It is immensely disrespectful and inappropriate to wear cultural Halloween costumes. Almost all costume stores do not put any traditional thought from the historical origin of that particular ethnicity, into the costume depicting people. These costumes make people think all the diversity in a culture can be well illustrated by just one single type of costume.
These cultures and all their uniqueness dissipates when they are mimicked in an incorrect fashion by these costumes. We always talk about equality. Wrong depictions of a culture is one of the many subliminal causes of inequality.
People buy costumes not knowing a single ounce of original background on that culture most of the time. It may seem like no big deal, but it is when one person is offending another’s tradition that they hold sacred. They are ignoring or neglecting the meaning behind everything that culture is.
These manufactured costumes essentially continue the cycle of inequality and misunderstanding.
It’s very inconsiderate for so many people to mindlessly wear a culture they can’t even describe. Tell me how this is fair?
The original purpose of Halloween is to scare off spirits. Over generations, the purpose of costumes went from warding off something, into parading around in costumes that bring shame to cultures.
I understand that some people may not uphold the significance of culture, but there are several of those who care about the misconstrued costumes and what they represent to people.
Then those people go around thinking for a long period of time, that those costumes are really the heart and soul of that culture when in reality it’s quite the opposite. Lack of knowledge can be dangerous.
Several cultures are very closely tied to religion. With that being said, there are some costumes out there that exemplify a specific religion falsely. A misapprehended religion can be very offensive and discriminating to its believers.
No one really takes time to look at the effects of costumes on certain cultures or religions. Most people are unaware that it bothers people belonging to that race, culture or religion. People should not wear Halloween costumes which inaccurately display a culture because it’s insulting.
These costumes are not legitimately made, and don’t match authentic traditions. Why were they even manufactured? They were manufactured just to make a profit off people and Halloween. There’s no respect for tradition and culture.