A lot of people are dressing up a Ray and Janay Rice for Halloween this year, and it makes me want to throw my Internet into the garbage and sob, because what is everyone thinking and why is everyone* being so awful? One of these horrible people includes a kid. Yes. A kid. Dressed up as Ray Rice. A kid dressed up as Ray Rice holding a beaten doll. I’m finding it really hard to process this information, so forgive me if I seem upset (read: I am).
This child, who is wearing Rice’s Ravens football jersey, also appears to be donning Black Face, which is incredibly offensive in and of itself. The saddest part is that I can’t even blame this kid. Do we really think it was his idea? Do you think he went a bought a Rice jersey at the mall and a black-haired doll at Toys R Us? Do you think he really understands the gravity of a man beating up his fiancée? Or how this event reflects upon our hyper-violent culture? I don’t think he does. I think his parents thought, “You know what would be super funny? If our kid dressed up as Ray Rice for Halloween!”
It’s one (incredibly wretched) thing to be a totally bigoted and misogynistic ass who dresses up as a football player who punched his fiancée in an elevator for Halloween. It’s another (even more incredibly wretched) thing entirely to dress up your kid as a football player who punched his fiancée in an elevator for Halloween. This little boy might not understand the severity of the situation, but I feel sad for him. I feel sad that he’s subjected to such blatant acceptance of violence. Let’s hope his (I’m assuming) idiotic parents don’t actually dress him up like that for trick-or-treating, because I have a feeling not everyone is going to be so down with his costume.
*people dressing up as Ray Rice
Image: Getty Images; Michael Whitney/Twitter
