This Halloween, is your goal to become a feminist meme of what not to do?
If so, then ignore this blog post on cultural appropriation.
But if not, avoid the following Halloween “costumes” this year.
Blackface
Blackface is never okay. I can’t believe people still don’t know this.
There’s a long, racist history associated with blackface. Blair L. M. Kelley, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, summarized this history a few years ago on TheGrio. From her article:
Minstrel shows became hugely popular in the 1840s exposing white audiences in the North with their first exposure to any depiction of black life. They would often feature a broad cast of characters; from Zip Coon, the educated free black man who pronounced everything incorrectly, to Mammy, a fat, black faithful slave who was really just obviously played by a man in a dress. Black children were depicted as unkempt and ill raised pickaninnies. The running joke about pickaninnies was that they were disposable; they were easily killed because of their stupidity and the lack of parental supervision.
Kelley also wrote this article to deride the ignorant costume choices at Halloween.
If you are not black, but you want to dress up as a famous black person for Halloween, you can do that. Just don’t wear blackface. Vibe put together a gallery of costume examples without blackface.
During my freshman year of high school, my dance team performed to a Michael Jackson medley. We wore black fedoras with red sequin bands, red sequin tops, black pants, white socks, black shoes… and one white glove each. No blackface required.
By the way, other minorities can’t wear blackface either.
Native American
For a current reminder on how the United States still treats native people, see the Dakota Access Pipeline. For a quick lesson in complicated laws about reservations, read 5 Ways The Government Keeps Native Americans In Poverty.
If you don’t understand why it’s bad to dress up as a “sexy Indian,” take it from Adrienne Keene, the blogger at Native Appropriation. In her blog post Open Letter to the Pocahotties, she writes:
You are in a position of power. You might not know it, but you are. Simply because of the color of your skin, you have been afforded opportunities and privilege, because our country was built on a foundation of white supremacy. That’s probably a concept that’s too much for you to handle right now, when all you wanted to do was dress up as a PocaHottie for Halloween, but it’s true.
I am not in a position of power. Native people are not in positions of power. By dressing up as a fake Indian, you are asserting your power over us, and continuing to oppress us. That should worry you.
But don’t tell me that you’re oppressed too, or don’t you dare come back and tell me your “great grandmother was a Cherokee Princess” and that somehow makes it ok. Do you live in a system that is actively taking your children away without just cause? Do you have to look at the TV on weekends and see sports teams with mascots named after racial slurs of your people? I doubt it.
I feel both amazed and not surprised at all how many people responded to Keene’s original post with such anger.
Geisha
Let’s talk about geishas.
Buzzfeed creatively critiqued geisha costumes in this video.
You might have a fun time being dressed up as a sexy Geisha, but you can take off the costume and continue living undisturbed. Meanwhile, actual Japanese women (well, Asian women in general) are subjected to people fetishizing their looks without any easy way to make it stop.
Geishas are not the only Asian stereotype available in costume form. Avoid all yellowface.
Any Minority Stereotype
Don’t dress up in a “Mexican” costume. Avoid wearing traditional Indian dress as a costume. (Yes, there is a time and place when it’s appropriate for non-Indians to wear saris. Halloween is not one of them). Skip the “gypsy” costume (yeah, that’s actually a slur for Romani).
Racist Disney Characters
I love Disney. So much. I love the movies. I love Disney World. But Disney has some problems with racism and sexism.
Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Aladdin are all great movies with incredible music. Their female characters are all pretty badass in their own ways.
But each film features highly problematic, racist depictions of people of color.
The true story of Pocahontas ends in her death at 21.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame overtly sexualizes Esmeralda and uses the word “gypsy,” even while attempting a positive portrayal of Romani.
Aladdin features racist portrayals of Arabs, white-washes the “good Arabs” (Aladdin, the Sultan, Jasmine) while portraying Jafar as dark-skinned, and overtly sexualizes Jasmine.
Dressing up as Pocahontas, or Esmeralda, or Jasmine just perpetuates these racist (and sexist) stereotypes.
From Feminist Disney (emphasis original):
Just because it’s a “costume,” does all the racist, stereotyping, historical oppression baggage that came along with that portrayal suddenly disappear just because the kid can take it off at the end of the night? I would say it doesn’t. Cultural appropriation is tied into the original characters themselves, and so it can’t be divorced from this context just because a 2d character is now jumping into a 3d costume form.
I love dressing up for Halloween. You can choose from a near-limitless selection of dazzling costumes. So why dress up as a racist caricature? Stand out this Halloween for your ingenuity, not your racial insensitivity.
Full disclosure: I wore a “gypsy costume” in the first grade. My parents and I didn’t know any better. Fortunately my history adviser introduced me to cultural appropriation at Furman. Since then, the Internet has taught me more.
Do you regret a costume of your childhood? How do you choose respectful costumes today? Let me know in the comments!
YES to all of these!
