There’s a difference between appreciation and exploitation.
Cultural appropriation tends to become a popular trend during halloween. Typically, it’s a white person dressing up as the stereotype of another culture. Honestly, they probably don’t mean any harm by it… but, that being said, nothing good comes out of reducing someone’s culture to a costume.
You might be thinking, “It’s just Halloween,” or “It’s just a costume!” My response to that is, well, exactly. Many of the cultures and races that people turn into costumes have been discriminated against. It isn’t fair for someone to be allowed to “try on” someone else’s culture for a night without feeling the weight of the hardships they have faced. Also, in many cultures, details on clothing have very specific spiritual meanings. Cheap, ratty costumes completely disregard the hard work that went into and the importance of the piece.
The golden rule: Do Not Dress Up As Another Culture/Race. If you follow this, you should be fine. Just incase you haven’t gotten it yet, here’s a list of costumes to avoid this Halloween.
1. Anything involving black face, often marketed as “ghetto” (including in this picture).
Do I really need to be telling people not to do this??
2. Ambiguous Asian
…and yes, this includes “ninjas”
3. Native American
trail of tears- remember that?
4. Mexican guy
5. Gypsy/Belly Dancer
no. just no.