“Halloween is harmless.”
That’s what I told my fiancé as we talked about children trick-or-treating and his disapproval of such an idea for our (prayers up) future babies. In his mind, all of it celebrates something wicked, but as I told him, kids only want to dress up as their favorite characters and eat all the candy their hearts desire — and get away with it — for at least one day out of the year. They’re not out here trying to summon the devil. For kids, and the adults I saw on the train painted like cats, dressed like TV characters and leaving the house as half-naked clowns, witches and the like, Halloween is harmless.
But outside of people like my spouse and other religious folks, some people look at Halloween and the costumes people step out of the house in as very harmful. Or to be more precise, offensive.
As soon as the week leading up to Halloween started, the parties began early, and the costumes were all over Instagram. Former “Love and Hip Hop New York” star Kaylin Garcia stepped out dressed as a Native American and immediately felt a wave of backlash from followers who found her ensemble offensive. Her response to the outrage didn’t really help.
And then there was Toya Wright, Lil Wayne’s ex-wife, who also had to answer some questions after deciding to wear a Native American headdress as her Halloween costume.
In both cases, Garcia and Wright respond to criticism in a very defensive way. There was no attempt to understand where the critics were coming from. No recognition of where they actually could have gone wrong. No acknowledgment of how their actions could be insulting. And from Wright, no recognition of why she really wanted to wear the costume, other than because she just wanted to have fun.
And while I didn’t immediately look at their costumes and get turned off at the sight of them, I was more irritated at the attempt to act as though the feelings of Native Americans and others speaking against the costumes didn’t really matter. While people may not understand why individuals get bent out of shape over these ensembles, it’s never okay to downplay how people feel, because we all have a right to that. And just as we would feel some type of way if people of an entirely different culture tried to dress as someone from our own culture without proper knowledge or respect for it, we shouldn’t discredit the feelings of others. Even if you’re just dressing up as what you regard as a positive aspect of their traditions and experiences, considering that Native Americans have had quite a few things ripped out from out under them, and their culture is continuously something others profit off of (i.e., the Washington Washington Football Team) that they don’t have complete ownership of, you would think people might get it by now. They want to be left alone. And that’s not too much to ask.
In instances like this, I get where costumes can be offensive.
Just as the teacher who dressed up as Kanye West for Halloween but felt it necessary to do blackface (along with quite a few other morons) to look really Black was also incredibly offensive. Not only was it unimaginative, but it embraced blackface, and at this point, we should all know the racist beginnings of all that.
But where I don’t get the confusion is with instances where people are dressed strictly as characters. Like Beyoncé’s Coming to America costume. She was dressed as one of the rose bearers, and despite her family as a whole playing along, some people were bothered by their attire.
“She’s dressed like an extra from a racist 1942 movie – ‘The African’. Seriously… What does one take from Beyoncé dressing as an African… For Halloween? I’m not even going to start on his outfit, as I didn’t appreciate Eddy Murphy’s decision to ‘imitate’ / create a generic African, in the name of the ‘lucrative stereotype’, and I don’t appreciate JayZ’s desire to revive such a 1-dimensional representation. It’s irresponsible.”
“Do you get offended when white people black face? Blacks always talk about being appropriated, but you appropriate African culture because it’s IN STYLE. Blacks and Africans DO NOT have the same culture. Whether it’s due to slavery, or to resistance, the culture is FAR from being the same.”
And that’s when I had to scratch my head. The characters in Coming to America all fake and based in a made-up African land (and most Africans I know were not offended by the film because the representations weren’t negative). And as African Americans, Bey and Jay have some connection to African culture, even if they don’t know specifically where their families came from. And yet, there were alleged Africans on social media calling them out. Again, I won’t negate anyone’s feelings, but this time around, I felt the criticisms to be a stretch. They weren’t trying to be anything other than Prince Akeem, a rose bearer, and an adorable barking Imani Izzi (see Blue’s costume), all from a beloved film–and people were still trying to claim that and exclude the Carters from it.
And that’s where it all gets murky. What is okay to wear and what is offensive? Can you get away with being a particular character from a film, show or book if it comes from a real place you have no connection to or much knowledge of? Is it offensive to dress up like a cholo/ chola, geisha or a Rastafarian if you’re not Hispanic, Asian or only dress as the ladder because you like weed (White folks love wearing the tams with the fake locs)? Without blackface, can a White person throw on an afro wig and it be okay? Can they dress up as a Black panther and not get a side-eye? If the background of a character isn’t steeped in a negative stereotype or history, is it fair game? When is it showing love to a culture and when is it just cultural appropriation?
What say you?
