I was talking with a friend yesterday as she was browsing her Facebook. As she was searching she found a picture of her friends who dressed up as JayZ and Beyonce (since she was pregnant) for Halloween. However this was a Caucasian couple. They not only dressed in attire like Beyonce and JayZ but they also decided to paint their face black with makeup.
My friend and I were not sure what to think of this. Is this racist? Or is this just an innocent Halloween costume? I actually don’t think this was racist of this couple, though I do think that it was an inappropriate choice of for a costume.
If racial minority was to dress up as Brittney Spears or Dr. Phil, nobody would take a second look. They would just see an Asian Dr. Phil or a African American Brittney Spears, they would not look far into the issue. However, now that a white couple is dressing up as racial minority that is considered racist? That doesn’t seem right to me.
However, it also raises questions whether different cultures should be acceptable for a costume. I read an article on Jezebel a couple weeks ago; about several Racial Activists are fighting to no longer have their culture as a Halloween costume. They argued that they are a culture not a costume, therefore they felt it was insulting to stereotype all oriental people the dimensions of costume. In order to make a Halloween costume recognizable requires the costume wearer to utilize every stereotype possible about the group of people or individual whom the costume is based upon. The picture below is one of the pictures from the campaign.
I don’t think dressing up as Beyonce and JayZ is any different than dressing up as a Geisha. Whether or it is wrong to dress up as a different race is a completely different question, which I cannot answer.
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