As Halloween quickly approaches, the pressure to find the perfect costume leers over the head of any college student planning to celebrate. Trying to accomplish the perfect combination of clever and attractive is admittedly a struggle. However, in a time where tensions are high in America, political correctness and cultural sensitivity have perhaps never mattered more.  Ground rules, whether we like it or not, should be laid down to avoid tension between yourself and your neighbor.

 

For example, if you find that your costume mimics another race or culture, it should be a given that you find a new costume. We have all seen the couple’s combination of “Cowboy and Native American” which plays upon our country’s dark history of oppressing an entire race. While this costume idea may seem to be a classic, dressing up as another race forces you to consider how you would portray a culture that is not your own, which in turn pressures you to consider the stereotypes of this culture. Attempting to artificially recreate someone else’s race can force the practice of cultural appropriation, a concept that means exploiting the culture of an ethnic group that is not your own, without a thorough grasp of that group’s traditions or history.  Especially during Halloween, cultural appropriation can be extremely problematic when those who celebrate, though they may not have malicious intentions, make blantantly tactless and offensive stereotypes without meaning to. While trying to make your friends laugh with costume ideas like “Immigrant vs. Border Police,” for example, might seem like an apt way of commenting on hot button political issues, it is time we let go of costumes that force you to think of how you would portray a race that is not your own.

 

Recently, the Cosmopolitan SnapChat story that touched on this issue, presenting Halloween Costumes that should not make the cut this October. Cosmopolitan presented the idea that avoiding costumes that are offensive for reasons besides racism and misogyny is just as important. For example, dressing up as a “crazed psych ward patient” may not be the type of creepy you were trying to achieve. Making light of mental illness or painting those hospitalized for mental disorders in a light of uncontrolled violence is a phenomenon that, frankly, is never cool. Costumes like this do not help fight the stigma that those who are mentally ill are dangerous or don’t “fit in” with the rest of society, a concept that, in 2016, should be done away with.

 

Halloween costumes are characteristically tacky. However, there are ways to be tacky, to push boundaries, and to have fun doing it that don’t insult others. Let’s strive towards that.