Don’t wear blackface for Halloween. Yes, we are saying it again.
It’s time for everyone to choose their Halloween costumes, and we, the Editorial Board, urge you once again to make a smart, inoffensive choice.
It can still be spooky. This year has given us a wealth of options that are sure to frighten the bravest frat bro. Go as Pizza Rat or as Left Shark. Maybe you can dress as Donald Trump’s hair, if you can find enough kangaroo fur.
No Caitlyn Jenners, no Walter Palmers and absolutely no blackface.
It may be hard for you to resist the urge to be Kanye West for a night, or to try to emulate the effortless sass-and-ass combo of Nicki Minaj.
Just don’t.
Blackface is the stuff of minstrelsy in the 19th century, one would think. Yet, it has happened every year. That does not make it okay to wear it this year.
And don’t be fooled by themed costume parties. The “Kanye Western” party thrown by UCLA’s Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter just last week is proof that themes encouraging their guests to dress as a different ethnicity are alive and well, along with racism.
If you put soot on your face and stuff the butt of your dress before you go to a Halloween party, you are not having a fun night out with your friends.
You are mocking an entire culture.
The events in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York, as well as the ongoing racial tensions in this country, should be enough to dissuade people from wearing blackface.
#BlackLivesMatter means #BlackLivesAreNotCostumes.
But if that isn’t enough to deter you, imagine this:
You are a member of a race that has been systematically oppressed for a long, long time. But it’s 2015 and, despite some lingering discrimination, you’re ready to have a good time. You’re invited to a Halloween party by your friends. You go, and upon your arrival you see that everyone is dressed as a caricature of you, or of who they think you are.
“What fun it is to be someone else for a night!” they might say.
They are laughing at themselves, they are drunk, and they don’t have a care in the world.
The same goes for other costumes that mock a minority.
Going as Caitlyn Jenner as a cisgender male does not make you cool and topical. What it does make you is a cruel reminder to the transgender population that there are people in this country who still do not believe their gender is legitimate.
A Walter Palmer — the dentist who shot and killed Cecil the lion — costume may strike a sensitive chord with animal conservationists and remind them of the lion’s grisly death.
Halloween is not a free pass to be a racist. Nor is it a free pass to be a jerk.
We want you to have a good time. But we also want everyone else to feel safe and not humiliated by your costume.