Along the lines of gross cultural apropriation I recently discovered the phenomena of people dressing like the twin towers with a plane sticking out of their head and I was speechless. I’m not even American but it dumbfounded me that people would be so insensitive. Sigh. People suck.
Yeah, there are so many terrible costume choices. I would hope that *most* people would realize that mocking 9/11 is highly inappropriate. Unfortunately, a huge number of people have no idea why blackface or sexy stereotypes are inappropriate.
Ugh. Ya don’t even get me started on the sexy costumes…
Okay I have a question that not specifically related to Halloween but to cultural appropriation that I’ve been wanting to ask but can never find a good forum because it’s so easy to get torn to shreds for asking an innocent question these days. Where is the line? For example, if someone wants to wear their hair in cornrows is that cultural appropriation? Or is that just doing your hair in a style that you appreciate? If we call that culture appropriation, then why is “Milkmaid” braids okay? It’s just so frustrating to me especially as a mixed race person.
I totally agree about all the ones you listed above. I’ve definitely dressed up as Pocahontas or other racist things and it never really hit me until after I graduated college and experienced more of the real world. The fact that we still need reminders of “Dont wear blackface” is mind boggling.
I don’t believe wearing your hair in cornrows is cultural appropriation or disrespectful. Just as I don’t think someone curling their hair or straightening their hair is cultural appropriation either. I believe cornrows are just a hairstyle like any other hairstyle, sockbuns, curls, pigtails, etc… BUT that’s just my opinion on it.
In regards to cornrows, there is not a consensus among black Americans as to whether or not it’s cultural appropriation. Mic interviewed several women on the topic.
https://mic.com/articles/150645/is-it-ever-ok-for-white-people-to-wear-cornrows#.hKtD2nLbV
This quote is one of the strongest takeaways for me.
“Here’s where it would be okay with me: If I can walk into a professional setting or a high-end store and I’m wearing cornrows and I am treated the same way a white woman were to be treated if she were to be wearing cornrows, then it’d be an easier pill to swallow,” Ascencio said. “But I don’t think we’re labeled the same way. I think the reaction to races wearing the same style is where the problem lies.”
Right now, many professional settings still define black natural hair as unprofessional. Here are two articles that describe the issue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tajh-sutton/next-person-who-calls-hair-unprofessional_b_9661216.html
http://www.ebony.com/style/fighting-for-our-hair-in-corporate-america-032#axzz4MVaxaHat
Basically, what seems like just a simple question of hairstyle has a long underlying history of racism. As a super-basic metaphor, it’s like if someone told me wearing glasses was unprofessional, and they forced me to wear contacts or lose my job. But then people who don’t need corrective lenses were allowed to wear fake hipster glasses and admired for their fashion-forward accessories.
In regards to “milkmaid” braids, I can’t find a definitive history on that specific style. But art depicting women in French braids is very old, and global. They’re not even French at all.
http://www.popsugar.com/beauty/History-French-Braid-22404991
When a style potentially has multiple origin points, you can’t really appropriate it because it belongs to multiple cultures. Cornrows, on the other hand, very obviously originated in Africa, with a ton of ancient art to prove it. Even the fact that Americans call them cornrows points to the history of slaves braiding their hair in the US.
I’ve really gone down the rabbit hole at this point on the history of braiding…
Thanks for sharing! That first article is really good and shares a perspective I hadn’t thought of before.
I think it’s very important to be aware of and sensitive to cultural appropriation. At the same time, I treasure the saris, salwar khameez, baju kebaya, yukata, and qipao that have been given to me over the years (somehow, my love of clothes is so obvious that all my friends give me clothes–my yukata was given to me by an 18 year old boy when I was 15, which somewhat scandalized my parents… like “Why is he giving you clothes?”).
I sure wouldn’t wear them as costumes, but for holiday celebrations, weddings, ceremonies, I do wear them. And my cotton salwar khameez tunics get worn all the time just because they are perfectly comfortable in this heat and commonly worn around here.
It’s hard for me to know what exactly to think about white people wearing other culture’s clothing (though when it’s used as a costume, I know exactly what to think! I actually don’t celebrate Halloween, though I might wear a costume for other events. Last costume I wore was Captain Hook, who probably isn’t a very good person to emulate…). I’ve gotten some negative reactions on my blog when I’ve shared photos of me or my family in traditional dress for our community’s events. My sister is an amazing henna artist but I’m very reluctant to share any of her art because she’s obviously Caucasian. She hasn’t lived in the USA since she was 3 and was practically raised in an Indian family, grew up doing henna with her friends the same way she might have done nails with her friends if she grew up in the USA. To me, there’s a difference between cultural appropriation and being a TCK (third culture kid)–between trying something on for fashion or for mockery and investing most of your life into learning about and advocating for a culture you aren’t blood-related to. And Malaysians in general have a very different attitude that the Western ideas, I think.
