“WE’RE A CULTURE, NOT A COSTUME” OHIO UNIVERSITY’S STARS CLUB MAKES YOU THINK TWICE by Michelle Lee
I
s it racist to dress up in a mariachi
calls attention to the kinds of ‘ethnic’
to diminish an entire cultural group
suit as a guitar-playing, sombrero-
costumes worn on one of America’s
into a comical caricature. With the
donning Mexican for Halloween? How
favorite holidays, Halloween, a gesture
make-up, the exaggerative pose and
about if one wears excessive amounts
offensive to those represented by the
face, and the kimono, the stereotypical
of make-up, puts on a kimono and
fake cultural costumes. Narrowly
doll-like image of the geisha disregards
calls herself a geisha? Just a few days before Halloween this year, a student organization at Ohio University called STARS—Students Teaching About Racism in Society—released a poster campaign online, each with its own image of a student holding a picture of
It’s one thing to wear the costumes of characters like Superman, a vampire, or a zombie.
individuals donning ethnic Halloween
its historical context and serves to remind of the exoticism and foreignness that is often attributed to Asians. The costume look reduces the idea of an Asian woman to the form of a geisha, a term that sometimes is even used loosely and informally by non-Asians to try to describe the
costumes—including a Muslim with
beauty of Asian women today.
bombs taped to his stomach and an
translating minority cultures into
African American young woman with
stereotypical costumes is not okay,
of Social and Cultural Analysis at
grillz and a so-called gangsta rap pose.
and that was the message of this
NYU, Crystal Parikh teaches courses
The campaign was called, “We’re a
proactive student organization.
addressing the kind of critical race
Culture, Not a Costume.” The campaign Image courtesy of OHio Universty’s STARS Club
In a matter of days, the poster
generasian.tumblr.com
theory issues brought up by this
campaign went viral, becoming a
campaign. “One of the things you
subject of heated discussion and debate
learn from viewing something like
in the cyber world. Numerous online
the Ohio University student campaign
publications, blogs, and major online
as it unfolds, is the extent to which
newspapers reposted the images,
people feel like it’s their entitlement
responding to their message. “It’s a
to appropriate other people, and other
seasonal point of controversy, but even
people’s identities,” Parikh responded
after widely publicized controversies
in an interview. “But if the campaign
such as the ‘Ghetto Fab’ wig at Kohl’s
can get someone to pause and actually
and Target’s illegal alien jumpsuit,
say, wait, why is that racist?—and
costumes of stereotypes abound,”
actually have a self-reflective moment, I
reported Emanuella Grinberg of CNN
think that’s wonderful.” While perhaps
Living. A senior at Ohio University and
costume companies haven’t stopped
president of STARS, Sarah Williams,
designing and selling these costumes,
explains, “During Halloween, we see
the STARS organization nonetheless
offensive costumes. We don’t like it,
created a safe and clean means of
we don’t appreciate it. We wanted to
addressing the issue in a public sphere.
do a campaign about it saying, ‘Hey,
If demands are being made for costumes
think about this. It’s offensive,’”
that don’t take racial representations
quoted from Grinberg’s article.
seriously, then where is the line being
It’s one thing to wear the costumes
READ OUR BLOG
A professor in the Department
drawn when it comes to eliminating
of characters like Superman, a
this tendency to maintain these
vampire, or a zombie. But it’s another
G offensive, stereotypical images? G.
FOLLOW US
@nyugenerasian
25