MS Editorial
As “Spooky Season” approaches, a question emerges: where do we draw the line of cultural appropriation in Halloween costumes? Any costume depicting a culture that you don’t belong to is highly offensive and considered mocking. Dressing up as another culture or race is unacceptable through a history of racism in things like “blackface” and, regardless of intention, these costumes are cruel and senseless. In history, white people have used “blackface” to mimic black people during segregation. Before the Civil Rights Movement, mainly white actors used makeup to impersonate black people in caricatures, an extremely derogatory practice involving other insulting stereotypes like accents and personalities attributed to strictly black characters. In addition to that, costumes of other ethnicities or cultural groups are inappropriate: these costumes make light of important culture. For example, a Native American costume is essentially mocking traditional attire and it is intolerable to disrespect cultures this way. People who aren’t aware of this think that costumes are harmless, but stealing from another culture and turning sacred aspects of their lifestyle into a joke is rude and thoughtless. Costumes of other races should never be worn after the history of extraordinarily offensive caricatures and costumes of other ethnicities make jokes out of crucial aspects of culture. This year, help spread the message that costumes that take from other ethnicities are unacceptable to make sure this Halloween is fun for everybody.
