halloween costume? I saw this a few years ago- a gay couple- One was dressed as Jesus, but with a collar and chain, being led by someone dressed as satan- om occasion they'd stop and french..It was hialrious!
Another with a religious twist- the Virgin mary with a 'baby Jesus' that burst out her chest in the form of the creature from the film Alein- Now that was cool!
Actually I think the costume is rather clever.
It's topical, and it's pointing out the irony of the fascination people have for alien life forms
As long as they come from another planet and not the other side of a border.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I couldn't find a link but for years there was a TV show called Alienation.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094631/the movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096531/ the teevee series
me-oww!
Thanks, I guess it was because I was spelling it as one word, because it's an obvious play on the psychological state of alienation, which was part of the story's plot line, where the aliens regularly faced prejudice.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1jURDHRINY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q6GKtjncn8
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
This is something on which people might honestly disagree. I'd say I concur with about ninety-five percent of her posts (and I don't agree with myself that much) and anyone who's been around here long enough would never say she doesn't have a sense of humor.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
All I saw was Nicole was quoting a commenter on the site reviewing the item, with no apparent agreement or disagreement on her part.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"Stay classy, Target" to mean that she concurred with the review. I could be wrong of course. In which case I apologize.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Here's an email I just sent Target's online site:
I am disappointed y'all chose to withdraw the Illegal Alien Halloween costume. I rarely shop your store, but that was an item I could see myself buying. It was clever, it was topical, but I guess that means it wasn't Target.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I saw one that I thought went over the top and I think was Target online was "Holly Shit"
It’s not demagoguery - It’s enhanced political marketing
Kid dressed in coat, tie and top hat with AIG sign around neck: "Give me a treat, Taxpayer!"
Now that's scary!
Agreed Nicole. Not classy at all.
I dunno. Personally, I get the irony of the costume - especially with freaks like Lou Dobbs who see illegal aliens everywhere. "Illegal aliens" in Dobbsspeak refers to all non-white immigrants. Personally, I think the costume is pretty friggin' funny - especially considering it comes with a "green card" (green as in "little green men" get it?) Hey, I'm the first one to stomp on racism wherever it see it, but I just don't see it looking at that costume. Sorry, but I just don't feel the outrage; there are plenty of other things to piss us off, no?
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
I doubt his wife would tolerate that kind of treatment. Not defending the jerk though.
Actually I presume he has to jerk all the time.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
How else could she endure that racist tub of pus?
Target loves putting these things on the shelf. Remember when they were selling the white supremacist hats or the Chinese bowling shirts? It's a pattern with them, which is why I never shop there and never will.
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=24740
http://modelminority.com/modules.php?name=New...
Well, if you are a Mexican national or a recent immigrant, it might offend you. The costume is dehumanizing. In Nazi Germany, they called Jews dogs. So a German dressed as an observant Jew wearing a dog mask on Halloween would be offensive to Jews, but not to anti-semites. With all of the anti-immigrant talk since 9/11 (thank you Signore Dobbs), this more than qualifies as offensive.
These "aliens," which are so collectively abhored, are good enough to pick our tomatoes and dress our chickens and clean our toilets for pennies, but they are not good enough to merit basic human respect.
You forgot that it might offend Martians.
Lighten up. Cripes.
That be a hell of a stretch, when it's obviously a visual pun on the issue. You would have to be doing something stereotypical like having the alien critter wearing a sombrero.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Rusty, I don't see anything in that costume that leads me to conclude it's directed at Mexicans (or any other ethnic group)
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
and then my satire brain switched on. Some people will find it offensive and some won't. It's a bit of a slow burner.
I'm going as a punk vampire. I was very tempted to dress my baby as Alex DeLarge, but his dad poured scorn on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNOkslLI7FQ
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Halloween is about being class-less. Dress however you want. The more offensive, the better.
I saw a twelve year old dressed as a bong in Garberville, California. Offensive? No,
I guess I won't be going as A.L.F. or E.T. this year.
Nicole, please lighten up. What you should be reporting on is Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio thumbing his nose at I.C.E. and doing another of his "crime suppression sweeps" yesterday.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/1...
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news...
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/1...
There are real issues to deal with than what someone is going dressed as on Halloween.
Election 2012: Be Educated! Be Active! Vote!
www.phoenixjustice.com
C&Ler, I'm very irritated with the "lighten up" brigade. Words have power, and for that reason, I hate the phrase "illegal alien" because it implies people like my neighbors are less than human. They have real consequences for real people, such as the murder of Luis Ramirez, which I'm reading about right now...
