With Halloween soon approaching, the long debated sexy vs. scary costume choice has us all thinking. But I'd like to talk about something else we should all be thinking about: racial and cultural appropriation.

In a recent class of mine, we had a debate on whether or not we think cultural appropriation regarding Halloween costumes is an issue or if it is just harmless fun. The class was split in half: one side was assigned to argue that it was an issue, and one that it was innocent amusement. Now, in reality, had we not been told which side to argue for, I would say 90 percent of the class saw it as an issue, and 10 percent saw it as fine. The 10 percent really surprised me until I heard their argument, which was solely based on the idea that ignorance is a valid excuse for cultural appropriation.

I would like to recognize ignorance as an innocent lack of knowledge rather than a malicious oversight of information.

While a "Sexy Native American" costume may be chosen with good intentions, the act of taking someone's entire culture and making it something as small as a costume is offensive and hurtful. One's culture makes up who they are. It is where they came from, a part of how they're raised, and what they believe in, and belittling that into a cheap, "sexy" costume mocks all of that.

Halloween was started to scare away bad spirits, but somehow it has turned into a holiday with girls dressing provocatively and people wearing culturally insensitive costumes for a cheap laugh.

I personally love Halloween and dressing up for the holiday, but I do think we can take a little more time to educate ourselves about cultural appropriation and it's effects on members of the affected cultures.

The campaign "We're A Culture Not A Costume," which originated at Ohio University in 2011, has been spreading awareness about the issue of cultural appropriation through powerful images on posters and memes on the Internet.

So this Halloween, I urge you to think before you put on your costume, and ask yourself if it paints you in a positive light as someone who is culturally educated and aware.