Halloween is one of the few holidays that encourages participants to be someone or something other than themselves.
For one day a year it is socially acceptable to wear a mask and be whomever you want. It is tradition to buy costumes that will either make people scream from sheer terror or cry from uncontrollable laughter.
However, it does seem one specific trend in the October holiday is becoming more popular and is causing controversy.
The purchase of costumes that might be taken as offensive is becoming common with the young adults taking part in the festivities—especially people of college age.
“People want to try to get a quick laugh at a party but don’t realize how they make other people look or feel. It’s just rude,” said advertising junior Esther Okunrounmu.
This might be an issue that is stretching across many generations, but it seems college campuses are the epicenter for the outrage. Students are starting to see more people each year dressing up as members of other cultures in a very unflattering light.
Okunrounmu is African-American. She said that it’s “taking my culture and making it into a laughing stock.”
Costumes are causing these feelings across different spectrums of the community are those that play off the already common stereotypes that people already deal with regularly.
Outfits that have gotten the most attention include: the nerdy Asian, sexy geisha, howling Indian chief, pregnant nuns and inebriated Jesus’… to name a few.
Here are some questions to ask yourself before wearing a costume this Halloween:
Who am I representing with this costume?
Would I be willing to wear this costume around those types of people?
If your costume is meant to be funny, why exactly is it funny? Is it at the expense of others?
If you feel at all uneasy with any of your answers, maybe this is not the costume to be wearing on a college campus, especially one that is home to students from nearly 125 different nations around the world.
And if you find yourself feeling a bit limited this Halloween season, the front desk still gives out bed sheets that could make for a killer Spartan outfit.
