Racism within Halloween

By: Ashly Marie

The leaves have begun turning brown, the air has become crisp, pumpkin patches are open, cinnamon-flavored drinks are being sold in your local coffee shops, and of course, Halloween is right around the corner. With Halloween comes the excitement of picking out horror movies to binge on, candies to add on the grocery list for trick-or-treaters (or for your sweet tooth, no judgment here), and the costume shopping for our annual one night of spooky play pretend.

POV: You see someone wearing a racist Halloween costume. pic: Dear White People

Classic Halloween costumes usually range from blanket draped ghosts to Harley Quinn. Halloween: the night for vampires to mingle with werewolves or for witches to share a candy bar with Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and even Pocahontas! Well. Maybe not Pocahontas.

Here’s the dilemma with Halloween costumes: Some blinkered people do not bother to extend their sensitivity towards the community of the origin their “costumes” stemmed from. However, in the age of technology and widespread knowledge being accessible at a click of a button, tone-deaf and ignorant can give the same impression of indifference. Indifference is a quality that can be one’s strength and another’s weakness. In this case, to be indifferent is an indisposition.

The people who partake in this cultural ignorance have lots to learn about the history of their “costumes.” Cultures aren’t costumes. The fact that a mockery of (predominantly) Chinese, Native American, and Japanese cultural clothing is sold in Halloween stores next to “sexy cat costume” or “hot nurse costume.”

is, to say the least, offensive. To have one’s culture be incorrectly profited off of and worn with (most times) sexual intent is disrespectful.

Cultural appropriation is a serious issue. Traditional clothing shouldn’t be hemmed to show off more skin or used as accessories to fit one aesthetic. Also, before excusing an individual by coughing it up to be cultural, “appreciation” screams performative activism when it is not the case. To alter a piece of cultural clothing to fit “modernity” is ignorant, and so is choosing to “appreciate” the culture specifically on Halloween, a day to dress up into costumes. Cultural clothing is not costumes. They are garments with history woven into the seams.

So, before you choose your Halloween costume, be aware of a community’s customs and history and acquire a basic skill set of empathizing with voices who aren’t heard enough. Change can start through knowledge, and knowledge can be nourished within your choices to listen to voices that have been silenced

throughout history.