Halloween hype no excuse for racism
Halloween is a time for candy, movie marathons and dressing up; not racism.
Both this and the following weekend, the SGA Diversity committee will be passing out informational flyers in an effort to combat offensive costumes from parading around campus.
Kaye Reimers, head of the Diversity Sub-Committee which is tasked with putting on the program, said the intended audience is students new to campus. This will be the second year the campaign has at Central Michigan University.
“We’re hoping to spread awareness about offensive costumes and kind of give a guide,” she said. “A lot of people come from small towns (that) go to CMU– you just don’t want to run the risk of offending anyone.”
Diversity Committee Chairperson, Rebecca Detroyer, described the effort as an “awareness campaign” focusing on pointing out the harm of cultural insensitivity on Halloween. To keep with the festive theme of the month, the fliers being distributed will come with candy as a sort of incentive for readers to take.
“When this is how the world sees you, it’s just not funny,” Detoryer said, quoting one of the posters. “(The posters) bringing the attention to this cultural issue.”
Our Culture is not a Costume originally stemmed from a poster campaign printed by an Ohio University student group, Students Teaching Against Racism in Society (S.T.A.R.S), back in 2011. Posters with the slogan “We’re a Culture, Not a Costume,” feature individuals of different ethnicities standing against culturally insensitive costumes that supposedly represented their heritage.
Over a few short months, the poster campaign gained national recognition and was featured on major news outlets like USA Today and CNN.
Colleen Green, director of Native American Programs, said students will greatly benefit by having SGA bring their own version of the poster campaign back to campus.
“SGA is doing a wonderful job making people aware of how offensive those costumes can be to people of Native American culture,” Green said. “You’re portraying a culture outside of your own. You don’t know the culture, the tradition, or the history of the regalia (you’re) wearing.”
As a graduate assistant working with the Office of Diversity Education, Quentin Davis said these types of costumes are a chance for individuals to “mock other cultures”.
“(People) are trying to portray a culture that’s not their own so they base it off a stereotype which isn’t correct,” he said. “They’re doing something that the media portrays. And the media is often wrong.”
Reimers said she considers the campaign as an easy guide to have a happy Halloween.
“I want all students to have a fun Halloween,” Reimers said. “And we can accomplish that by being courteous of other people’s backgrounds.”
