Racist or Just Too Sensitive
October 31st, or as many people call it Halloween. Originally a time where kids knock on strangers’ doors and receive candy, has turned into more of a day for teenagers and adults to dress up with their friends and significant others to go to clubs and bars to have a good time. This of course is a day to show off your creativity by wearing the most eye-catching costume you can find or make. But in this day and age, costumes have turned from simple cat ears or G.I. Joe to wearing provocative and controversial outfits.
During and after Halloween, we hear the term “Offensive Costumes” on the news and social media. But growing up, I have not heard that term come up ever. There were controversial costumes such as women wearing very revealing costumes or men wearing bloody and over-the-top scary outfits, but never offensive. Over the past recent years, this term have come up more and more with more intensity than every. I was very intrigued so I decided to research what was considered an offensive costume.
Some of the obviously offensive costumes touched up pop culture and was obviously made with the intent to offend. Some of the top searches of offensive costumes this year were the Kim Kardashian robbery outfit, a Ebola sexy nurse outfit, and a Harambe suit. Although through the eyes of some, these costumes are made as a joke, there were many backlashes labeling the creators and distributors as “insensitive” and “demeaning”. I for one have a sense of humor, but I do have to agree that these costumes do not have to exist in the world. They were clearly made to start a controversy and its only intent was to gain some attention.
In 2013, actress and Dancing With the Stars dancer Julianne Hough was slammed for her Halloween costume. She dressed up as Uzo Aduba’s character “Crazy Eyes” on the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, wearing a bright orange prison outfit and her hair tied in knots just as the character was portrayed. But the outfit itself was not deemed offensive. People were upset at the fact that because the character “Crazy Eyes” is African American, Hough, a Caucasian, applied a dark skinned foundation to her face. Hough’s case was not the only one, as many light-skinned students from different universities have also done the same. This epidemic called “blackface”, was claimed to be demeaning to the African American community and that it made fun of their ancestry and who they are. In my opinion, this again does not need to exist in the world. The people who usually end up on news articles and social media regarding this issue, are young adults and adults. If it is necessary for a play or a movie (Robert Downey’s character in Tropic Thunder) than I wouldn’t mind it as much. Although I personally do not have dark skinned and do not have a personal connection with the issue, I do see it as an offensive way of depicting one’s culture.
The last example has been all over the news and social media. Singer and actress Hilary Duff and her boyfriend dressed up as a Native American and a Pilgrim for this past Halloween. The two were slammed for their “offensive costume” as they portray the orientalist vision of how the Native Americans and Pilgrims looked. The former Disney star made a public announcement on Twitter and apologized for their costumes. The argument of those who were offended were that when you dress up as an Indian or Native American, it doesn’t represent just a costume but their culture as well. A culture where history shows the whites brutally mass murdered Native Americans during colonization. Benedict Anderson mentions in his piece Imagined Communities, “The dreams of racism actually have their origin in ideologies of class, rather than in those of nation”. People are not offended at the fact that these costumes are made and are available to the public. They speak out because they see the privileged and the upper class wearing another culture’s appearance as a form of mockery and humor, EVEN if it is unintended. It is the same concept where cultures will say, “You can’t talk about my race. That’s racist. But I can because I cannot be racist to my own race.” It is when one culture mimics another culture that becomes a problem in society.
Personally when I saw this article, it got me frustrated and made me question, are people getting too sensitive? If you go to the costume store, you’ll see other culture’s costumes such as Egyptian pharaohs, French maids, a Mexican, a geisha, a Viking, etc. These do not receive nearly any backlash when seen during Halloween. Being Japanese, if I saw someone dressed as a sumo wrestler or a geisha, I would not be offended at all. If I saw someone of a different culture dressed up with slanted eyes or as a radioactive Atomic bomb victim, yes that would offend me. It is interesting to see that while everyone is talking about Hilary Duff and forcing her to apologize, we having millions of people right now watching the World Series where a team called the Cleveland Indians are competing. And for the longest time, their logo included a smiling “red-faced” Indian chief. In this day and age, we are exposed to many images every day. With the world obsessed with sharing every aspect of life, it is inevitable to please everyone. The world is already becoming a difficult and horrifying place to voice your own opinion. But is there such a thing as too much? Are people overly sensitive? These are the questions I ask everyday.
