Halloween is one of my favorite holidays; you have costumes, candy is everywhere and everyone just wants to have a great time!
But for some people, such as myself, there are some costumes that generalize and sexualize an entire race (no big deal, right?). From that funny-dressing Mexican man, to an Indian Princess, to Geishas, to the sexy Native American girl, it demeans each people as a culture. (This isn’t even touching the other offensive costumes like “Anna Rexia.”)
For ages, these costumes were marked as hilarious and funny because they were stereotypical. The men of minorities were made fun of because they dressed funny as compared to our White counterparts. Atypical Asian martial artists, famous Americans in blackface makeup, the Arabian terrorist, angry Minorities of all sorts: all insanely hurtful.
The women of these minorities don't have it any better — everything is sexualized and the constant reminder of women having to be sexy reaffirms those stereotypes. Why must women of minorities be sexy to be embraced by White culture?
As an Asian Female, I have seen the Sexy Chinese Takeout Dinner, Sexy Chinese Geisha, wearing Chinese Bamboo Hats, Sexy Asian Empress, etc. All of these make me cringe at how wrong those girls were. The saddest part was the fact that people didn’t realize the fact that the wrong culture was being embraced in that “Japanese” or “Chinese” costume in the first place.
Ignorance is only bliss with the wearer of the costume.
Considering it’s the 21st century, our world should be more advanced in acknowledging the wrongs in actions, but by the news and the closed-minded people around us, it’s not. We forget that being funny does not give you the open door to be offensive.
There are times in which you can appreciate and dress with class, but you have to be sensitive to the people you could be offending with your costume. I’ve seen people dressed as characters like Goku, from anime, which were not offensive but just very creative. They didn’t change their skin tone, pull out an accent to “act the part,” but rather just wore what those characters would wear.
I do have hope for the future that this won’t be a problem down the road, but I could be wrong. But I know we have the capacity to care, to think about the things we do and the consequences that could ensue. Just getting that ball to roll will take more than just me writing an article about it.
But this is why I wish the racist costumes would end, not just for everyone who is hurt by these stereotypes, because that’s what they are, and not for me.
My brother is going to college soon. That means he gets to face racism like he isn’t used to in high school (let’s be real here, college has a much different environment you cannot replicate with high school). I don’t want him going to a school where he is expected to speak Chinese and have an accent. I don’t want him to face a “China” man or “Japanese” Emperor costume and wonder if everyone thinks of him that way. Because he’s not. He is a Vietnamese-born individual with just as much of a right to be respected as every other person here.
