"We're a culture, not a costume", What do you think of this?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/26/living/halloween-ethnic-costumes/?hpt=us_t4
I personally think it's a little over the top. Halloween is about dressing up as something/someone that you are not. And in many cases you can learn a lot about a culture when planning your outfit.
And even the "stereotype" outfits are all in fun. If you can't make fun of yourself, then you are way too uptight IMO.
What do you think?
PS: Although the bombs strapped to chest for the Muslim outfit is probably a little over the top
by
devexityspace
asked 7 months ago
I agree its a little over the top..
Maybe not so much the muslim with the bomb strapped to his chest, but the label for that one would still be a suicide bomber, not aiming to be racist.
Same goes for the mexican with the sombrero riding the donkey..
Last time i checked, in mexico its not uncommon to see that (especially in the past)
The geisha? come on! How is that offensive? Its a part of their culture!!!
I'll bet these folks are a ton of fun to party with on campus.
It has been my experience in life that, maybe not all, but some stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. Are there exceptions to stereotypes? absolutely.
I'm going to leave it at that.
Yikes, some people need to lighten up, and stop looking for injustices where there aren't any.
They're not going as Arab guy, mexican guy, and chinese lady; they're going as a terrorist, a bandito, and a geisha.
As fas as the mexican stereotype, i have never been to a mexican restaurant that DIDN't have a picture like that up on the wall.
@adonisseraph: Correct me if I'm wrong, but the woman complaining about the Geisha does not look Japanese.
Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
@publiclurker: You are wrong
So...I'm guessing number three is a vampire?
I completly agree with @woothulhu
Again with the first world problems.
In other countries people are persecuted for no reason against their will.
In America people find something to feel offended by.
@polidori: no, number three is the black guy who's getting bit by said vampire.
I personally think that political correctness is a double standard where the majority (in this case, white people) are supposed to tip-toe around the minorities to avoid feelings getting hurt while minorities are allowed free reign in their speech towards whatever they see fit.
Folks who want to explore some counter-cultural stereotypes are perfectly welcome to dress up as a redneck, a biker, a computer geek, a hoe-down farmer, or a white supremist. If you come from a culture colorful enough to inspire costumes, embrace it!
After reading the article and the comments section, I followed someone's comment about the Group's Facebook page and one of it's "Admins"
Very enlightening...shows a lot about what they consider appropriate/amusing. (And flies in the face of the "message" they are trying to send) Hypocritical much? /disgusted
Group facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/152513271453358/
One of the Admins (Name is Maza):https://www.facebook.com/alexlmaza
His photo album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1008485498692.2004784.1421580279&type=3
And to Professor Cobb...
Quote "While Italian-Americans can be stereotyped as gangsters and Irish-Americans as hard drinkers, there are no pervasive stereotypes for whites on the same level that allow for them to be caricatured as a Halloween costume, Cobb said."
Just because you say it, doesn't make it TRUE. It's just your opinion...and you know what they say about opinions.
@jimeezlady: Aparently he's never heard of a white trash party.
@publiclurker: I LOVE THOSE! But where I live, they're just called parties.
If you can't laugh at yourself, prepare to be laughed at and I don't mean that in derogatory terms.
If you were from a country that had a traditional outfit and another culture that had historically been responsible for a lot of oppression of your people decided that they could take your traditional outfits and use them as a costume, wouldn't you feel just a little annoyed?
@pinchecat: Awesome Quote....
I didn't know that @OhCheri's French Maid is also a culture...well, may be it is. :)
I am also mad when I see humans dressed as robots. Or trying to dance the robot dance.
I do not find it amusing. It is making fun of all bots everywhere and we are not all uncoordinated and shiny silver
I think people should lighten up.
It's very easy to say that the other guy should lighten up and learn to laugh at himself when you're a middle-class white man who doesn't have to deal with stuff like profiling or presidential candidates saying you wouldn't be allowed in his administration. Even if these costumes do not cross the line into promoting harmful stereotypes, it is good that people can point out our cultural insensitivities because the privileged majority has a hard time seeing them.
