A culture, not a costume spurs discussion on appropriation

November 2017     No Comments

When we dress up for Halloween, how much thought goes into the perfect costume?

While it may be the perfect costume to us, we may not put as much thought into how what we choose to wear affects those around us. That’s why this fall, SUNY Poly held “We’re a Culture, Not a Costume,” on both the Utica and Albany campuses. Like many other similar events occurring on college campuses across the country, it was a chance for students, faculty and staff to engage in a facilitated conversation around the topic of cultural appropriation.

“We’re using the traditional Halloween as a way to present practical examples of where people have turned a culture into a costume and why that could be deemed offensive, could be seen as mocking a culture or it could be seen as buying into stereotypes of a culture, which is cultural appropriation,” explains Megan Wyett, Director of Student Conduct and Leadership at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. “We use real life examples so that students see that while you can still dress up at Halloween, there is the question of where does it cross the line into treating someone’s culture as a costume.”

The event not only applied to college students but opened the door to discussion for faculty and staff who may be parents to help them find ways to talk with their children about why a particular costume may not be appropriate and how to have such discussions for different age groups.

“Our goal is to create an entry point into the conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion. It puts what can be a controversial topic to discuss into a real world context and explains why diversity is important in a campus community,” Wyett said. “We hope that it helped our students think twice about dressing in costumes that could possibly place other students and people into a hostile environment.”