If You’re Worried Your Costume Is Racist, It Probably Is

Halloween festivities officially kick off tonight and you are still thinking about a costume. You scroll through your Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Snapchat and are bombarded with pictures of kittens, witches, skulls, and celebrity look-alikes. But among all the meows and spells are half-naked girls in suggestive poses, wearing Native American war bonnets and pretending to be huffing on a cigar. To some, this image is cool, cute and creative. It’s not.

This Halloween, especially in the age when viral videos and notoriety on social media is more important than respect for your fellow human being, if you are thinking of blackface or being an Native American or any other ridiculously offensive form of “creative” racist expression, don’t do it.

Misinformed and misguided motives of the majority have deemed images such as blackface, Native American  war bonnets, and plenty more as “cool,” admissible, and “creative.” It’s not. For example, actress Julianne Hough wore blackface for Halloween in 2013 depicting a particular character from the Netflix original show, “Orange is the New Black.” She later apologized for it two days after the situation because even she realized blackface is offensive.

Every year, especially during Halloween, someone feels the need to wear something offensive mostly for likes, views, and thinking “it’s not that bad.”

With that being said, if you are still considering depicting a culture all in the name of being cool or in some form or fashion not being overtly racist, buy it from a native, support black businesses. Don’t go out tonight in African dashikis screaming “Wakanda forever” with blackface on. Don’t go out tonight with a cheap headdress, ripped skirts, and war paint. If you have to think to yourself, “Is this racist?”, the answer is probably yes. Tonight have respect for your fellow human, fellow culturals and the melting pot that is our America.

Megyn Kelly came under fire after her Oct. 23 broadcast when she mentioned blackface during a roundtable discussion.

“But what is racist?” Kelly asked on her show. “Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”

The backlash was swift. Kelly was roasted across social media and more importantly her colleagues and bosses were appalled by her comments. NBC executives forced Kelly to apologize first, internally to her colleagues, and then to the viewers.

“Megyn Kelly Today” was unceremoniously cancelled less than a week later.

Happy Halloween.