I don't get the responses above. It seems obvious to me that if someone tells you that they don't like being mocked and ridiculed for their culture, you should cut it out. This seems like common sense, not political correctness.
Is it that hard to just be decent to each other?
@rraszews: I understand that people who are not middle class white Anglo protestant raised men have it tough in a lot of ways. As one of the aforementioned people, my problem is exactly what some of the other posters have said: everything wrong and prejudicial is my fault, I am presumed to be a racist, misogynist, elitist, etc. The problem I have with this is twofold; first, you don't know what my ethnic background is any more than you know what a person who is dark skinned. I am of Irish descent, and my ancestors had to deal with quite a bit of s#!t in the early days of America, but because I am light skinned people presume that I come from a long line of cotton plantation owners. Second, in a lot of ways I come from the most discriminated against group in this country. There are laws, scholarships, and other legal benefits that favor essentially every other person who is not a white male. Shouldn't we be addressing the root cause instead of trying to fix things on the back end?
Wow, great question. Its funny because our church has banned all scary costumes from the Holloween party its having for our kids Saturday night (29th). If our kids wear a scary costume, they will be asked to leave. Dont know what its like everywhere else but here in small town America (North West Arkansas) you cant wear a scary costume on Holloween and go to a public function without getting kicked.
@rraszews: lol, I'm not a middle class Caucasian male. ...and I reiterate, people should lighten up. There's no sense in getting bent out of shape over Halloween costumes.
So on the surface it's just a cute Asian baby dressed as Mr. T, right? But as a black person, I want to hunt down this kid's parents and ask them what in the world made them think it was okay to put their baby in blackface. If my daughter wanted to dress as Cinderella, I wouldn't paint her face white or make her a white mask to do it. She'd just be a black Cinderella, and that would be okay.
It IS easy to tell people to lighten up when you're not the one being offended. If the ones being made fun of are not laughing at the joke, then it's not a joke anymore. Maybe they don't need to "learn to take a joke." Maybe the people wearing these costumes need to learn to tell funnier jokes.
@purplefeather: I don't see the picture, but if it's got you angry enough to want to hunt them down, I pity the Fuus.
@purplefeather: Mr. T is black. No one is making fun of black people. If she was an alien they would paint her face green. If a ghost, paint her face white.
For some reason, people find some random dude in a costume and decide it is a personal attack against an individual. For whatever reason.
Vampires everywhere should be offended with this stereotypical portrayal. Let's protest!
It's dumb!
I am so surprised that most people in these posts are using rational, logical thinking! Thanks for reassuring me that there are still a good number of people with their heads on straight.
As alluded to in an earlier post, the problem with America is that we have it so good, we don't know what real problems and difficulties are. So we create or exacerbate issues to make them feel like problems either out of guilt, boredom, or selfish reasons. Our ancestors and predecessors - whether White, Black, Asian, Spanish, etc. - would be ashamed at what we complain about. In fact, our contemporaries in other less fortunate parts of the world would also do the same.
Let me start by saying I do not mean this to sound racist. I am in fact married to a minority but I am tired of people saying how easy white middle class people have it. We work hard go to college (and actually pay for it ourselves) and get good jobs that we then work at for the rest of our lives and then because of this our income and tax dollars drive the American economy and goverment. These same tax dollars in turn are then used to help minority groups, who I admit do have it worse than us, and yet these same minority groups hate, distrust, and resent us because we are white and somehow that is accepted. But if a white man hates or distrusts a colored man, he is now the scum of society. Seems like there is some double standard there.
I had nothing to do with slavery or the persecution of native americans or any other atorcity that my forefathers may have committed yet I will spend my entire life working to repay these debts and apologizing for other's sins and be hated for it.
I really liked reading @idiotwind13's response. I thought I was the only one who thought that way.
The issue is more than political correctness. Stereotyping is a form of hate disguised as humor.
You want to dress up, go as a pirate, an athlete (hockey mask, anyone?), jet pilot, alien or any non-stereotypical group...(of course vampires, werewolves and ghosts can work) I traditionally dress as either Einstein or a wizard.
