Halloween is coming up and to many of us that means free candy, parties, dressing up and just a whole bunch of fun in general.
But for others it’s seeing what embodies your culture being turned into a tacky costume for one night as people parade around in store bought costumes of Native Americans, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese and the list goes on.
PulleyWrites at diamondfordumps has written a post about her thoughts as she contemplates dressing up as Pocahontas this year for Halloween. A train of thoughts that soon delves into what it means to respect a culture. How a moment of fun for this Halloween overlooks decades of culture that people have fought to preserve.
Here I am thinking about how awesome it would be for me to dress up as Pocahontas and bite the culture that others are trying to preserve and honor.
Realising the errors of her ways, she ultimately sums up the thought process of what many think about Halloween costumes from the other side quite easily. That many people do in fact understand that what they are doing maybe wrong but ultimately for a moment of fun, they just don’t care.
I think all the time about the people who understand these things but just don’t care. They know better and yet, they still don’t care.
Instead we all encourage you to find something better to go as this Halloween (we reckon you’ll probably look better too). Stop cultural appropriation with a bit of education and with you!
Read more about PulleyWrites article “I Smell Halloween…and Cultural Appropriation”
R.C.W – Stopping Cultural Appropriation @ Stop The Cult
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Image by DeusXFlorida found on Flickr (x). No modification has been done. Used under Creative Commons 2.0.
Stopping Cultural Appropriation 
I see where you are coming from. I am sure there are people who realize what people are doing by dressing up is wrong. The people that probably feel this way are most likely older people who do not participate in the dressing up of Halloween. Maybe even the entire night of Halloween. I also believe that 95% of people who dress up for Halloween are kids, so they do not understand the whole thing of people dressing up as other cultures. Not only that, but the act of dressing up for Halloween is not used as an insult. The point of dressing up is to be someone you want or would like to embrace and imitate for a night. So I do not see the harm in dressing up for Halloween.
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Hello! Thanks for your comment. First you’re absolutely right that there is no harm in dressing up! And right again that many people dressing up on Halloween are children. You also make a great point in say that its usually adults who understand that dressing up (not all types but those that are cultural appropriation) is wrong. When you put the two together, don’t you think adults then have a responsibility to educate children about valuing cultures? Whilst their intentions are good (and not intended for insult) the resulting consequences aren’t always so. Regardless of intentions, costumes that are cultural appropriate perpetuate stereotypes and disrespect cultures. So i do hope you see that there are types of “dressing up” that can be harmful! Thanks!
R.C.W
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