Trick-or-treaters may have to make do without the mask of an Arab sheik to scare their friends this year. And they should. They never should have been able to buy a mask that makes an Arab into a bogeyman, just as they should not be able to buy fright masks that portray blacks, Jews, Chinese, American Indians or Hispanics negatively. Racial stereotyping is offensive and dangerous.
Nevertheless, such stereotyping has not stopped, which is why the American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee correctly protested a New Jersey company's marketing of a "Fright Stuff" mask of an Arab sheik. The committee said the mask encourages ridicule of Arabs, who are a growing and increasingly vocal part of the cultural mosaic of this country. Like the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the committee was founded to fight stereotypes. Portrayals of Arabs as either terrorists or religious fanatics is unfair and makes scapegoats of all people of Arab descent. The committee deserves praise for calling attention to the Arab sheik mask.The committee's complaint about a mask of Yasser Arafat, Palestine Liberation Organization chairman, however, goes one step too far. Arafat is a political figure, as are President Bush and Ronald Reagan, subjects of two other masks around this Halloween. To many Americans, the politics of all three are indeed frightening. The point may be too subtle for children, but parents should know the distinction between a generic racial mask and one of a political figure. The first is foul, the second is fair game.