Poll: Students launch a poster campaign against racist costume

[sapphireofthesea]

My best reply, don't dress as a zombie as it makes fun of european (and pretty much any) culture.
Start on that bandwaggon and anything can be included.

Yes Racisim is BAD, but racisim is based on a choice to degrade or consider another group less than. These costumes do not do that at all. The Geisha one is actually very thought out and well done and that level of work, and Jap culture is mainly viewed as a good thing. Pointing out oddities with-in a culture is not wrong, using those oddities to degrade that culture is wrong.
Hence the very insistance that everything is racist (and using White Europeans as the base example) makes these people racist as well, as they are using a cultural oddity/history, as a point to suggest that it applies and acts as a negitive to the white european race.

Simply put, dressing as a mexican bandit or robin hood is not wrong so long as you don't go of saying look I am 'THE every-mexican/european). The protesters however, are acting racist because they are saying everyone dressing up as shown is being racist (couldn't find an easier way to put it).

Thos are my thoughts, I don't disagree that sometimes they have a point but this is one of the more harm than good situations.

 

[Red-Link]

Just a fun report that has a lot of campaign supporting comments: http://boingboing.net/2011/10/25/anti-racism-awareness-campaign-inadvertently-spawns-meme.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29

I personally fall in the "Leave me the hell alone, it's just Halloween" camp.

 

[Dastardly]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053134/Students-launch-poster-campaign-racist-Halloween-costumes.html
I gotta this have to one of the most pointless and trying to hard to be politically correct things I have seen in a while.
While the Arab suicide bomber costume is offensive and probably shouldn't be worn, everything else is quite tame. The geisha outfit, the Mexican outfit and maybe the ghetto outfit.
Personally, I'm Asian and I went to Halloween as a Viet Cong. So people need to get over and have laugh in life or am I being to racially insentive

The reason people often miss the "point" of these protests is they're looking at the behavior itself. Is wearing a Pocohontas costume really doing any damage to the physical world in which we live? Of course not. So we think, "What's the big deal?"

But it's not the wearing of the costume that poses a problem. It's the thought process behind the costume, or really, the lack thereof. When this person thinks of Mexicans, this is what comes to mind. That is the problem. The costume is just a symptom.

What I think is interesting is that you pinpointed the Arab costume as the offensive one... but you didn't really specify why that one in particular. It's one thing for a person within a cultural group to play on one of their own stereotypes. It's another thing for someone in a cultural group to be told that it's okay for someone else to make fun of their culture -- even if it's unintentionally, by just not putting thought behind actions.

That's what this campaign is about, it seems. It's not about telling people they're hardcore racists, or about turning hardcore racists into humanitarians. It's about finding those people who are on the fence and giving them a reason to go, "Wow... I hadn't really thought of it that way. I wasn't trying to be racist, but maybe I was a little insensitiv without realizing it. Maybe I could find another costume idea -- one that doesn't make fun of someone else's culture for cheap laughs."

What's wrong with that?

 

[TheTim]

Hahahahaha that costume was hilarious, i wouldn't have ever thought of doing something like that.

 

[Red-Link]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053134/Students-launch-poster-campaign-racist-Halloween-costumes.html
I gotta this have to one of the most pointless and trying to hard to be politically correct things I have seen in a while.
While the Arab suicide bomber costume is offensive and probably shouldn't be worn, everything else is quite tame. The geisha outfit, the Mexican outfit and maybe the ghetto outfit.
Personally, I'm Asian and I went to Halloween as a Viet Cong. So people need to get over and have laugh in life or am I being to racially insentive

"As a Tranyslvanian I am incensed at the insinuation that all people from this region are blood sucking creatures of the night. I am a culture, not a costume..."

I don't know if that arab kid even exists or if he is just a model posing for this psy-ops campaign but the "This is NOT my culture" is weasel word claim ANYONE EVER THOUGH IT WAS REPRESENTATIVE OF HIS CULTURE!

He is making light of ONE ASPECT of a condemned practice in a region you happen to come from. And people have to make light of horrible things or else we go crazy.

