Halloween is coming up, and you know what that means: Candy, scary movies, and Cultural Appropriation! For those of you that don't know, Cultural Appropriation refers to "The adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture." Although that definition unquestionably sugar-coats it, it is important to understand that Cultural Appropriation is always wrong, but appropriating the typical stereotype of a culture in a completely desensitized way is even worse. As Halloween season fast approaches, many people choose to wear "sexy" and "trendy" costumes that are complete negative stereotypes of cultures with whom we have never shown respect for. For example, many people choose to dress as an "Indian Prince" or an "Indian Princess," and wear cheap artificial headpieces and do multi-colored face paint designs. By dressing like what your idea of an "Indian" looks like, you are only further perpetuating a completely outdated, and frankly racist stereotype. And although many people are unaware of what they are doing, by dressing up as an "Indian Princess" you are only further teaching the culture to accept this ridiculous image of a traditional Indian widely, and completely ignoring how horribly we treated Native Americans in this country. You are only focusing on the "cute" and "sexy" parts of culture, and completely transforming an entire culture to a "sexy" costume.

Another utterly offensive aspect of cultural appropriation is so outrageous that I cannot even believe that people still use it today: blackface. Blackface has been around since the 19th century, and it refers to people, generally white, using makeup or paint to darken their skin to resemble an African American person. The practice was largely used in films and plays, as white men would play African Americans and inaccurately portray them as criminals and subservient mindless slaves. Thankfully, the consensus about blackface has been noted as utterly demeaning and racist, and it has been out of practice for quite some time now. However, some have decided to utilize it with their costumes to "look like" an African-American character. Julianne Hough, most notably, dressed up as Uzo Aduba, an African-American actress from Orange is the New Black and entirely painted her face black. This is wrong on so many levels, and it managed to set humanity back about 50 years. By "painting" your skin a different color, even if you meant "no harm" by it, you are reverting to a practice that was used to demean and dehumanize people during one of the most unfair and barbaric times in history: The Civil War.

I am hardly telling you that dressing up using elements of another culture inherently makes you an insensitive racist, but I am telling you to more understanding when choosing your next Halloween costume. Make sure that you are choosing one that is not fetishizing or fantasizing someone else, and be mindful of the impact that a simple costume can have on countless people and their cultural identities.