A racist undertone behind halloween costumes.
The on-going issue about this is that it's very disrespectful and insensitive to the cultures that the costumes are drawing inspiration from. The issue stems from the fact companies sexualize and/or alter culturally important clothing with a lot of significance to the culture that they're taking it from.
There is an important quote present in the article that states: "While dressing as a super hero is one thing, dressing in a way that reduces culture to caricature suggests that the culture being portrayed is less important than others" -Centre of Principals. We can conclude from this statement that the main issue is that it undermines the importance of a person's culture. Another quote that suggests this is from the article is: "Those costumes aren't jokes for the people who have lived those experiences" -Jayden Lavallie. The statement is more true than it is false. Many people who put on these costumes don't even know the significance that those costumes have in a person's culture. We need to start becoming educated about this issue, so we can start doing steps to stop this culture.
That's why the public should start start to boycott the products that these companies make. They only continue to manufacture and design costumes like these because people who are ignorant to the importance of the clothing continue to buy them. That's why we have also have to educate the public about the importance of traditional clothing to a culture. But for now, not being part of the problem will suffice.
Now, here are some costumes that are part of the issue:
I see exactly where you're coming from. People need to see how damaging their racist costumes are, not only to the culture they are representing but also to their own. Yes, wearing a costume that includes pieces which are significant to a culture hurts the reputation of it, but it puts the wearer's culture under fire as well. When people see a white person doing blackface, that person immediately becomes the representative of ALL white people. This leads to accusations such as "All white people are racists," and "All white people hate black people," which is obviously not true. The way you present yourself is so important especially in our society today.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your stance Mitchell. Superheroes stand for something else, while culture stands for all some people have. Many of these costumes you exampled are of minority origin, a group of people oppressed in the past and even in the present for what their culture is. People who haven't experience things like racism have no idea what it feels like. So like you said we need to try our best to educate the uneducated so costumes like these ones can stop being made.
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