Dressing up as Dracula is NOT stating in any kind of racist way that that all people of Eastern Europe are vampires!

I hope this starts a meme of parodies of this, like photoshop Bela Lugosi holding up a pic of the Muppet Count.

It did.

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

gotta learn to laugh people! i work at a party store, and we sell TONS of costumes, some are a little racy (sexy) and some are a little goofy, and some are a little weird. Its just a costume. If you cant learn to laugh about things sometimes, youre gonna go nuts.

I do note, all the girls and womens costumes tend to be "sexy" and ive had quite a few girls and women coming in looking for something else and finding nothing that they like or want to wear.

 

[Belaam]

Hey, where do I get to voice my outrage over people drinking green beer while speaking in horrible Irish accents on Saint Patrick's Day.

Or maybe non-Catholics should stop celebrating Christ's -=mass=-- on December 25th.

It's a culture, not a costume!

 

[spartan231490]

This is stupidity on the grandest of scales. If you're that offended by a Halloween costume, please get your head out of your ass. There are real racist in the world that you could be protesting; there are actual injustices that you could stand up against. Sex slavery, starvation, AIDS and holocaust denial, human rights violations the list goes on and on. Why not put your time, money, and energy into something worthwhile!?

I have no idea why this got me so worked up.

You have every right to be worked up. Shit like this is half the reason real racism still exists. It acts like a screen and distracts people from the real problems that they should be trying to fix.

I'm a big fan of the pic btw, very nice touch.

 

[MrFluffy-X]

im not sure if its been posted yet but....

 

[Tilted_Logic]

I think the suicide bomber outfit is in extremely bad taste, because it's associated with so much pain and suffering from many people around the world. I don't know enough about the other costumes to comment on how they are in representation of their specific ethnic groups, but I'd say that most of them are just in good fun.

Still though, the suicide bomber one... that's appalling. (And no, I'm not someone who has been personally affected by a suicide bomber, it's just my opinion).

 

[Terminal Blue]

There are real racist in the world that you could be protesting; there are actual injustices that you could stand up against.

What the fuck do you expect people to do? Lobby the government to send a peacekeeping mission to the DRC (which it won't do because there's no political will) or set a goal which might actually be achieved and make a difference to people.

If you care about injustice, what are you doing about it? Oh right, nothing because you don't feel you have to care - you just feel obliged to tell other people how they should care.

Besides correct me if I'm wrong, but was a geisha girl not at one time a prominent part of Japanese culture?

Nope, never..

A tiny cultural and musical tradition confined to one city is not a prominent part of culture. Sorry, the obsession with it is totally unwarranted and actually very base.

I go back to my example above - am I not allowed to wear a kimono that I find beautiful because I'm somehow mocking a minority culture?

Only if your intention is to perpetuate a belittling stereotype.

I've seen many, many white girls in Kimono. It's kind of a ritual when you homestay in Japan that your host family will dress you in kimono at one point. The kimono is not the problem, and I'm amazed so many people reading this can't see that.

But if you're just looking for 'me so horny' submissive asian girl sex appeal by dressing as a Geisha, well, maybe consider how it might feel for someone who actually lives under those kinds of stereotypes. Why not dress like a prostitute from your own culture, not a culture which didn't actually exists and was just made up by horny American novelists with a bad case of yellow fever.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I immediately wonder if they have a Fat Redneck costume with a beer gut, a mullet, and a "don't tread on me, I've got the nukes" shirt. I would laugh my ass off over that. And yes, I am American.

like i quoted someone else, my friend has that costume covered this weekend, it's gonna be awesome, i saw it and fucking laughed my ass off the first time i saw it.

Don't let them see this one:

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/515/file2221.png/]

It's a costume, to be worn at parties.
A suicidebomber has become a caricature of a group of people, (not a culture) and as long as people buy it, those 'offensive' costumes will be manufactured. You know why? Because it's FUN to dress up for a costume party!

Fun is subjective, just like so much in this world, deal with it.

