Is Your Halloween Costume Racist?


 
 24 Oct 2012   Holidays

Courtesy of Hampshire College, this checklist will help you to determine whether your Halloween costume is racist or not.

You know what’s not racist? This:

via hypervocal, costume via laughingsquid

 



About The Author


Nona and Kylie are butt-kicking web mods who are dedicated to curating the finest internet content.

  • http://dailyoftheday.com/ask-dickcheney-2/ DickCheney

    Well there goes DickCheney’s Klingon costume.

    • Alice Trout

      And I think, technically, my honey boo boo costume.

      • http://twitter.com/RachelofCyberia Rachel Eastwood

        I think there’s a difference between dressing like a culture stereotype and dressing like a specific person.

        • http://dailyoftheday.com/ Kabwla Two-Lips

          Not a realy difference with Boo Boo.

  • TruuuV

    Zombie:

    They were once real humans.

    It represents a people that are not my own, would that count as a cultural difference?

    It has the stereotypical blood and decay I may even throw in an unstable walk.

    It may have had traditional on the packaging though I can’t be sure.

    My costume perpetuates misinformation as it insinuates I rose from the dead when we all know the far more realistic zombie would be the product of a hybrid virus.

    ….. Shit.

  • ExecutorElassus

    inb4 butthurt racists whine about the “PC police” ruining their racist fun.

    • travtastic

      This is a great example of how sometimes, the downvotes are directly proportional to the quantity of butthurt.

  • Linus Caldwell

    Are you an easily offendable piece of fluff? Do halloween costumes make you uncomfortable? Stay inside.

  • Heysatan

    I think there are some grey lines.

    If your costume is “Mexican” or “Indian Chief” (or really any race or ethnicity in general, even if it is a “sexy” version) then yeah, that’s racist as shit.

    But is something like “samurai” or even specific people like “(Sexy) Mahatma Gandhi”? I think if you can do it without drawing attention to race, then go for it.

  • http://unfocusedmind.tumblr.com/ Unfocused Mind

    The general rule is, if you gotta ask, then it probably is.

  • http://twitter.com/RachelofCyberia Rachel Eastwood

    I’m from Turkey and this offends me.

    No, really, I worked in a hotel and had to convince the PBX operator- who was about 70 at the time- that is would not be cute if she dressed up like a barefooted Mexican peasant in sombrero and serape, since half our staff was first- or second- generation immigrants from Mexico.

  • Marco Polo Shirt

    Meanwhile, we laugh and listen to our favorite top rated stand up comics do all the things the costumes are not supposed to do. It’s a crazy world.

  • Terence Ng

    Well, gosh, if I can’t wear my barefooted Mexican/Dragon Lady/Indian Chief costume without offending SOMEONE, then what am I SUPPOSED to wear for Halloween?!

  • Blinghamstar

    And from the womb the creatures poured

    Troll, goblin, manticore

    Siege machine and armored whore

    There will be battle like never before

    What the fuck happened to dressing like demons, devils, trolls, goblins and manticores? The point of a costume for All Hallow’s Eve, was to blend in with the evil spirits walking about on that night…. OR is it just that now the ‘evil spirits’ are racist twats, white-cap frat bros and soroskanks…? Hm.

    • http://dailyoftheday.com/ Lascivious Lass

      I would squeal with delight if I saw somebody dressed up as a manticore.

  • L_Ron_Hoover

    Does white face count as racism when there is no such things as racism towards white people?

  • Mario

    Difference between racism and jokes = Jokes are only racist if white people tell them.

    • http://dailyoftheday.com/ Kabwla Two-Lips

      Confused.