Racist costumes being banned

I thought of something - can we dress as object, like a lamp, chair or table?

I don't think dressing up like a black person with a watermelon or a Sikh would go over well anywhere unless you're in a crowd that thinks that's okay. They wouldn't be my top choices of costumes for other reasons. But I think people are taking this too far, once again... it's just like not having a Christmas tree or learning Christmas songs in school.

I made that sumo outfit myself, actually, which is why I won a prize. Won another one with a friend as the Blues Brothers about 20 yrs ago, and another one when I dressed as a corpse. All homemade outfits, which is a big part of what Hallowe'en means to me. Anybody can buy a costume and mask. But being a pirate or princess or Oscar the Grouch by your own hands was much more fun. That was so much fun as kids - thinking of what you wanted to be and how to do it. Ah, I miss that.

My ex and I had a party once to welcome a young Italian woman to the department. We threw her a party and asked everyone to come as their favourite Italian. Three people came together as a luge team, complete with frame, scarves, goggles, etc. Two others came as pimento stuffed olives. I was Brutus and the ex was Caesar, complete with a holly circlet on his head and bloody knife in his back. That's the fun part!

I've gone that route a few times. One year I was part of a three-person laundry day costume concept. I've done the Carol Burnett-based set of curtains costume. I won a bunch of prizes as a bird in a tree. My unmade bed costume didn't seem to upset anyone.

I this this response shows a lot of class, and in a nutshell shows how someone secure in themselves responds.

snood, in the picture boomerang posted, I didn't see any fried chicken, watermelon (hey wait, I LOVE fried chicken and watermelon, and I'm white), or anyone saying in a bubble anything in ebonics.

I don't know what the purpose of that girls custom was, besides the fact she looked black.
BTW, a black woman with a dynamite body.

Where did your interpretation of that picture come from?


Anyway....

What if I was going to a adult party, and wanted to dress up as a celebrity crack head?

Since I'm what, would it be ok to apply makeup, wig, clothes to make myself look a lot like Lindsey Lohan, but not ok to do the same to look like Whitney Houston?

I contacted jcboy and apologized and explained I was trying to make a point about "pc". I added the watermelon, fried chicken and ebonics to illustrate by exaggeration what might be offensive; I didn't see it in the picture.

So let me ask you this - Is there any kind of costume that you would be able to understand why it offends anyone?

Not meaning to answer for chai, but I understand that apparently any kind of costume could offend someone. I also understand that a costume isn't the least bit necessary to offend someone.

I'd be offended (and knowing Chai she may also) by any costume poking fun of those of a smaller stature.

Of course there is.

And it's not that I "would be able to understand" like I'm slow. It's that to get through this life you have to be able set set priorties, and someone wearing part of what can generally be considered part of a countries national dress, like a serape or a sombrero, is not a priority. No more than if I chose to dress like Heidi of the Alps, or wear ledderhosen should be offensive to the Swiss or the Germans or Austrians. I just remembered something. Back in the 70's when I was in high school, someone gave me a serape, and I weared it all the time over several autumns. It looked super cool with jeans and boots and I looked if I may say, quite fetching in it. When I see a serape, the first thing I think of is Clint Eastwood.
What if I wore a serape, a gunbelt and clutched a cigarello in my teeth and said I was Eastwood for halloween? Would that be all right?


The one for instance of someone dressed as an Arab with a bomb attached. That's offensive for reasons I'm not even going into.

If someone dressed as a black person, complete with fried chicken, watermelon etc. that'd be offensive because it's reinforcing a negative stereotype.

A geisha is not a negative stereotype. To be a geisha involves intensive training, and are very respected in their country. They have mastered the arts of dancing, singing, playing instruments, engaging in conversation and are experts in social graces.

I don't know what someone dressed in a somebrero is supposed to represent. Someone Mexican? So? Snood, you lived in San Antonio, and know that Mexican is not a dirty word there, and people use it to describe themselves all the time.

In the original pictures being called into question, I didn't see any bad intent.

When I was in college, I was at a Halloween party, and saw this girl walking around wearing a dark red rectangular box, with a sign on the front that said "Polish Brick"

I had no idea.
Until I saw her other half, a guy wearing work clothes and a sign that said "Polish Bricklayer"

My grandparents were all from Poland, and I laughed my ass off. Somehow it would not have been funny if the girls sign read "French Brick" or "Irish Brick" At least to me it wouldn't. I've heard my share of Polish jokes in my day, and no, they aren't my favoritie. But this was done with no bad intent. Oh I suppose someone could get offended, but there is such a thing as being over sensitive.

Halloween is a holiday for making merry and jokes and tricks. If it gets to the point where if you dress up like a witch you're offending wiccans, we should all sit in a dark room that night, so has to avoid any potential for offending someone.

As a whole, we need to get over actively Looking for reasons to be mad at others, and accusing them of hate.

Times change. I was just now thinking that if you asked Gracie about blacks and fried chicken and watermelon, she wouldn't know why that's supposed to be offensive. I'm much older than she is, and I don't even find a black person eating fried chicken anything to think about. Why would I?

Personally, I think that's a really good thing.

I hope the day is arriving that to know the why of this you'd have to look it up, and the reaction would be "that was weird"

Yes.
Costumes of Nepoleon must be banned.

Your being offended is your choice, I can choose to care or not care about what you like and dont like....we went seriously off the rails when we decided that all must kowtow to the offended. I dont mind the offended speaking their minds, I do however have a serious problem with those who assert that be cause they claim offense I must change my behavior.

then what am I s'posed to do with this goat?

Stinky was gonna be Josephine...

I am quite sure my daughters would have this reaction. I just remember the time they watched this old Disney movie called the Color of Friendship - about a black american family hosting an exchange student from South Africa - the kick she was a white South African during the time of apartheid. My daughters couldn't understand why the black people in South Africa were treated differently. When I tried to explain this racial discrimination - it was almost as if it seemed incomprehensible to them.

I hope we someday have total equality among mankind, and all men live in peace.

Not to mention pygmies, Quasimodo, little people... be a hard costume to pull off for a regular sized person, no?

Not if you stay on your knees

Yeah well, that's not going to happen.

At least my hope is obtainable.

Seriously dude, total equality, and all men living in peace? Hoping for something that is not in not only human nature, but the nature of any living creature, is just words at best, and setting yourself up for failure.

Hope and more importantly, work toward something that can happen.

Yep, I agree. I think it's a pipe dream. Dream, if you must, but realize it's a dream.

LOL - kinda uncomfortable, no? Staring at ... all night long

And you dont have the authority to oppress others as you pursue your dream....

Well, there are little people actors. Of course, they are type casted. Hollywood is dumber than a doornail.