BTW, this was my costume at my last American party:

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/16/30837426912041978677210.jpg/]

bahahahaha not gonna lie i would laugh out loud if i saw that at a party

even if it is slightly inappropriate, doesn't mean i can't laugh at it. (and this is coming from a white male, which technically weren't we the most "offended" by 9/11?)

 

[Atmos Duality]

What? Can we not actually laugh at ourselves anymore? Have we become so politically-correct that we assume each and every stereotype is an offensive stain upon society that must be ousted immediately? It's starting to become a Lady MacBeth affair: No matter how hard she scrubs, she can't seem to get that damn spot out; mostly because it's a problem THAT ISN'T ACTUALLY THERE.

When Klansmen were burning crosses on the front lawns of homes, schools and churches, it wasn't just offensive, but hateful, stupid and most importantly DANGEROUS racism.

What are these Halloween costumes going to do? In my neighborhood, nothing.
Absolutely fucking nothing. Part of the the joy of Halloween is that it's a holiday of true freedom of expression, yet it's also a party of sorts, so nobody is (or should) going to take anything all that seriously.

So please; Keep stirring that shit-pot. Invent problems that aren't there.
Useless fools.

 

[sapphireofthesea]

I have no idea why this got me so worked up.

Me, neither. So if you can't fight all the causes, you can't fight any of them?

Maybe the reason these folks have picked this particular cause is because this one they may actually be able to change. I can't cure cancer, I can just give money to people who think they can. I can't stop sex slavery -- I could "raise awareness," but who is there among us who doesn't already think it's wrong?

This cause is something that really does demonstrate quite a bit of insensitivity, and yet so many people don't see it as a problem. You realize that's exactly how some people feel about some instances of human trafficking, right? Because it's not a bother to them, it's "not a worthwhile cause."

Yeah, there are "real racists" in the world. The people that think these costumes are hilarious? They're among them. What you mean to say is that there are "worse" racists in the world. Yep. Very true. And those racists are too far gone to listen to anyone, because they fully know and admit they are racist. Someone who thinks it's fine to dress as the "lazy, donkey-riding Mexican" is someone who is a racist-in-denial.

It's not that they hate Mexicans. It's that they don't consider what the other person may feel about it. They consider that other person's culture to be nothing more than fuel for a goofy joke. That's a kind of racism -- it may be a "softer" or more "accidental" kind, but that's exactly what makes it worth pointing out.

If even one person looks at the poster and says, "Hmm... I hadn't really thought of it that way. I guess it is a little more rude than I thought, and for not much 'joke,' either," then this campaign has accomplished far more than a bumper sticker that trumpets some "real" cause that everyone already agrees with.

Whether or not you agree with the topic of the campaign, the fact is that this is exactly the kind of campaign these kids should fight -- because it's something they actually have the power to start changing.

Better examples would be my main criticism. A number of the images shown show a distinct interest in pulling off the look just right (geisha one for instance), and I am not convinced these people are doing it out of racist view, but out of a degree of wanting to be in taht state (a Geisha for a day as such). So using such images simply says to even try and get into the state of another culture is wrong and racist, and that just sends the wrong message completely.
As for the others;
Black 'Gangsta' Costume - Actively promoted way of being 'kool' it should surpise no one that it would be made a joke of, in another setting it would be considered satire of just how bad the image itself is to african american culture. Could be racist but self inflicted, wrong on both sides.
Mexican Bandit - Holywood sterio-type, just as acceptable as Robin Hood (or at least just as racist)
Aerican Indians - The poster attached here does show this to be somehwat insenitive so I would mark it as a good example
Suicide Bomber - This is a spector on society (same as Ghost were in the past) and is a very real application of the spirit of All Hallows Eve. However, person not likely to know that. Equially so, he is dressed in arab garb and not distinctly Muslim (which is the main cultural view of suicide bombers). Not as insenitive as the indians and the casual look and lack of any true identifier suggests there isn't degradation being made of anything, just a last minute choice not aimed to cause any trouble.

There is a fine line between pointing out and using for the purposes of fun and humor aspects of culture; and using those aspects to degrade a culture.

