RAGINI- At long last, it’s almost time for the greatest holiday of the year. Whether you’re a fan of the dangerous decorations and sinister scares or just like dressing up as your favorite character and collecting as much candy as possible, Halloween is a day when everyone can find a way to have fun. Unfortunately, often this fun comes at the expense of people who already face persecution the other 364 days of the year. Many costumes range from insensitive to just flat out racist, like this year’s particularly popular “Mexican and Wall” duo costume. While I understand that without an understanding of certain cultural backgrounds it could be hard to understand why exactly some costumes are disrespectful, immigration officers and the border wall are tearing families apart, separating parents from children, and it’s hard to justify making a mockery of something that painful. If you don’t understand why blatantly making fun of people based on their country of origin, religion, or skin color is wrong, there’s not much I can say that will convince you to change your mind. However, if you genuinely don’t know why culturally appropriative costumes are wrong, hopefully by the end of this post you’ll understand why we minorities aren’t so fond of them.
The most obvious reason that racist and appropriative costumes are wrong is that they take sacred items and icons with thousands of years of cultural significance behind them and reduce them to a fashion statement, or even worse, a joke. Take, for example, the Sexy Indian costume. In Native American culture, each tune, bead, and feather has a purpose. Yet, people continue to dress up in feathered headdresses and tan, beaded dresses purely for aesthetic purposes, and yodel poorly to ridicule traditional Native songs. To make matters worse, many of these outfits for women feature short skirts and cleavage. Having this as the only representation of Native Americans causes more damage than you’d think; this overly sexualised view of Native women contributes to the reason that their rates of sexual assault are over double the national average. Even though wearing such traditional garments may seem trivial to outsiders, they have meaning and culture behind them and are not meant to be worn willy-nilly just for looks.
For the most part, there are two reasons people wear racially-inspired Halloween costumes. Some dress up as a “Suicide Bomber” or an Anne Frank-Hitler duo simply to turn real people into the butt of some sort of extremely inappropriate joke. Many others, however, wear culturally appropriative clothing for Halloween thinking that they are exempt from its offensiveness because they are familiar with the culture whose attire they are donning. What they fail to realise is that going on a mission trip in Africa or visiting China on a family vacation does not give them permission to use apparel from that country as a fashion statement. As an Indian woman, I see this sort of justification far too often. I’ve seen women who visited India once on a spiritual journey to find themselves, or took one yoga class 4 years ago, believe that they are entitled to wear Ganesh leggings or shirts featuring the very holy Hindu Om sign. First of all, if these people really loved and understood our culture the way they claim to, they’d understand why wearing religious insignias on their bodies is so disrespectful and refrain from misusing such sacred imagery. Second, many times these “appreciative, culturally aware” folks compliment my mehndi and bangles, and then in the very next sentence praise Trump for his travel ban, which forbids people who look like me from entering this country.
These types of appropriators “love the culture, but hate the people.” They pick and choose parts of the attire and cuisine to enjoy, but they will never know the struggles that come with being a part of whatever group they are trying to emulate. They apply henna and wear bindis, but don’t want to be mocked for their accents. They sport blackface and dreads, but don’t want the n-slur hurled at them as they walk down the street. They put on ponchos and fake mustaches, but don’t want to be told to go back to their country. They want the cute, Instagram-able aspects of PoC life, but not the ugly, harsh truths that come with being a minority in America. At the end of the day, they are able to take off the makeup, the costumes, the accessories, and go back to living a life of privilege. People of color do not have that luxury. We have to deal with racism, on both individual and institutional levels, every day of our lives.
No matter the intent, appropriative and racist costumes do more harm than good. When something has so many cons, it’s best to just let it go, especially when there’s a plethora of incredible, scary, funny, pretty, creative costumes to choose from. Every Halloween we must do our best to remind our friends, family, and acquaintances that people of color are not a joke. We are not a fashion statement. We are not a commodity. And we are definitely not your costume.
illustration credit: uppityfemale
The most obvious reason that racist and appropriative costumes are wrong is that they take sacred items and icons with thousands of years of cultural significance behind them and reduce them to a fashion statement, or even worse, a joke. Take, for example, the Sexy Indian costume. In Native American culture, each tune, bead, and feather has a purpose. Yet, people continue to dress up in feathered headdresses and tan, beaded dresses purely for aesthetic purposes, and yodel poorly to ridicule traditional Native songs. To make matters worse, many of these outfits for women feature short skirts and cleavage. Having this as the only representation of Native Americans causes more damage than you’d think; this overly sexualised view of Native women contributes to the reason that their rates of sexual assault are over double the national average. Even though wearing such traditional garments may seem trivial to outsiders, they have meaning and culture behind them and are not meant to be worn willy-nilly just for looks.
For the most part, there are two reasons people wear racially-inspired Halloween costumes. Some dress up as a “Suicide Bomber” or an Anne Frank-Hitler duo simply to turn real people into the butt of some sort of extremely inappropriate joke. Many others, however, wear culturally appropriative clothing for Halloween thinking that they are exempt from its offensiveness because they are familiar with the culture whose attire they are donning. What they fail to realise is that going on a mission trip in Africa or visiting China on a family vacation does not give them permission to use apparel from that country as a fashion statement. As an Indian woman, I see this sort of justification far too often. I’ve seen women who visited India once on a spiritual journey to find themselves, or took one yoga class 4 years ago, believe that they are entitled to wear Ganesh leggings or shirts featuring the very holy Hindu Om sign. First of all, if these people really loved and understood our culture the way they claim to, they’d understand why wearing religious insignias on their bodies is so disrespectful and refrain from misusing such sacred imagery. Second, many times these “appreciative, culturally aware” folks compliment my mehndi and bangles, and then in the very next sentence praise Trump for his travel ban, which forbids people who look like me from entering this country.
These types of appropriators “love the culture, but hate the people.” They pick and choose parts of the attire and cuisine to enjoy, but they will never know the struggles that come with being a part of whatever group they are trying to emulate. They apply henna and wear bindis, but don’t want to be mocked for their accents. They sport blackface and dreads, but don’t want the n-slur hurled at them as they walk down the street. They put on ponchos and fake mustaches, but don’t want to be told to go back to their country. They want the cute, Instagram-able aspects of PoC life, but not the ugly, harsh truths that come with being a minority in America. At the end of the day, they are able to take off the makeup, the costumes, the accessories, and go back to living a life of privilege. People of color do not have that luxury. We have to deal with racism, on both individual and institutional levels, every day of our lives.
No matter the intent, appropriative and racist costumes do more harm than good. When something has so many cons, it’s best to just let it go, especially when there’s a plethora of incredible, scary, funny, pretty, creative costumes to choose from. Every Halloween we must do our best to remind our friends, family, and acquaintances that people of color are not a joke. We are not a fashion statement. We are not a commodity. And we are definitely not your costume.
illustration credit: uppityfemale
