I Am Not a Costume!
 

The offensive costume thing is not that common in the grander scheme of things but seems more common because idiots take photos and post them on the Internet. When you leave the house with these costumes or take photos, you are giving people a reason to respond. Only wear the potentially offensive costumes at home next time.

I know when I went looking this year, I found 3 types of costumes: hooker that happened to resemble something (sexy policeman, sassy Cinderella, hot Barbie, spicy fairy), plus size, and plus sized hooker. It took me forever to find something respectable. Incidentally, It happens to match my daughter's costume almost perfectly, and is Renaissance Faire appropriate! Triple score!

I can't figure out which costume is weirder: Is it Sexy Spongebob (http://www.halloween31.com/pages-pro...t-costume.html) or Sexy Watermelon (http://www.yandy.com/Sexy-Watermelon-Costume.php)?

The person writing the article was stupid to bring up the whole "sexy insert here" thing. That's a completely different issue from what these students are protesting. I mean, I haven't seen the ladies who work for The Maids launching a protest against sexy maid costumes.

Journalists who use others to vent their own pet peeves are annoying.

I agree and that's why AlphaFrog and Shellfish's posts are not about the central topic. LOL.

GCers who may not know, this topic is about racist halloween costumes.

I love this campaign.

I was responding to the last part of the article you quoted about the sexy tiger. It's cold and rainy here and I wasn't in the mood to join in the race war.

Truth be told, I opened this thread thinking it was going to be Snooki or someone equally irrelevantly self-important talking about not wanting to be people's costume. I really thought you had lost it posting Snooki as news. LOL

I know. That's what 33girl is saying. The journalists shouldn't have made that the introduction to the article because some people will stop there and miss what this movement is about--whether it is cold and rainy or not. :p

Interesting how white privilege is brought up. But what about those who make costumes that are negative stereotypes of their own culture? Jersey Shore comes to mind here.

Speak for yourself dear, but my culture is NOT Jersey Shore. :p

And most African Americans cultures are not thug life. My point is that the guido subculture is a subset of white culture. And I actually know Italians who have dressed as guidos for Halloween.

The notion of privilege is why you are more likely to find whites who wear these costumes than nonwhites.

Intraracial and intracultural dynamics are a different topic than interracial and intercultural dynamics. They are rooted in something different. For instance, if Italian Americans want to dress a certain way to mimic what they consider aspects of Italian American culture, that is up to them. That does not give nonItalian Americans (including nonItalian whites) the liberty to do the same thing.

What is embedded in this/

I feel the same way about racial slurs. If people use words and phrases intraracially and intraculturally, that's on them even if they use the words around nonmembers. Don't ask "but why can't I say it?!" Again, whites (in general) are much more likely than nonwhites to try the "but why can't I" routine. That need and desire (in general) to say and do things just for shits and giggles is embedded in white privilege. All of my life, whites have used slurs aimed at other whites around me. Most recently it happened at a professional gathering--a white man called himself a "h----." It made me uncomfortable because, a few times throughout the years, it was obvious that some of these whites were doing that based on the notion of "I'm going to beat my own ass so that you don't have to do it...I know that all Black people hate white people." That is also rooted in white privilege because you are saying that you have the liberty to pick and choose when you figuratively get your ass beaten whereas power minorities tend not have such input on their figurative ass whoopings. While it made me uncomfortable and I didn't even smile in response, I never said "oh yay! I'm going to use that word, too! Why can't I?"

/What is embedded in this

Really? :eek: ;)

NonBlacks need to let the Black folks deal with that. If Black folks want to mock aspects of Black culture, that is completely on us.

Italians have every right to dress up as guidos.

Italian Americans have assimilated into whiteness so it's up to the white diaspora to fight over who can do what regarding the different white ethnicities. As a nonItalian and nonwhite person, I have no interest in policing that. :)

So, DrPhil, since in your opinion it's ok for Italian Americans to dress up as guidos, is it also in your opinion ok for blacks to dress up as thugs?

