By Hailey Murphy
With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time to pick a costume. So what are your options? You could pull out the old kitty costume. You could hit the local thrift store and buy a Hillary Clinton mask. You could be Pennywise, along with basically everyone else.
But during Halloween season, there’s quite a lot that you shouldn’t wear. That is, if a costume imitates a culture that you do not belong to, do not wear it. Besides being completely unoriginal, it’s offensive, degrading, and it qualifies as cultural appropriation.
It’s usually at this point that people start to protest:
I’m not trying to mock anyone.
I love this culture, and I’m dressing this way because I admire them.
I’m not racist.
Except that, when it comes to imitation, the effect is not always flattery, and intention doesn’t always matter.
If you pretend to be of a different race or ethnicity, you will offend the people who truly belong in those groups. For one, this very act perpetuates stereotypes; to make a costume out of a culture is to generalize everyone within the culture. This is the very definition of stereotyping, and these stereotypes harm minority populations every day. They’re ill-founded and inherently offensive. So wearing these stereotypes for entertainment isn’t exactly funny. Really, it just reinforces these misconceptions, and thus it reinforces systems of oppression in this country.
But stereotyping isn’t the only issue with cultural appropriation. Often, these costumes trivialize clothing that is sacred to the culture. For example, a Native American headdress is worn only by men in positions of power within a tribe. The eagle feathers on the headdress are a token of honor and respect. One has to earn these feathers. However, when someone outside the culture wears a headdress, they did not earn the eagle feathers, and they are not a respected tribal figure. Instead, they are wearing the piece for show, hitting up Halloween parties with complete disregard for what that headdress is supposed to represent. It’s disrespectful to Native American culture.
“Wearing these costumes makes a mockery out of the Native American culture for various reasons,” said Native American Student Union member Kali Chargualaf. “One being that we were colonized and stripped of our culture. We were told we can’t speak our language, wear our traditional clothing, sing our songs, or practice our ways. This caused trauma to our people which is something that we are still dealing with [to] this day. So what makes people think that it’s okay to wear parts of our culture when we were told we can’t? And even in such a sexualized way? Culture is not a costume!”
What’s even worse is that such costumes are often sexualized, reducing an entire ethnicity into a provocative costume. One common example is a geisha, a traditional Japanese performer. Geishas are highly trained in performing arts, tea ceremonies and guest entertainment. It’s a profession requiring great skill. Yet geisha costumes are often hypersexualized. They reinforce the stereotype that geishas are prostitutes while disregarding their skill and cultural practices. This moves past disrespect and into fetish.
The worst part about cultural appropriation, however, is that people often borrow from ethnic groups who are historically persecuted in this nation. Americans elected a man who wants to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, but they’ll paint sugar skulls on their face as if they’re celebrating Dia de los Muertos. Muslims are kicked off of planes, but people will wear a keffiyeh and say they’re dressed as a terrorist. Systematic racism limits opportunities for black people in America, and yet people will paint their faces brown. Native Americans were labeled as savages, stripped of their land and killed by the millions. But people still dress in their regalia, just for one night, and claim that they’re honoring the culture.
Cultural appropriation at Halloween time highlights the inequality of ethnic groups in America. It shows who holds the power in this country, and who does not. Because people who appropriate culture in a costume have the luxury to do so. They can dress this way safely, because they are not actually of the ethnicity. They are still white, and even in costume, they are still benefiting from their privilege. They are only pretending to be a minority. Meanwhile, people who are actually of these cultures are oppressed everyday. Their cultural garb, when worn in public, can put them in danger. Stereotyping places them in a box and causes people to have preconceived notions.
Imagine being discriminated against for honoring your own culture, then seeing someone of privilege “honoring” that culture in a costume.
Some of you may be thinking that this is all too politically correct, that people should take a joke and move on. But this is not a joke to those having their cultures mocked. This is not a joke to people who were or are oppressed because of their culture. It’s only a joke to those who don’t understand what it’s like to be marginalized.
Still unsure what’s offensive and what’s not? Ask yourself this: does it belong to my culture? If not, then you probably shouldn’t wear it. Especially if you can’t explain the history behind the costume. It’s one thing to wear a culture as a costume. It’s another thing to be completely ignorant of it’s significance.
When in doubt, go as Pennywise.