Miss(ed) Representations, Part One: ‘I’m a Culture, Not a Costume’ Campaign

i’m really glad you posted this. i’ve been writing about this issue for as long as i can remember (well, i think the first time i published a rant about it was 2004, and nearly every year since then) and every single year, there are people who accuse me of being “too sensitive.” i suppose i was a bit naive to think that the message of the “we’re a culture, not a costume” was so simple and to the point that people couldn’t possible dismiss or mock it, but i was a bit too hopeful.

however, i really love the way you put it: the naysayers and those who are whitesplaining that they should be able to wear whatever costume they want are simply proving the point of those who are calling them out on their racism. maybe they won’t realize that today, or tomorrow, but hopefully someday.

I think the phrase, “I’m a culture, not a costume” says it all and it should shut people up who ask, “Why can’t I dress up as a….?”

I loved STARS for doing this and I so glad that this blog mentioned the campaign. Wearing an “ethnic” costume is just an excuse to be a jackass and it shows your lack of creativity. 

Well, I’m glad to see this discussion in a place that isn’t going to be chock full of people who heartily defend their right to be racist, or who do nothing but make excuses about why their right to be insensitive racists outweighs my right to be offended by said racism. You know, the whole, “why are minorities so sensitive, it’s just a costume, why can’t I be whatever I want to be for Halloween, it isn’t fair, white people don’t have any rights anymore.”  It is as if I’m in a forum of people preparing to write dissertations on how to effectively derail discussions about racism.
It kills me how so many non-minorities think that their right to be offensive is more important than anything at all.  Supposed progressives will argue that it’s just a costume, or it’s not offensive b/c they really ADMIRE the culture that they are emulating/mocking with their ethnic Halloween costume.  B/c nothing says “I respect your culture” more than reducing it to a bunch of played out stereotypes in a room full of drunken idiots.  There are about eleventy hundred things that you can dress up as for Halloween.  And honestly, it stops being a costume when you are in fact showing the world that you are just a racist jerk, which you in fact are, 365 days of the year.  The only difference is that instead of being a racist jerk in your own clothes, you are a racist jerk wearing a leather vest or a cheap kimono.

We had a Halloween costume at work yesterday. Someone white dressed up as one of the members or Run DMC. No blackface, no afro, just a throwback jersey with slightly baggy jeans, sneakers and a chain. I think it worked because

a. The person seems to be a fan of Run DMC
b. It was a very specific costume 
c. It didn’t play on stereotypes.

While it can sometimes cross the line, if your intent is specificity and not mocking, I don’t see much of a problem.

Hmmmm…I tend to be leery of even specificity. One recent example of this is the Antoine Dodson costume that was so hot last year or Heidi Klum’s Kali costume. Both were specific–and the wearers thought they were expressing their “fandom”/respect about the entities behind the costumes, which expresses their “intentions”–but the costumes still offended. (I do have to respect Dodson’s “fuck you pay me” cashing in on his costume.) That why intent doesn’t carry a costume for me.

As a white person, I would feel weird dressing up as a person of another race, even if I had no ill intentions. The history of white people wearing other races and cultures as a “costume” is so repugnant that it makes me uncomfortable to even go there, and clearly many people are wearing costumes that overtly use stereotypes even today. Maybe the Run DMC fan successfully pulled it off and everyone took the costume as a respectful homage — or maybe someone was upset by it, whether they said anything or not. If it were me, I wouldn’t want to take the chance. It’s not worth it to me.

I don’t think you have to dress up like Al Jolson and sing “Mammy” for it to be offensive.  I saw his picture, and also saw the offensive “whitesplaining” article defending it.  The writer was to me racist and dismissive in his explanation, and definitely promoted the idea that it wasn’t offensive since the player was also South American (not that it doesn’t mean that he isn’t white though).  Even without the awful article, this picture is just as sick as the one in the ad campaign.  And unnecessary. Why not go as Marshall and Kim Mathers?  Or maybe as Pitbull or Daddy Yankee?

But in my opinion, his costume was offensive, and it was hilarious to me that his girlfriend who was supposedly Beyonce did a piss-poor job of it.  So yeah, Beyonce wears giant honey-blond/brown wigs, but the girl wore something that looked like Snooki hair and was pitch black.  It’s hard to articulate, but the fact that she felt the need to darken her skin but not use the proper color wig just seemed off to me. Why argue about the need for authenticity if you don’t seek to accurately emulate other things?  I see your Manny Ramirez suggestion as being problematic for the same reasons as this Jay-Z/Beyonce couple.  People are just looking for ways around taking responsibility for the inherently racist act of going about in blackface.  Using his hair as part of your costume is just another attempt to circumvent things.

Cartoon or movie characters who have distinctive costumes when worn by a child wouldn’t bother me…but leave the stereotypical interpretations of our skin, hair, and other physical features out of it. It always, always, always reverts to this idea that everyone except white people has the same features and oh, aren’t they just so funny, cute, hahahaha.  You know, there are black people with “white” skin.  So you can use our own skin and pull off your costume.  Ditto for hair.  

There are just so many things that you can be for Halloween.  Why are so many people determined to dress up like racist a$$holes as if their lives depended on it?

