"Omg do you guys wanna dress up like chulos for Halloween? We could get bandanas, fake tattoos! yeah foo! That'd be so fun haha" said the teenager from the suburbs.
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| Source: On My Block- Netflix |
On October 17, 2017 Teen Vogue posted a video to Youtube titled "My culture is NOT a costume". In this video young women of colour share their experiences and opinions on racist Halloween costumes. Definitely some of you who have seen this video might be thinking "oh here goes the sensitive feminists again" or "people are too sensitive". It's easy to not take offence to these costumes when it's not your culture being mocked. In a perfect world these women would be listened to and their words would be considered. This obviously did not happen, comments filled with ignorance mocked these women's experiences. The video offered different views on other people's culture and opened discussion of what should and should not be worn as a costume. While also sharing women's own experiences and what these costumes mean to them.
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| (source: custommer.net) |
Personally I've seen my fair share of offensive Halloween costumes. Walk into any costume store and you'll find a white model modelling "black disco puffs" or "funky afro" wigs. I remember significantly in elementary school a white kid my age dressed up as a "Mexican" with the classic poncho and sombrero, he mockingly spoke "Spanish" the whole day. Fast forward a couple years it's high school. Halloween arrives and a group of guys from my school are dressed as chulos, The flannel, the face tattoos, the gang signs, the bandanas, everything. Costumes like these are everywhere and not enough people realize how offensive they really are.
Again you may be thinking "ugh who cares it's just a costume" or "people are too sensitive nowadays". The thing is, it's not just a costume. It's mockery baked into our culture for centuries now.
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| Source: Pinterest |
A common word that comes up in discussions like these is culture appropriation. It may be a hard word to understand. In order to do that we need to know the difference between culture appropriation and culture appreciation.
Culture appropriation is those halloween costumes, it's taking things from other cultures and using them for your own personal gain and clout, while also enforcing harmful stereotypes and fetishes. For example, the "sexy Asian women" costumes enforce a creepy stereotypes and the hypersexualization of Asian women. Another example being some people cannot wear their natural hair at work because it is deemed as "unprofessional" or "ghetto". While if Caucasian people were to make their hair the same way they'd be deemed as "trendy".
It's like your culture becomes a trend but only Caucasian people can take part in it.
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| source: On my Block-Netflix |
You see the problem with culture appropriation is that you make a
mockery of someone's deeply rooted culture as well enforce more stereotypes. A classic example being an "Indian warrior" costume worn by white people on Halloween. This not only makes a mockery of valuable aboriginal garments but also enforces the aggressive savage-like stereotypes of the Aboriginal peoples. Another example of this is the Chulos situation we see
so often. In case you didn't know chulo is Spanish for pimp. These privileged teenagers will never know the life of someone who actually identifies with the "chulo" culture.
It's a
reality, it's not something you can take off at the end of the day. This
GIF defines it perfectly. It comes from the show "On My Block". The character "Lil spooky" confronts a suburban white teen, dressed as a
chulo, on halloween night. Lil spooky then wipes the fake teardrop
tattoo off the teens face and shows that his own is real.
The problem
with culture appropriation is that people take other people's culture
but do not accept the hardships that come with it.
People will take someone's culture to seem cool, yet treat the actual people from that culture with prejudice.
Culture appreciation on the other hand is taking part in other cultures out of honour . For example, you are going to a Filipino wedding men wear barongs and women wear ternos. If you are not of Filipino decent, it would
not be offensive to wear the garments because it comes for
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| Source: Dazed.com |
a place of honour and respect towards Filipino culture. Another example being Caribana in Toronto, a Caribbean festival that takes place in the summer. People dress up and have a good time all while respecting and celebrating Caribbean culture. On the right you see Angelina Jolie wearing a hijab while visiting refugees in the Middle east. This is culture appreciation because it comes from respect and education of Middle Eastern culture.
Do you see the difference? Culture appropriation comes from a place of ignorance. Culture appreciation is coming from a place of respect and understanding.
You might think: "this is a double standard!" "if people of colour dressed up as white people and did white face then no one would say anything". Yes, it may be a double standard. But for centuries people of colour were mocked, dehumanized, portrayed as monkeys. Look at Jim Crow or Golliwog dolls. These things were used to degrade a group of people that already do not have a lot of power, and further stereotype them. To compare the racism faced by people of colour for centuries to the banter of white culture seems unfair. Both valid, yes, but hard to compare.
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| Source: People.com |
Now how do we deter people from disrespecting cultures during Halloween? It's simple. EDUCATION. The more people learn and have discussions the less ignorant they'll be thus making more considerate choices. Additionally, offer them a different costume. Like a TV show or movie character. The photo on the left is Julianne Hough dressed as "Crazy Eyes" from Netflix's Orange is the New Black. She definitely could have gone without the blackface and still be recognizable as Crazy Eyes. You can still dress up as a person of colour character and not do blackface or enforce stereotypes in your costume.
We should explain why costumes like these are harmful to a culture of people. The more education the less ignorant people will be.
To put it quite simply; imagine you make a joke and some people may find it funny but some people didn't like the joke. Then someone else, perhaps someone more popular makes the same joke and
everyone laughs and likes the joke. That's culture appropriation in a nutshell. But obviously instead of a joke, it's centuries worth of history and experiences put into mockery and fetishes.
It's a known fact that black face is harmful and definitely culture appropriation, how are costumes like these any different?
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| Source: Amazon |
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