October heralds the beginning of the long awaited holiday season, and to start that season, we begin with the festive holiday that is Halloween.
Halloween is a great time for candy, costumes, parties, and cultural insensitivity!!!!!!!
It happens every Halloween without failure. Someone, somewhere wears something on Halloween that they thought was cute or funny and ends up being subject to the wrath of the internet. This phenomenon is the result of Cultural Appropriation.
I'm not going to pretend as though cultural appropriation is some really simple subject that everyone is supposed to have some mutual understanding on because it isn’t, but while that is that case it isn’t so complex that people can’t understand it. Cultural Appropriation is when the aspects or elements of one culture are used by members of another. Now, this isn’t bad inherently, but there are thresholds that when crossed causes this to become a problem and beyond those thresholds is where controversy occurs.
One of the biggest ways appropriation becomes problematic is when it’s done to religious or sacred elements of a culture, the biggest example of that is the use of Native American headdress as part of a Native American “Costume”. A headdress is a spiritual garb worn by Natives who have earned the right to do so, there is almost no compromise in this, to wear a headdress without having earned the right is simply disrespectful. One can say “I have the freedom to express my creativity”, which is true but that does not mean other people don’t have the right to call you out. Simply having the right to do something doesn’t mean you should do something, especially when it can be perceived as disrespectful. The history of Natives after colonists introduced themselves to the "New World" became one riddled with bloodshed and death. The spread of disease and the acts of genocide decimated the Natives of this land. This historical trauma has affected Natives much like the way slavery has affected black people, so when you look at what history has done to a group of people and all you can see is a fashion statement, then there lies something deeply problematic.
Some costumes are put together for comedic purposes, such as the many done in blackface by white college students looking to dress as their favorite rapper or black person. After hundreds of years of anti-black racism, one would think that maybe as a society we’ve reached a point where we can tell what things are and aren’t okay, particularly blackface considering how consistently people get in trouble for doing it. I shouldn’t have to review the racist history of blackface, and I probably don’t need to tell you how it was a tool used to promote racist stereotypes and caricatures. What I do need to tell you as that when you put on blackface to “act” like a black person you are actively engaging in a racist tradition that characterizes an entire group of people, and not just any group of people, a group of people economically and socially disadvantaged and mistreated. Black men, women, and children are dying, and if being Black was ever funny, it stopped being so a long time ago, and if anyone ought to be finding humor in the experience of being black in America, it certainly isn’t someone who needs to darken their face in order to look the part. I can’t speak much for any other ethnic minority but from what I know, it works the same way for other forms of caricatures such a brown and yellow face.
Under no circumstance is Muslim a Halloween costume, especially if your idea of a Muslim looks like a man with a turban, long beard, and a gun (this goes triple for all the anti-refugee Trump supporters). You are not allowed to remain silent in the face of massive anti-Muslim rhetoric just to take what you seem so comfortable being portrayed as violent and wear those stereotypes in a costume while you get drunk with your friends. There is a wider variety of non-offensive Halloween costumes than there are offensive ones. This means that what you deem a costume is a matter of choice, so waste your money on something that isn’t going to get you cussed out and isn’t going to piss someone off so you ensure your night’s fun and reduce the risk of ruining someone else’s night.
There is so much more that can be said about cultural appropriation, although we may engage in it unknowingly just do yourself a favor and avoid any costumes that may seem as though they are a part of another culture
“How do I know if it belongs to another culture Dajuan?”
If it has a name of a racial or ethnic group on the package, particularly one you do not belong to, DO NOT BUY IT. This is the easiest way I can state it. If you didn’t connect with the cultural appropriation part of this article, follow that simple rule and you’ll probably have a nice Halloween.
