With Halloween night approaching fastpeople are rummaging through their closets, trying to scramble up with a last minute costume. Even if they are unaware of it, the costume that may seem harmless, may actually be the opposite. Before you pull together a costume, make sure you are understanding the history and significance of that costume before you fail to respect anyone’s culture, ethnicity or religion.
Cultural appropriation is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as, “the act of taking things or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture.”
Imagine if you saw someone on Halloween dressed up in something that is “supposed” to represent your culture or identity. You would start to ask, are they making fun of where I’m from? My people? What I represent? The very fact that someone is unaware of how that costume can be misinterpreted is the main problem with cultural appropriation.
We’ve all seen very obviously condescending costumes: blackface, Native American, Cinco de Mayo, Geisha, Gypsy, a preacher, Arab Sheik … not only are these highly offensive, they perpetuate stereotypes and create the idea that certain cultures or identities can be shaped by a single image. This is taking someone else’s culture and making it into your limited own perception of what you see. Who are you to say what someone else’s culture looks like? Before choosing a costume, consider your own identity and privilege. If you aren’t sure if a costume is insulting to someone else, you probably shouldn’t even wear it in the first place.
Addressing someone who is culturally appropriating another culture can be difficult and awkward. Especially if you don’t identify with what they are “trying” to represent. Traditions and symbols may look different to different people. However, if you do see something this Halloween who is obviously disrespecting another culture, stand up for others. This is a problem that needs to end now.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to learn about other cultures, asking questions, doing research… in fact we need to start doing more of this. What is wrong is applying the small amount of knowledge you have about another culture and then make it into a costume that is “supposed” to encompass every part of that person, identity, culture, etc. Cultural appropriation is taking a single story, single image, single idea about someone or something and perpetuating the very stereotypes that are trying to be destroyed. So instead of prolonging them, let’s dismantle them. Stay safe this Halloween and remember a culture is NOT a costume.