We’re certain that notices almost identical to this one have gone out on college campuses nationwide, but Jason Rantz found an Instagram post by the HUB (Husky Union Building) at the University of Washington. Cultural appropriation is out, so no dressing like a Mexican or an Egyptian or a geisha or a ninja or a g***y.

In case that tweet got cut off, here’s the list of problematic costumes for the #IAmNotACostume campaign:

– An Egyptian person
– A Mexican person
– Day of the Dead
– A Geisha
– A Romani (sometimes referred to using the slur, g*psy)
– An Indigenous person or person of colour (though it is okay to dress as a particular individual e.g. Obama or Snoop Dog – as long as you do not try to embody their racial identity by doing black face, brown face, wearing cultural garments or wigs representing Black hair like dreadlocks)
– A Ninja
– A prison inmate
– A mentally ill person in a psychiatric facility
– A transgender person (there’s a difference between dressing as a trans person as a joke/mockery and dressing in drag. Many folks use Halloween as a safe opportunity to play with their own gender and drag has a long history of being connected to Halloween)
– A Hula Dancer
– A homeless person
– Fat suits
– Costumes that make fun of sexual and gendered violence (e.g. “flasher”)
– Costumes that degrade or dehumanize sex workers, dancers, etc.

We just need to know … can you dress as a pimp, or does that degrade sex workers?

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No.

A survey this summer found that Notre Dame’s leprechaun mascot was determined to be one of the nation’s most offensive.

We’re surprised they didn’t put “witch” on the problematic list as offensive to Wiccans.

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Tags: costumescultural appropriationHalloweenJason RantzproblematicUniversity of Washington