Some churches don't allow "scary" costumes as it can allow sacrilegious "satanist" outfits (devils, witches, etc.) but that is their problem.
I'm white, but I was Dora the Explorer a couple years ago. Does that make me sexist and racist and offensive?
@olperfesser: I believe your statement that Stereotyping is a form of hate disguised as humor is incorrect.
I typed out a big long description of how I disagreed, then decided to Wikipedia stereotype:: "A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions."
@bogie21: It may not be "hate" per se, but when someone tells you that your actions hurt them, and your reaction is not to stop doing the thing that hurts them, but instead to defend your actions and tell them they need to lighten up, there is no way to around the fact that you've decided that the pain you've caused someone isn't as important as you getting to do the thing you want.
"My choice of halloween costume is more important than your history of institutionalized racism" is kind of a weird place to make your stand.
@rraszews: When I win at fantasy football, other people get mad and tell me to stop doing so well, but I keep doing it despite their hurted feelings.
I think feeling offended by some random person's random costume is silly.
However, I think it is perfectly ok (lame, but ok) for a church to have costume requests for a party of they are hosting. It is their event after all.
@wootbretz: Sure. Because winning is more important to you than their hurt feelings. That's fine. Sometimes it's fine to not care about someone's hurt feelings. But if, say, you really liked punching people, and decided that the pleasure you got out of punching people outweighed their pain at being punched, most people would think you were out-of-line. You don't get to say "They should just stop feeling pain, because damnit, I really lke punching them"
Well, there's always Jesusween to fall back on: http://jesusween.com/
Some how I think someone has forgotten the origins All Hallow's Eve.
@rraszews: OK you missed my point.
You basically said that people shouldn't do something that someone else may not like them doing.
There are 7 billion people in the world. No matter what you do someone will find a way to be offended by it. You can't please everyone.
@wootbretz: You misunderstood my response. I didn't say that people shouldn't do something that someone else may not like. I said that when you do something knowing someone else won't like it, you are deciding that your desire to do that thing outweighs their dislike for having it done. And sometimes that is a fair trade and sometimes it is not. "I don't want to die" vs "I want to kill you", which one should "win" is clear. If it's "I want to win this game" vs "I want you to lose this game", then which one should take priority is not clear.
Personally, I think that if it's "I want to wear this costume" vs "I don't like having my cultural heritage made into sport," It's not really the first guy who deserves to have his wishes win out.
@rraszews: And again we go back to the main point you won't accept.
Why does one guy get to decide what some other guy can or can't do?
Who is to say who will or won't be offended by something? Do I have to ask all 7 billion people on earth whether or not they will be offended by a costume? Based on your argument, if one person thinks I am offending their "culture" then I can't wear my costume.
I have been Dora the Explorer. Is that offensive to people of whatever culture Dora is? To women? To six year olds? To archaeologists? To cartoonists?
I was "cloudy with a chance of rain" once. Is that offensive to Mother Nature? To meteorologists? Climatologists? Al Gore? The people of Somalia who are stricken with an unending drought?
I've been David the Gnome. Did I offend short people? William Shatner? Fat people? Cone heads?
Once I was lazy and just wore personal protective gear and a hard hat. I must have offended blue collar, uneducated day laborers.
My bad guys!
@lavikinga: i will NOT be falling back onto jesus' ween
@pinchecat: =:o
http://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/web05/2011/10/27/16/--1552-1319747139-3.jpg
mr snowman has a message for you all
@bogie21: I kind of ran out of room there, but my point was going to end that basically everybody else is entitled to righteous indignation except for me, and like it has been mentioned people make the presumption that I had it easy because of my gender and my ethnicity. Like I said before, I understand that there is prejudice and that people from minority backgrounds often are discriminated against, but don't presume to know my upbringing and background based on my outward appearance, I don't presume to know yours. I also really like who people vote that a minus, even though I said nothing that isn't 100% true. I guess the truth makes people mad.
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