10.29.2009

KitKat patty wack, give the kid his goddamn candy

I love working on Thursdays.  I have the greatest group of volunteers who come and help out at the warehouse.  They don't come on their own volition, but are forced to come by the State of Michigan in order to receive welfare.  If they can't find work for three months, they must start community service to continue to acquire skills.  But it doesn't matter because most of them are hard workers regardless.

All of these women are inner-city women with at least one child.  They talk about the funniest shit when they're here.  And I have to say I learn a lot about the hardships, realities, and the culture of these people.  And anyone who knows me, knows that I love anthrolopolgy... and Halloween.

That being said, I was talking to them today about Halloween.  I mean, Detroit is infamous in regards to this holiday (it wasn't until recently that I became aware of Detroit's exclusivity in this tradition).  But, unfortunately, due to the causes and the effects of this infamy,  the children cannot trick-or-treat in their own neighborhoods.  As a result,  many of them end up getting bussed in or driving into the suburbs to trick-or-treat or trunk-or-treat. [People hand out sweet treats from the trunks of their cars in parking lots.  (Something about this seems contradictory to everything I learned as a child.)]

As I live on the "8 Mile" division between Detroit and the burbs, many of these children end up in my neck of the woods.  Oh, and I hear about it.  I've overheard numerous people talk about "the bullshit of having to give these kids candy on Halloween (they don't even have costumes)".

To this I say:  Go fuck yourself!  The point of Halloween is to give kids candy (and diabetes).  Who cares if these kids are in your neighborhood; put that KitKat in that cute kid's pillowcase and wish him a happy Halloween.  Wake up and realize that he would probably rather trick-or-treat in his own neighborhood anyway. 

This city is ours.  It's not a "their problem" situation we have here.  In fact, this problem is really a microcosm for a larger issue of national security; a problem I see as closer to boiling than Iraq/Pakistan/Afghanistan.  No one wants to share their candy.

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