One might say the Los Altos Village Association has been spooked out of using the word “spook” as part of its annual Halloween event.
For decades, the annual Downtown Los Altos “Spooktacular” offered trick-or-treating, games and other activities for local kids.
The activities are not changing this year, but the name is: “Spooktacular” is out, “Boo-tiful Downtown Los Altos” is in.
Amid the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, LAVA executive director Scott Hunter raised the issue of using the word “spook,” which developed racist connotations during and after World War II. According to a 2017 NPR story, “spook” started to refer to Black people, inspired in part by the Black Army pilots who trained at the now-heralded Tuskegee Institute. In the 1970s, a popular book and later movie, “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” by Sam Greenlee, told the story of the first Black man recruited by the CIA and used the word “spook” to refer to “Black person” and “spy.”
Despite the obscure reference, Hunter said LAVA’s promotions committee voted unanimously this year on the name change.
“We wanted to do what was right,” he said last week. “Times have changed.”
The new name has an equally obscure reference. Hunter said “Boo-tiful Downtown Los Altos” was appropriated from the 1960s and 1970s “Laugh-In” TV comedy show, which referred to “Beautiful downtown Burbank.”
Hunter, who admits to being frustrated at times by excessive political correctness, noted, “In the end, it’s still the same event. It’s still kids making a rush for the candy … in the end, what’s in the name?”
“It’s good that they did their research to do that,” said Los Altos resident Kenan Moos, head of Justice Vanguard, a local group dedicated to public awareness of Black issues. “But it doesn’t really change the acceptance of diverse people in Los Altos and their treatment, or Black people in Los Altos and their treatment.”
This year’s “Boo-tiful” event is scheduled noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 31, with downtown Los Altos merchants offering treats along Main and State streets. Crafts and other activities are set for 2-4 p.m. at Veterans Community Plaza, at Main and State streets.
The free event is sponsored by the Los Altos Village Association, Cranberry Scoop (295 State St.) and the Town Crier.
For more information, visit downtownlosaltos.org.
