Halloween is the perfect day of the year to dress as whatever the hell you want and it be socially acceptable. Seeing the amount of effort put into costumes is absolutely appalling, and the ideas people come up with are usually eye-catching and enjoyable.
Sometimes there are issues with costumes and I see happen every single year. As I am one myself, I feel compelled to call out my fellow white people dressing as other cultures and appropriating their dress and tradition.
We dress as Native Americans even though we totally dismiss their genocide and have no earthly clue what they practice. All we know is that tribal print and feathers looks cute, and yet when it is not Halloween, we continue to drive them off of their land, build on spiritual burial grounds and disrespect all of their beliefs. Negating someone's existence when they are inconveniencing you and then taking their culture is not the way to go.
A culture is extremely important to certain groups. Yes, I get that America is full of different cultures, but some cultures are not universal. To be pervasive and take everything a certain group of people specifically holds dear for personal enjoyment is selfish and honestly, you're just being offensive and insensitive. These people do not live on this Earth to see their values be mocked by a white person attempting to be cute and witty. You may think that hanging out with your frat group and all wearing Bob Marley wigs and making weed jokes is funny, but it's not really that clever, and it's probably not even your culture. Wearing African Dress and wearing a hijab and putting jewels all over your body may seem like a lot of fun, but African Dress paints tradition. The hijab is a crucial piece of headwear to many Muslim women. Jewels are precious pieces of body decorations.
So, if you think that you're in the right, and it's just "harmless" when you are with your friends making racist jokes about slavery and terrorists and obnoxiously making incorrect Native American calls and then stealing bits of their culture to wear on one night, you're so wrong. You are absolutely, 100 percent, in the wrong. It may be a little irritating to hear that your costume offends people, and the big question really is "so what?" But if someone else made a mockery about everything you stood for just for a selfish motive, I guarantee you would not be too happy with the situation.
Culture is important. People's emotions and beliefs are important. If someone else is offended by your actions, stop doing them. Their discomfort overpowers you; it is not about you.
Just be respectful. There are millions of costume choices. With that, Happy Halloween!
