Racist Halloween Costumes
The Situation
Controversy surrounding Halloween costumes depicting cultural stereotypes emerged around October last year. Costume stores such as Party City continue to promote and sell costumes of stereotyped cultures, especially of indigenous people, despite controversy. It isn't just Party City either, these costumes can be found at many stores that sell Halloween costumes. What makes it worse is that it isn't just a couple costumes per store, there are whole aisles of these costumes.
This is very problematic and offensive to some people, especially people who are a part of the culture the costumes are depicting. The people who create and sell these costumes think nothing of it and do not respect the culture of others.
My Thoughts
I think that it is crazy that these types of costumes are still being sold in costume stores. Appropriating cultures is widely seen as unacceptable. Despite this, these stores are still making money by selling these products. Canada is meant to be a multicultural country where all are accepted and welcome. These costumes are the opposite of that belief as they may be seen as very rude. I definitely think things must be done about this as stores should not be selling culturally offensive products.
I think that stores that sell these costumes, such as Party City, should be penalized if they continue to sell them. It is unbelievable that they would sell these costumes despite people speaking against them. The store owners and manufacturers of the costumes seem to have very little respect for other cultures and people of said cultures. I think there needs to be more public awareness on the topic so the stores would be pressured to stop selling controversial costumes. This problem is not talked about enough so nothing is being done to put an end to it. Stopping this is another step to making Canada a more welcoming country.
Controversy surrounding Halloween costumes depicting cultural stereotypes emerged around October last year. Costume stores such as Party City continue to promote and sell costumes of stereotyped cultures, especially of indigenous people, despite controversy. It isn't just Party City either, these costumes can be found at many stores that sell Halloween costumes. What makes it worse is that it isn't just a couple costumes per store, there are whole aisles of these costumes.
This is very problematic and offensive to some people, especially people who are a part of the culture the costumes are depicting. The people who create and sell these costumes think nothing of it and do not respect the culture of others.
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| A Halloween costume depicting an indigenous person. Source |
My Thoughts
I think that it is crazy that these types of costumes are still being sold in costume stores. Appropriating cultures is widely seen as unacceptable. Despite this, these stores are still making money by selling these products. Canada is meant to be a multicultural country where all are accepted and welcome. These costumes are the opposite of that belief as they may be seen as very rude. I definitely think things must be done about this as stores should not be selling culturally offensive products.
I think that stores that sell these costumes, such as Party City, should be penalized if they continue to sell them. It is unbelievable that they would sell these costumes despite people speaking against them. The store owners and manufacturers of the costumes seem to have very little respect for other cultures and people of said cultures. I think there needs to be more public awareness on the topic so the stores would be pressured to stop selling controversial costumes. This problem is not talked about enough so nothing is being done to put an end to it. Stopping this is another step to making Canada a more welcoming country.
Look, as much as I find this situation unnecessary, I would have to agree with you and your thoughts about this racist costume going around Party City. I mean for me as an Asian, this doesn't affect me at all but if it did, I would have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I would just let it pass but on the other hand, I would be a little disappointed at Party City for promoting these kinds of costume. Like c'mon why do we need these costumes to "honour those people"? I mean sure you can do that but is this the best way to show it to people? Dressing up like their culture? You're literally mocking them out of consent. It's like they don't matter to anyone and that we just invented that culture straight up. In addition, you're calling those people fake and irrelevant. All of us that work at Party City should be cautious about people's culture. We need to make sure that it doesn't offend anyone. With that costume of a woman wearing First Nations clothing that was presented in that article, a First Nations woman got upset at Party City so then she had to call them up about selling that costume. To be honest, I feel bad for the woman because of the disrespect that was found at a party store. All she was doing was just trying to find a costume for her son until she encountered that First Nations costume in a certain costume section in the store. The part where you said "Party City should be penalized if they continue to sell them" was something that should happen to stores like those if don't drop those costumes. If I worked at Party City, I would worry if my co-workers ignored this situation and still kept those types of costumes on display in October. To conclude my comment, we should be careful what we sell because you won't if it's appropriate or not.
ReplyDeletecostumes are made to be a way to show your creativity with the costume and sometimes even be immersed in your character, not to represent a whole different culture. Party city and any other costume store that produce these types of costumes should, as you said, be penalized for selling such things. It really is a shame costumes like these are still being sold.
ReplyDeletePeople have said things about this and it probably was heard by these companies. Maybe in the future stores won't sell any cultural costume.
ehh.