Is Your Halloween Costume Offensive?

This time of the year is perhaps best known for Halloween, and as it kicks into motion tonight we are greeted by both new and old faces.

Every year, as part of the festivities, we see others don outfits that transform one into a native of another culture.

But what we really see are Arab, Asian, Mexican and many other cultures reduced to cheap clothing and distasteful accessories as part of the year’s trendiest costume.

What we are, in fact, doing is cultural appropriation.

Aside from trivializing the complexities of these cultures, these costumes are also used to portray belligerent stereotypes – the Arab terrorist, the African-American thug, the Latino drug-lord are just some of the most common.

Many fail to understand that Halloween has now become an event that is centered on outrageous and frivolous costumes.

While some do come dressed as cars, pumpkins or witches, there is a certain playful aspect involved that does not infringe upon the cultural identity of others.

However, others are somehow convinced that putting your hair in a bun and wearing a sari somehow makes you an Indian, unaware that there is nothing comical about tradition.

Displays of cultural appropriation are clear when it is almost always the dominant culture in a given society that ‘dresses up’ as members of another to make a statement when there is nothing either funny or scary about them.

The power dynamic here cannot be ignored.

The culture that perceives itself as superior is the one that dresses up as peoples from other cultures, further cementing such hierarchies.

Since minority groups are usually the choice of costume they, in the process, are made to feel inferior by believing that their entire culture can be summed up in a single outfit. The one day they are not discriminated against, they instead see their identities made into a mockery.

Not only does this strip them of their exclusive ties to their culture but it also destroys the elegance of it.

This further presses on the wounds of social oppression, past subjugation and cultural inequality.

So before you decide what you’ll be wearing for Halloween, remember that other cultures are in fact just that – cultures. And each have their own customs and beliefs that are just as sacred and meaningful as our own.

Malak Sekaly
@MalakSekaly