Exactly…we know exactly what a person, even without a wig or skin color, is going to default to to show us that they are OJ Simpson or Osama Bin Laden.  Just.Say.No. 

I’m in a convo on an FB page where someone decided to show up to a burlesque Halloween event as a–wait for it–a “sexy” Klanswoman. (You read that right. One of the leaders of the group said he saw the costume, “was offendeed by it,” but said nothing.)) Of course, the First Amendment Defense (specifically, that I’ll defend your right to be offensive) came up with the rejoinder of saying that “yes, I’ll defend it but that doesn’t mean you can sit next to me at a party and eat cake.” (The commenter’s words, not mine.)  To that I said that I wasn’t stopping stopping the woman from wearing the costume in her home.:-D But the downside of the First Amendment Defense for the particular situation, I added, is that it does allow the person wearing the offensive costume to sit and eat cake with the event organizers’ silent complicity.

Right, and something tells me the “white trash” parody above didn’t come from a poor or working class white person.

Ah, the free speech/censorship argument (I’ve heard it lots of times and my response is always)

Free speech means that you have the right to be an ass. It also means that others have the right to tell you you’re being an ass!

I wonder if those same people defending Al Jolson and others in blackface would defend the Wayans Bros. for their whiteface in the movie “White Chicks”.

I’m white, and I dressed up as Jasmine when I was four, because I thought she was funny and pretty. I now wonder if my parents should have stopped me.  How would they have explained it? Could they have done it without discouraging me from identifying with characters of color? I mean, maybe the fact that her costume is pretty inappropriate for a little kid should be enough…

For a long time I thought that a ‘gypsy’ was equivalent to a ‘hippie’– just some wacky lifestyle choice!  I had no idea it was an actual ethnicity until I was, maybe, 16 or 17. I wonder how many people out there have no idea?  Not that it would stop a lot of them if they knew…

I completely disagree. I have a white friend (two, actually) who went as Flavor Flav. I have another white friend who went as Beyonce. They were completely recognizable without wearing wigs or black face.

I don’t think any of them had ill racial motivation. They weren’t mocking the blackness of these celebrities. The costumes were not racial, although they still went as people who were black.

Why are so many people determined to dress up like racist a$$holes as if their lives depended on it?

I don’t have a pen big enough to co-sign with this question, nicthommi! 

For me, sometimes it’s not about the offer, but the taking and doing it is were I think it rest. Though the geisha houses may be offering to dress people up, I don’t have to accept doing it just out of respect of how the profession, race, and gender have melded so deep in pop imagination–namely the stereotype of the “meek, sexy Asian girl.” Or it just seem like I was mocking the culture-specific profession.

I could imagine my rolling in into such a place, dressing up, and taking a photo (I want to record the moment, right?) Now, let me show that to the R crew and see how that works out for me, talmbout “b-b-but the geisha houses offered this, see?” See…no. Racialicious Crew Direct Laser Side-Eye is real, y’all. Just saying.

Most costume websites refer to the so-called gypsy costume as a fortune teller.  The word gypsy was not used in its description, though other sites use it. And I once ran across a website where a Black woman was criticized by some Roma people for using the word gypsy in her article because they found the word offensive and stated that as a Black woman she should have known better.

actually, thats a really good point. part of the problem is the lack of knowledge about roma folks here in the states, my bff is a Spanish Gypsy, and spends most halloweens doing a head desk.  i actually forwarded the pics to her and suggested she do her own. we got into a big thing last year w a mutual friend who attended a ‘gypsy party’.  its kind of absurd really, the whole time she kept saying, ‘would you go to a jew party? a black party? a chicano party?’ and they just didnt get it…

hahahahah, “Racialicious crew direct laser side-eye is real” hahaha, nice. hope i never have ocassion to experience that, it sounds painful.

On the other hand, actual Romanians are insulted when people use the name “Roma” for gypsies, because they feel it erases their own identity by reinforcing the misconception that Roma people come from Romania instead of India.  (like French newspapers)
Some Roma from Balkans find the name Roma to be insulting because they consider themselves Egyptian, and and different from Roma.  They write themselves as Egyptian too. This year’s census in Montenegro has had separate categories for Roma and Egyptian Roma.

The problem is, how do you teach them to not dress in blackface or yellowface when you’ve told them that it’s okay b/c they are small? 
Do we make them stop at puberty?  Or when they start driving?  Or for their 18th birthdays?
Why not try to teach the next generation of people not to be insensitive racists who think it is okay to stereotype entire races of people for the sake of a holiday.
This isn’t a school play, it’s not a teachable moment.  It’s a stupid effing holiday.  What is so hard about anyone of any age not dressing like a racist?  As a black person, I don’t find racism cute in children either.  
I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t have a problem with people dressing as cartoon characters b/c the character’s costume is pretty obvious.  You can be a boy or a black person, but if you wear a Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz) costume we know who it is.  We’ll recognize the Little Mermaid.  And I personally don’t have a problem with a kid dressing head to toe in Michael Jordan gear as long as doesn’t do blackface or wear an afro wig.  It just seems as if too many white people LOVE to wear fake “black” hair for Halloween, even when the person in question doesn’t have a giant afro, which is usually the fall back for dressing up like a black person.