Recently I arrived at the conclusion that I can no longer attend Halloween parties. I fear that to continue to do so will cause an aortic combustion that could either kill me; or leave me a rutabaga or will cause me to abandon my principles of non-violence. Quite frankly, I don’t look good in orange jump suits. I am not tall enough nor thin enough to pull them off and the color does nothing for my complexion. And I am extremely averse to surrendering my freedom because of the insensitivity, cultural appropriation and the flat out racism of my fellow party goers.
Halloween is an exceptional visualization into the depth of racism that continues to thrive in America. The range of the inappropriate is extensive. Some examples include white people who are wearing Rastifarian hats with yarn dreadlocks, others put on afros and dress up as a “pimp”, inevitably there’s the ubiquitous feather head dress and other Indian attire, and some put a bindi on their forehead and wear saris. There has also been black face this Halloween season, such as that perpetrated by Julianne Hough in her portrayal of Crazy Eyes from Orange is the New Black. Worse yet, in an act so heartless and racist as to be unbelievable, yet we must for it has happened; some are donning black face and hoodies portraying a murdered Trayvon Martin.
There is no rationale that provides for a pass to engage in this behavior. As a Latina, Mexican-American I find all of the above extremely culturally offensive. My ire from a personal perspective is particularly sparked when white people dress up in serapes, sombreros and mustaches as a costume. First of all we do not go around in this caricature of a stereotype - drinking tequila, wearing serapes, sombreros, big mustaches and shaking maracas.
Our food, our clothes, our beer, our tequila, our Frida Kahlo, etc., these are all the things that white people love about Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, everything except us – the people. Our women are eroticized while our men our criminalized and our youth are pushed and shoved into the school to prison pipeline. Despite the fact that farmworkers who are predominately of Mexican origins put the majority of America’s food on the table there continues to be a strong anti-immigrant and anti-“other” opposition to Latinos by many whites in America.
If the average white person understood the history of the relationship between Mexico and America, if they took the time to really learn about and respect our culture, if they really wanted to show respect for the culture, they’d never, ever use it as a costume.
My mother’s family were farmworkers, my mother was a farmworker and for a time I was as well. My mother had two infant brothers die of starvation during the 1930’s. Her family working as farmworkers barely had enough to keep themselves alive. When a mother can’t produce milk because of her own malnutrition, babies die. My mom’s mother died when my mom was 3 years old, because there was no medical care for a poor brown woman who lived in a shack at the edge of the fields.
When my mother was a little girl, she and two of her brothers could not go into the store that was closest to their home, it was whites only. They used to send in her third brother who was much lighter in skin tone than she and the other two brothers. If he wasn’t with them they had to walk miles to the store that they could go into.
When my mom was older she went into “service”, she was a maid for a wealthy white family in Dallas. For many women who have been farmworkers, this is a step up, a way out of the fields. So, my mom cleaned rich people’s toilets and ironed the Mr.’s underwear, because this was the kind of work that was available for a young Mexican-American woman.
When white people appropriate the cultural attire and customs of people of color for costumes or mascots they trivialize the struggles that many have endured at the hands of the institutional racism that is prevalent in this country. They play dress up for fun, play Mexican, Indian, Black, etc. for a day and then take off the costumes and return to their world. Regardless of their own class status they exact a privilege of skin color that will never be available to people of color within the realm of how the structure of race and ethnicity works today. And let me just put this out there. You don’t have to be black to know that wearing black face and pretending to be a murdered black child is wrong, wrong, wrong!
Remember, it’s not the Golden Rule that says to treat people how you want to be treated. The reality is that your cultural and personal experiences are vastly different from those who are people of color. Try on the Platinum Rule, treat others the way that they tell you that they want to be treated.
Finally, not only is it racist, ethnocentric and highly inappropriate to use other folk’s culture for a Halloween costume; it’s lazy. I have seen so many incredible creative costumes that had nothing to do with anyone’s culture, race or ethnic origin. Use your imagination people! You can win better best costume prizes and not risk giving me an aneurysm.
