As Halloween season is upon us, many people are things about their costume and what they want to spend their night in. Sexy witch? Bloody Vampire? Mad Scientist? The possibilities are absolutely endless. Unfortunately, some of these are going to include culturally inappropriate costumes such as Native American princess, or a sexy Indian chief, or painting on blackface to be a character on "Orange is the New Black."
Now some of you are probably wondering how to tell if a costume is culturally appropriate, and here's the trick to tell; if your costume includes the words sexy, drunk or anything that could be construed as mocking a culture or a group of people, you shouldn't be wearing it. If you aren't a part of that culture, you probably shouldn't be wearing it.
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Cultural appropriation is a problem at Halloween, people think that because they're supposed to dress up that they can degrade other cultures and that culture's traditions and it's okay because it's "just Halloween."
It's not okay. It's not okay to take the distinguishing characteristics of a race or group and make them into a joke for the night. Cultural appropriation has been on the rise for a while, and it's taken the guise of being appreciation. Appreciation is learning about and respecting a culture, not pulling out a costume once a year, and saying that you wearing it is okay because you're a fraction of whatever the costume is. New flash guys, THAT IS STILL NOT OKAY.
Respecting someone's culture isn't hard and it's not possible. Being able to say no to something because it's offensive doesn't make you a wimp or lame, it makes you respectful; and most people don't appreciate their beliefs and customs being made into a joke. So instead of being a drunk/sexy/whatever *insert minority here,* let's just be accepting and respectful.
