Let’s get right to the nitty-gritty of the issue: someone, somehow, in some way shape or form is going to boycott specifically only white people wearing costumes this Halloween on the grounds of “cultural appropriation.” More and more Tumblr posts will be made about completely real events where the costumed white devil singlehandedly attempts to take all the world’s culture away by dressing up as an Indian chief at your local gay bar. Everyone clapped, please reblog if you want to fix race-relations.
Pay no mind to the policeman, construction worker, cowboy and other members of “The Village People” group costume they’re doing.
If you can’t see how dehumanizing, trivializing, gentrifying, native-erasing, and culturally insensitive “The Village People”—or how they should be named, the Problematic People are to real Natives, policemen, construction workers and so on news flash: you’re a white supremacist. It’s 2016.
Anyone who’s met me or read any of these columns can pretty much gather my experience in the costuming world. I’ve done events from workshops to forums to karaoke and anything in between, one of these events centers on diversity in the costuming community. I’m here to just share some of the realities that I deal with along the convention scene, since that culture has bled right into Halloween today.
One of the recurring discussions is “cultural appropriation.” This topic is a little rough to discuss, mostly because it makes zero sense: people are upset that some groups of people don’t physically own corporeal ideas and social constructs. If you don’t want someone to perceive “your” culture, maybe you should trademark it or perhaps you could focus on actual issues instead of perceived offenses.
Who actually has time to dedicate his or her mental energy into being offended over how someone dresses. It’s beautiful because the reality is, how they dress is none of your business. If someone wants to dress as a sexy tree for Halloween they’re not appropriating tree culture. People seem to think it’s either culture or costume—as if cultures don’t have costumes.
To go further, Halloween is already cultural appropriation if we have yet to notice. It didn’t just come from nowhere; it evolved from various cultures and Pagan religions. The culture of Halloween as we understand it is currently an American cultural aspect, one that includes the element of costumes.
Also, if it was not apparent, one individual dressing as an Indian is not actually the entire, broad culture of Native Americans. As the individual is not in fact an entire demographic, they are not “appropriating” a “culture.”
Honestly, if you’re going to try and claim someone is appropriating a culture, you might be wise to perhaps even remotely know the culture you’re claiming is being so very ruined. It’s still going to be logically inconsistent as an argument but at least you might show some sort of valid concern.
I may be incredibly insensitive but unfortunately I’m at least somewhat logical and consistent. I can’t even recall a costume ever giving me any negative feelings besides absolute horror over all these clowns that better not remotely come near Sinclair because I can and will stay up in my office and lock the door until the season ends.
Do other cultures get to have cultures, but America and particularly white Americans since we’re the only ones that get called out for doing anything that doesn’t stay in line with somehow holding the delicate balance of the entire world’s race issues in our tiny costumed hands? Maybe you could stop misinterpreting our American cultural traditions as something sinister and problematic through another cultural lens, while claiming you love diversity so much?
The last Halloween before I actually got into costuming whatsoever I didn’t get to celebrate—but I wanted to be a group of the Wizard of Oz characters. Am I allowed to dress as the cowardly lion or am I offending actual lions and their rich cultural history in the Great Plains and whatever else I take as fact from “The Lion King?”
However, no one else was really feeling that suggestion. Maybe it was too offensive. But by the time Halloween did roll around, my friends came up with some other outfits: pregnant Kourtney Kardashian and Oprah dressed as a shark. I don’t recall getting any cease and desist letters for the great shame we brought to the rich culture of the Kardashians and Oprah. And sharks.
Why let this attitude of actually trying to warp every single scenario into some dynamic anti-some group, problematic situation ruin not only your daily life but now even the one night you’re supposed to go dress up?
What is probably most amusing is that the only people that actually seem to dislike someone from another culture dressing in costumes or even costumes that include cultural elements from another region are white people. Of course, not about the giant array of white cultural costumes that are ever popular, those aren’t offensive because stereotypes of white cultures and generally anything anti-white is totally mainstream and accepted.
I had a friend dress up as Lil’ Wayne because he’s his favorite rapped—yes he can name three of his albums—and out of maybe some five thousand people he encountered, perhaps two said something snarky to him. And they were white. Clearly, black culture and hip-hop have ceased to exist since then and the main point of this article is to apologize for that.
Moral of the story, if you discourage people from dressing from other cultures, you’re discouraging diversity and cultural exchange—that’s a lot more insensitive than white Lil’ Wayne or myself as Nicki Minaj.
Barton Kleen
Executive Editor