It’s that time of year when everyone is dying to dress up as someone or something they are not. Halloween is here, and in college that means a minimum of 3 nights of costumes, sometimes even 5. Picking out the best costumes is something I spend the entire month of October doing, and it can be incredibly difficult to find the right one for each night. I’m here to help you find the best costumes to wear this weekend, or rather, the best things to avoid. Here are the top 6 Halloween costumes you SHOULDN’T wear brought to you by celebrities who let their ignorance go a little to far.
1. Native American
This is a truly offensive costume trend that needs to die off. Dressing as any cultural stereotype is very hurtful and rude to people who are part of that culture. Skip the stereotypes this Halloween, and opt for something that everyone can enjoy rather than just a select group.
Aubrey O’Day
2. Homeless person
This type of costume is trying to make a joke out of something that is very serious. Having wealthy, young people dress up as if they are homeless is not a joke. It’s making light of a terrible reality and devastating circumstance that affect millions of people, even children.
Dwight Howard
3. Terrorists
This one doesn’t even make sense to me. Not only is dressing up as a terrorist stereotyping a certain culture and linking it to tragedy, but it is also clearly a horrible idea to dress up as someone who has committed countless crimes. Besides, what does a terrorist look like? We don’t know. We only know the stereotyped version of people with a headscarves, some form of bullets or weapons and a floor length robe. Can you say cultural appropriation?
Chris Brown
4. Blackface
This shouldn’t even have to be on here. Anyone who thinks it’s okay to purposefully tint their skin color to look like a different, marginalized race is clearly in the wrong. Blackface is a great way to show prejudice toward another culture and demonstrate how much you disrespect them as people. Stay away at all costs.
Julianne Hough
5. Nazis
This one also shouldn’t need its own bullet point, but yet here we are. Dressing up as any group that actively discriminated against and tortured a marginalized group is wrong, including Nazis, the KKK and anyone else who fits into that definition. It’s not ok to dress up as a group that invokes fear in millions of people. Don’t touch this costume with a 10-foot pole.
Prince Harry
6. Religious figures
If you wouldn’t like people of a different religion dressing up as your religious figure, then chances are they wont like it either. Many religious figures are very important to the people who believe in them. Using them as a costume to disrespect an entire religion and culture is not something you should support.
Heidi Klum
Photos from Cosmopolitan