Your culture can be my costume
BY COLLIN BEREND
It’ s Hallow een, and w ith it
comes cheers from some
and outcry from those
who find aspects of the
holiday offensive.
A r tic le s
fr o m
R efin ery2 9 , Everyday
Fem inism , and Daily Dot
suggest people should not wear offensive,
appropriating and racist costumes.
I have issue with people telling me what
I can and cannot wear sim ply because
some people take offense over it. My
skin color says 1 don’ t originate from
that culture, and thus I have no right to
wear the costume.
The problem w ith saying that an
individual shouldn’t be allowed to dress
in a costume of another culture is that
it is truly a detriment to independent
thinking.
Meg Zulch of Bustle tookissue with Katy
Perry’ s Egyptian style costume from her
music video, Dark Horse.
“ She argu ab ly p erp etu ated th e
American habit of portraying Egyptian
people as very fair-skinned. . . in popular
culture,” said Zulch.
This shames the artist, who is making
a creative music, video, because she has
ligh t skin, but she took an Egyptian
ap p earan ce. P erry’ s sk in color is
irrelevant; it’s the message she sends in
all of her videos and songs that should
matter.
The individual that spends her time
making cavil of micro-offenses does more
harm than good.
“ W hen in doubt, go as som ething
m ythical, from an extinct culture, or
from a dominant culture,” wrote Alden
Wicker in a Refinery29 article. In this,
she hypocritically suggests that what a
person wears is fine, offensive or not, if
it’s from a dominant culture, but not if
from a minority.
“ A nyone offended by your [white
Anglo-Saxon Protestant] costume can
comfort themselves with a gin and tonic.
They’ll be fin e,” said Wicker.
According to Wicker’s article, wearing
a Native American costume is wrong and
disrespectful, but it’s okay to be a Viking.
This is a double-standard and should not
be tolerated.
I understand why some people would
take offense to how something is depicted
or how a group of people has been treated,
such as the Native Americans have been
in the past; but that’s hardly a justifiable
excuse for the actions of commanding
people not to dress as a stereotypical
Native American for the holiday. This idea
appears to come from my own generation,
which I find to be repugnant.
Those who take o ffen se blur the
lines between culture and race. Race is
biologically not real. What we consider
race is based on skin color. It’ s not a
culture. And where do we draw the line
on race? How much lighter should a black
man be in order to be considered white,
even if all his family came from African
tribes in the 1600s? Skin color is broad
and based on the body’ s way of defending
against the sun: melanin.
People have complained about white
people having dreadlocks, because it is
considered culturalappropriation. It’s
not. The hairstyle might have come from
a small culture at the time, but it’s not
proprietary. There’s no creation or style
that is owned by a culture.
Dreadlocks are not an African culture
style, but a human hairstyle.
If I saw a person who is not of European
descent, dressed in à suit and top hat,
perfectly finished with a monocle and
acting as a stereotypical British man
who fancies his tea and crum pets, I
would laugh whilst greeting you with a
“ Cheerio! ” in my British accent.
In rare moments that-1 think you’re
appropriating my “ culture/’ I will openly
disagree or ignore it. I will not say you
shouldn’t wear it, nor would I say I’ m
offended. It’s waste o f my time.
R ather th an fo cu sin g on m icro­
offenses, we should focus all that energy
into som ething more productive like
fighting the oppression o f our fellow
human brothers and sisters throughout
the earth: atheists openly butchered in
Bangladesh for questioning Islam, organ
harvesting in parts of China, child labor,
sex slavery, or atrocities against humanity
in the actions o f the Saudi Arabian
government.
That’s who we should be focusing on,
not the individual who wears the costume
for one night, having fun or getting candy.
Costum es are m eant to be brazen
exaggerations. There’s nothing inherently
racist or appropriating about dressing up
as anything of any culture.
The only real culture is human culture.
Clackamas Print OCTOBER 26,2016 theclackamasprintcom J