I've never seen change without a fire
I'm gonna dress up like a CIA agent (scuffed shoes and all) just to see if I'm being followed.
Calm
I want to dress as a pig wearing a surgical mask and be Swine Flu, but my husband thinks that would be tempting fate.
With magical thinking like that, you should just be religious.
I wanted to put up a pig with the sniffles as my Halloween decoration.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The costume you will see eveywhere this year is a kid with mop of black hair, tied up in the strings of a big mylar balloon - Falcon Heene
I think it was George Lopez who told a joke involving Superman being an illegal alien.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I mean, it's a play on words. I get it. I think we can see offense at every turn if we want to. I don't believe it's about illegal immigrants, or at least it wasn't when it was created many years ago.
We need to lighten up a little bit.
I saw this as merely a way for Target to sell off some old bug-eyed alien masks while capitalizing on the popularity of 'District 9' without being sued for copyright. I mean, maybe it IS some kind of racist statement, but knowing Target I suspect incompetence and expedience rather than deliberation are the more likely motivators.
"The Good and Great Must Ever Shun, That Reckless and Abandoned One
Who Stoops to Perpetrate a Pun," Lewis Carroll, 'The Three Voices.'
Because all those fuck-me chamber maid and stripper costumes I see around Halloween are so fucking classy.
Halloween has become a time to be as tacky as possible for most people. This costume fits right in with that. To be honest, as a Latina, I find it kind of hilarious, myself.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
I'll just spray deodorant on my beard and go trick or treating as an armpit!
What happens if you spray your beard with douche?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
costume: Derrick Donchack, one of the killers of Luis Ramirez.
"'If that had been my son up there I would have been scared for him,' said alernate juror Annetee Holopirek. She spoke after the rest of the jurors began deliberating. 'He shouldn't have worn thatt shirt. That to me is a big ethnic intimidation as far as I'm concerned.'
Holopirek was talking about the t-shirt Derrick Donchak is seen wearing in a photo taken at a Halloween party last year after aggravated assault charges were filed against him. It says, 'U.S. Border Patrol' on it."
I went back to Soledad O'Brien's Latino in America book that I am reading right now, and this jumped out at me so I had to stop my reading and post about it.
Just food for thought.
I've never seen change without a fire
sad....liberals usually have a sense of humor
my friend said he wanted to dress up as something really scary--a terrorist. (He's going to a Halloween Tea Party.)
I warned him not to. "You'll have Darth Vader and his pals following you around trying to get you to blow up the White House just to teach America a lesson."
He'd still like to, but he's afraid of being sent to a FEMA camp. So he's going to dress as the next scariest thing he can think of--a liberal!
Once sent to a FEMA camp do the inmates pump up with Femiron?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
American retailers should stay out of politics, unless they want to lose the 50% of their customers they're likely to offend.
----- Original Message -----
From: Carol
To: Gregg.Steinhafel@target.com
Cc: crooksandliars@gmail.com
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2009 11:32 AM
Subject: Please Pull This Inappropriate Costume From the Shelves
Mr. Steinhafel:
I have been a Target customer ever since Target first opened and spent thousands of dollars there. However, the costume described in the article linked below promotes attitudes of arrogance, discrimination, and dehumanization against "those not like us." Such a costume is, therefore, inappropriate, "unAmerican," of low mentality, and bad taste, to say the very least, and should immediately be removed from Target's shelves.
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/unsure...
Carol Tucker, MA
Court Reform-NOW
Agreed. The whole "alien" thing has always seemed comical to me, since we're all the same species regardless of paperwork and real estate. It seems to me that that's the spirit of the costume. If we lose our sense of the absurd because of Nazis like Dobbs, Beck and Bill-O, then the tearists have truly won.
I submitted my post as a "reply" to a much earlier post regarding the idea that the costume was clever and witty. NOT, I hasten to say, to the uptight "Pull this costume from the shelves now" post that it was placed after. As somebody else said, "liberals used to have a sense of humor." Virtue is such a burden. Apparently.
Your own sense of humor is really on display in this equally sensitive post.
Im a permanent resident here, but from the UK, so I guess I'm an alien too (albeit legal) and think this is funny. I really don't see how or why someone would take offense, its just a play on words! I also spent thousands of dollars doing the process legally, so have no sympathy or protecting illegal immigrants feels.
Im pretty sure that if you look at any selection of Halloween costumes someone could be offended by it, be it their occupation, heritage, beliefs etc etc
This is about as controversial as it gets, but it sure beats all of the cliche costumes for Halloween. But still, I wouldn't do it. It's pretty offensive if you ask me.
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