Slippery slopes that leave out one race are suspect themselves (I do not see a white anything holding up a picture, leaving that race out shows a negative view towards the race). And it wouldn't even be very hard; Someone dressed as Mic Dundee would suffice for Austrialians.
(For the record and for some odd reason, Hispanics are considered different from 'white' people. Honestly have no idea why)


*All terms used in this writing are used for the understanding of the common person, more ideal terms could have been used but would have left some confused and would have resulted in the point being missed. If any of them offend you just replace them with the more ideal, non-loaded term as that is what would have ideally been used.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

My problem with the campaign is that it is racist.

First they don't show anyone making fun of rednecks or any other white stereotype. If it is offensive to dress up like another culture then all cultures should be represented, by the logic of their own argument.


I know that this was designed to highlight minority groups but that's where the problem occurs. Racism can and does effect all races and it wont end until all racism stops not just against minority races.

Personally, I would find it hilarious if someone showed up to a party dressed up in white face and as a redneck.

So, by your logic, racism (these costumes are hardly racist) against *ahem*, "minority races", is bad, but racism against whites is comedic?

...Note how he never actually said or implied that racism against minority groups isn't comedic.

 

[I.N.producer]

They think all of those costumes are offensive? A couple of my friends were Hitler and a stereotypical Jew last year. They took a picture of "Hitler" pushing the "Jew" into a pizza oven. That is racist, not a costume of a cultural stereotype. Although my friends were more funny than offensive since it was serious overkill.

 

[Silverfox99]

My problem with the campaign is that it is racist.

First they don't show anyone making fun of rednecks or any other white stereotype. If it is offensive to dress up like another culture then all cultures should be represented, by the logic of their own argument.


I know that this was designed to highlight minority groups but that's where the problem occurs. Racism can and does effect all races and it wont end until all racism stops not just against minority races.

Personally, I would find it hilarious if someone showed up to a party dressed up in white face and as a redneck.

So, by your logic, racism (these costumes are hardly racist) against *ahem*, "minority races", is bad, but racism against whites is comedic? I could actually care less what people dress up for on halloween, but your argument loses traction when you declare that dressing up as a black-stereotype is 'racist', but that going in white-face as a redneck is comedic.

Also, you would think that the 'protesters' would be intelligent enough to know that the costumes AREN'T geared toward being deliberately racist, and throwing every single race into a single category. For one, suicide bombers, geishas, and African-Americans who live in ghettos did and do exist. The costumes are meant to present condensed, simplified caricatures of a very specific subgroup of people. I don't know why an intelligent Asian person would immediately assume that when a person dresses up as a geisha, they are immediately lumping every Asian person into the category of geisha. As a test, tell me this. If you saw a person in a redneck costume, in white-face, would you immediately assume that this person is lumping every white person into the category of redneck? No? So why should a black person, upon seeing a man dressed as a highly stereotyped ghetto-dweller immediately assume that the costume wearer is lumping EVERY African-American into the category of ghetto-dweller?

This whole campaign stinks to me of some white-guilt bullshit from this Anti-racism group, not getting their goddamn priorities in order by having a group of students from minority groups in the United States to look depressed and heart-broken in front of a camera.

Also, there are a hell of lot more Asian people on this earth than Caucasians, buddy. They're hardly a 'minority race'.

My point and logic was that racism on any level is bad but that I don't mind people making fun of the stereotypes and negative aspects of my own race. I don't see this as racism.

I understand that there are more Asians than Caucasians. I was using the verbiage of the article that started this thread. The article is looking at the issue from a USA-centric view and from that position Asians are the minority.

 

[Brandon Logan]

*brings up the meme based off of it*

But seriously no I'm not offended I find it laughable.

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

Hilarious! XD.

Every. Single. One. Well, maybe not the black one, but it's worth a giggle.

Especially the suicide bomber, as it doesn't even represent a culture (or religion? I honestly can't tell) unless you identify with it. How's this: what's the difference between that costume, and Owen Lars from Star Wars? I can't see one.

I wouldn't support the campaign. Not that I would even if I cared, but it's just that it seems a bit petty, not to mention fruitless to me.