Here, there are three major races as well as many minority tribes and foreigners–there are a lot of problems with institutionalized racism–BUT! Malaysia at it’s best has Indian girls giggling over doing henna for their Chinese friends, white girls dancing along to Bollywood movies in their best friends’ homes, Chinese people greeting Malays with “Selamat Hari Raya!”, expats wearing Malay traditional batik clothing as a way to honor special occasions of meeting important government officials, and non-Muslims making sure Halal food is available at their holiday parties so that their Muslim friends can eat. Malaysia at its worst has people trying to draw hard, thick lines between the major people groups and not allow the others to participate in celebrating each others’ cultures.
There is definitely a difference between cultural appropriation and being a TCK! I’d even say that it’s respectful for expats to adapt local traditions as part of genuinely joining the community. I’ve seen pictures of you and your family in clothing that I just assumed was local to Malaysia, even though I couldn’t name the exact styles.
I would also add that if you marry into another culture, it’s fine to adapt some of those cultures into your own life. Dan and I attended a wedding this summer, and during the reception, the (white) bride changed into a sari that her new mother-in-law had bought her. To the best of my knowledge, the couple isn’t having a second Indian wedding. I thought their co-mingling of traditions worked beautifully for one celebration.
I dressed as Esmeralda for three years because it was the only costume of a Disney princess that I could pull off, because Jasmine looks nothing like me and then everyone else is white. Now I realize that it’s appropriation and awkward for me since I’m obviously not Romanian… but what are your thoughts on this? I had friends tell me it was okay because I really did look like her, I didn’t paint my face or anything. I have mixed feelings… I find it really annoying that there is not a single Disney princess that I can be without appropriating. How nice it must be to be white in this case…
And what happens when it’s a minority person dressing as another minority — I had an Asian friend who looks a lot like Pocahontas (at least the animated image) but isn’t Native American. Should she not have worn the costume still? If I dressed as Jasmine, would that be inappropriate because I am not actually Arab? What if I was? Would I still be perpetuating the stereotype?
It is still cultural appropriation for one minority to wear another minority’s cultural outfit like a costume. Like one of the links I included was to a native person’s apology after he wore blackface. Esmeralda, Jasmine, and Pocahontas are all interesting characters as women, but they’re all racist depictions of minority groups.
In my understanding of cultural appropriation and Halloween costumes, dressing up as a specific person or character of another race is fine. Like if I were part of a group costume, I could be Scary Spice from the Spice Girls or Gaia from Captain Planet. I just wouldn’t wear blackface!
If you wanted to be a Disney princess, you could be any of the white princesses, or Tiana or Moana. I can imagine how frustrating it must feel to be a fan of Disney and not be able to dress up like a character who actually looks like you, though. I mean, they have produced SO many princesses, but the vast majority are still white, and they screwed up most of the minority princesses. Tiana was a step in the right direction, although the movie still had some racist problems. I have high hopes for Moana!
I’m confused by your second paragraph. Blackface is really specific in my mind. It was used in the past specifically to make fun of black people, so I understand that. But you just said a specific person or character is fine… isn’t that the case with Jasmine, Esmeralda, and Pocahontas? In your post you’re saying that they are depicted in a racist way. If you’re saying that a specific character is okay only if they’re not racist or a costume that is actually something that is important in that character’s culture, then that makes sense to me, but I’m not sure if that’s what you’re saying!
I’ve had so many friends tell me I could just dress as any white princess, but I don’t feel I can. I wish I could be Belle, because she was always my favourite, but if I put on a yellow (or blue) dress and say I’m Belle, I’ll just look like a girl in a dress. I won’t look like her. Skin colour matters! I’ll look like I’m trying to be her, and that’s something that has been problem for a lot of my life – “trying to be white.” Changing myself to fit in. Being a white princess is not an option to me. Even as a kid, I felt fake when I dressed as Ariel.
So, yes, it’s incredibly annoying that there is not a single princess/female character for me. I feel the same about Tiana – it’s a big deal that she was created but I think it’s important that she’s black. It wouldn’t feel right for me to dress as her, even though it’s not necessarily cultural appropriation. Tiana is a character for black people and black young girls, not for me.
I am really excited about Moana, because my heritage is half a big mix-up of Polynesian cultures so she’s the first person I can really dress up as. But alas… her movie isn’t even out yet. I’m still waiting for a movie about an Indian girl, from India or not.
“If you’re saying that a specific character is okay only if they’re not racist or a costume that is actually something that is important in that character’s culture, then that makes sense to me.”
You’ve got it! I know it’s a bit confusing, but I felt the Disney section was necessary because a common protest is, “It’s not cultural appropriation if it’s a character.” Well, it’s still a problem if the character is a racist depiction.
I didn’t intend to imply that you *should* dress up as a white princess, but your initial comment sounded like you thought a minority dressing up as a white princess was also cultural appropriation, which is why I tried to clarify that it’s not.
You are pretty awesome the way you are, and I’m glad you’re able to resist American/Western whitewashing pressure.
Let’s hope that Disney does Moana justice! I’m super-excited for the music already.
Thanks for clarifying Brita! I am pretty excited too 😀
Roma have bigger issues to deal with than someone wearing an Esmeralda costume.