And if it's not ok for non-Blacks to discuss what Blacks dress up as, how come you get to (yes, I went there :p) speak for Italian Americans?

DrPhil - What would you think about a nonBlack person who dressed up as a famous Black person (i.e., Michael Jackson) sans black face? In your view, is that problematic or acceptable? Back in the day I knew a bunch of kids who dressed up as Michael a la the Thriller era. It was all about being a fan, not a mockery or stereotype. (You know, red jacket, glove, sunglasses.)

Personally, I think you'd have to be pretty darn unimaginative to come up with "sexy thug," etc. Then again, what do I know about being imaginative...my dad was a football coach, so when I was growing up, I was a football player more often than not because it was easy and all the stuff was readily available.

Clearly, dressing up as a stereotype is offensive, but what if it is intended as a tribute for someone you look up to?

ETA: I never said that Italian Americans dressing up as guidos is "okay." I said that it is up to Italian Americans, not nonItalians, to battle that amongst eachother.

As for the Blacks and thugs thing, if it is not okay, Black folks will be the ones to battle over that because it is a different topic than whether nonBlacks should dress up as "Black thugs."

You must be in the wrong thread. I never said that nonBlacks cannot discuss what Blacks dress up as. Discuss all you want to with the understanding that the opinions of nonBlacks will not be the determinant.

This topic is about nonBlacks dressing up as Blacks or some caricature of Blacks, to which I responded that nonBlacks need to leave the dressing up as Blacks to the Black folks. I said the same for nonItalian Americans not dressing up as Italian Americans or caricatures of Italian Americans. If Italian Americans want to dress up as guidos it is completely up to Italian Americans.

The bolded is the key. I would deem that acceptable sans Blackface and sans racial identifiers that would cross the line from depicting a famous person to depicting and mocking what that person considers Blackness.

If I ever had the dumb idea to dress up as Marilyn Monroe I would not use whiteface. If people can't figure out who I am with my light voice and the "happy birthday, Mr. President" song, sans the whiteface, I need to say I am Etta James or something. :)

My eyes aren't that great and increasing the size of the images isn't helping. Is the first one the "vampire culture"? Also, I can't make out the third costume/attributed culture at all.

Thanks for answering!

The first one is the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader (who is white) who dressed up as Lil Wayne and did full-on blackface. The tip-off should be that the person holding the picture is a young African American woman.

Please, please, please make sure I'm invited to that party!


This whole topic just reinforces my curmudgeonliness: Halloween costumes are supposed to be scary -- ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night -- not cute or funny or stupidly-offensive.

Clowns, of course, qualify as scary.

:) When I stop disliking Halloween and the idea of costumes, I will let you know. In the meantime:

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...btbDCb6QB30AbA



I agree. That is why I have skipped Halloween since childhood. I won't go on my anti-Halloween rant. :D

I'm SO sick of the "sexy" costumes! I'm being Paula Deen this year and I've never been more excited.

Oh, I love Halloween. I just want to see it done right. http://www.smilieshq.com/smilies/cha...racter0061.gif

I am a grown ass woman. I do not dress up for Halloween. I do not go to costume parties. If we were invited to one and went, I wouldnt dress up.

On the other hand, my children are going to a YMCA sponsored event tonight, "Safe" trick or treating. My daughter will be a witch, my son Thomas the Train. I apologizes to wiccans and train engineers everywhere who may be offended. :p

I also find clowns terrifying. I was at a festival last weekend, and there were a bunch of Shriners in one of the parades.... and they all dressed as clowns. Horrifying.

"Is that a ghoulie or ghosty or wee student beastie?" Peeves ITY? :p

Meh I think people get hung up on the whole body paint/face paint issue when (as Phil put it) there are other ways to incorporate racial identifiers that are just as offensive as face paint if not moreso. IIRC the 3rd photo was one of a guy in a sombrero and poncho "dressed as a Mexican." I went to a Halloween party last year and saw a guy in the same outfit, drinking tequila in the corner, and he said "I'm a Mexican." That's offensive because (among many other reasons), he was assuming that poncho+sombrero+tequila = an accurate representation of a Mexican man. If he had been wearing brown paint to tint his skin (he was white), that would have been (or should have been IMO) the least of the concern.

