Can I Wear This For Halloween? My Culture Is Not A Costume

Halloween is just around the corner and out will come ghouls and goblins, witches and magicians, candy and activities like bobbing for apples. What also will be seen and experienced on the 31st of October is an opportunity for people to be someone (or something) that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to be on any other day. This can be problematic if and when costumes become caricatures of another group’s racial, ethnic and/or cultural identity.

 

In most cases the intention is never to offend. One’s costume is just an extension of creative expression and exploration. However, depending on the costume selection, dressing up could in fact perpetuate and bring up stereotypes that negatively impact members of the community.   Kat Lazo writes, “by wearing cultures that aren’t yours as a costume, you are subjecting those very people to the threats associated with those stereotypes and belittling their experiences.”

 

Historical context and framing is necessary to check the potential impact of our actions. Cultural appropriation is tied to some costume selections whereby members of a dominant group co-opt and take parts or whole attributes of an underrepresented or marginalized community, stripping it of its meaning and significance.

Some questions we must ask ourselves to be as thoughtful and considerate as possible could be but are not limited to:

 

• Is my costume representing another group’s race, ethnicity or culture?
• Am I a member of that race, ethnicity or culture?
• Would I wear this costume in front of or around that group?
• Am I trying to be funny or sarcastic with my costume? If so, why?
• Am I targeting someone’s identity based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, socio-economic status, age, or ethnicity?  

 

Mindfulness is an ongoing practice to continuously gauge and assess the awareness of ourselves and those around us. So the costumes you may want to consider should be fun and friendly, of good judgment, and not demean or disrespect someone else.  

 

In 2011, Ohio University students in an organization called Students Teaching About Racism in Society (better known as STARS) began an image campaign to spread awareness for college students to avoid wearing offensive Halloween costumes. The campaign received national attention in 2013. The University of Colorado Boulder, amongst a number of other schools (Oregon, UC Davis, Richmond and Ripon College), adopted the campaign.

 

The campaign has evolved but it started out having students hold up images with captions that read, “this is not who I am and this is not ok” and “you wear the costume for one night and I wear this stigma for life.”

 

A powerful message that I hope will get participants of Halloween to rethink their costume choices.

 

 

“Evolving from the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain, modern Halloween has become less about literal ghosts and ghouls and more about costumes and candy. The Celts used the day to mark the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, and also believed that this transition between the seasons was a bridge to the world of the dead.  Over the millennia the holiday transitioned from a somber pagan ritual to a day of merriment, costumes, parades and sweet treats for children and adults.” (history.com)