I found the cheerleader's face/body paint to be unnecessary but wasn't personally offended by it. Mostly because she was imitating as one person in his usual attire. If she had put on that same outfit and just said "I'm a Black person for Halloween," the my offense would come from her assumption that Black men are thugs. This would be true whether she painted herself brown or not.

Are you saying that all the women on this board who will be venturing to costume parties this weekend are not grown women because we happen to enjoy costumes?

Nope, just my personal preference. I think it's a pseudo-holiday for kids.

I had friends who used to throw Halloween parties with a theme - guests would dress up in something appropriate to the theme. I won the year the theme was detectives - I was Nancy Drew - and the year the theme was aliens - I was Magenta from RHPS. That was grown-assed fun.

And these ARE creepy - http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow...or-david-lynch

WARNING - pictures contain scary clown.

http://www.theroot.com/sites/default...STUMES-400.JPG

To keep this thread from being about anything other than racist Halloween costumes:

You live in the northeast. Close enough :)

I do not rank these things. They are all unnecessary coming from an outsider.

Is there a substantive difference between imitating one person in his usual attire and imitating a group of people? If a nonBlack woman had the luck and privilege (:D) of dressing up as me for Halloween and she used makeup and a wig to depict my skin shade and hair, does that remain in the realm of her only imitating ME? While I love my Blackness and my afro, I do not want a nonBlack person having the luxury of reenacting that. Find another way to be me for Halloween. :)

:) For the record, these issues do not require that we find personal offense or even have personal consciousness. I say this because I often hear people say things like "my Black friend says this isn't bad so that means it is okay...why are you offended as a Black person" as a defense for things. Not all Black people agree on what is appropriate but, like I said earlier, let the Blacks folks disagree on that. Meanwhile, nonBlacks need to spare us the "I'm going to do this to prove that I can do it just like you can" routine.

I am a little confused by what you are saying. So is it or is it not okay to dress up as you for Halloween? Is it okay as long as we don't use the black face and an afro?

I dressed up a few years ago as Paris Hilton when she was in jail. I put on an orange jump suit, a blonde wig and carried around a small chihuahua. So in this same context is this offensive since I am not white and/or blonde?

Do you need to add that bold part to the agenda at your next Black Folks Meeting? ;)

LOL. You're trying to get my Black Card revoked. The purpose of the Black Folks Meeting is so we can agree on everything.

To me, yes. But it doesn't seem so to you. If you were to show up in a blonde wig and Marily Monroe-type dress, would you be imitating Whites in general if you put on lighter makeup and a blonde wig to complete the look? Would that change if you thought people would assume you were Etta (or even Beyonce) if you didn't walk around singing "Happy birthday, Mr. President" all night?

See, now you're just being vain. :p

iQualify. :D FYI I'm going as a White girl (Hermione Granger) and not using makeup to do so. I wonder if anyone will know who I am?

What if I was to dress as any of the following: cowboy, Indian, Princess Jasmine, pocahontas.

Why wouldn't I do the bolded? That's the point of dressing and acting like (minus the cigarettes, drugs, and dress in the air) Marilyn Monroe for a costume party. As my other post stated, if I can't convey Marilyn Monroe without the whiteface, I do not need to do Marilyn Monroe. (I would never depict Marilyn Monroe, anyway. There are too many gorgeous and talented Black women to depict. Dorothy Dandridge > Marilyn Monroe)

Besides, costume parties are not government surveillance. You CAN tell people who you are if they can't figure it out. LOL.


I had to Google who that is so I wouldn't know who you were even with the white face. :) I would know you were a Harry Potter character if you dressed liked the Harry Potter characters and did other stuff they do (I don't know too much about them).