Sustained Dialogue Explores Halloween's Cultural Undertones

After a weekend of Halloween festivities and with more trick-or-treating on the horizon, students gathered on Tuesday night not to discuss their party plans, but rather what they described as a problematic narrative behind insensitive Halloween costumes.

The discussion, spearheaded by the Harvard College Sustained Dialogue group and led by professor Caroline Light, director of undergraduate studies in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, was meant to provide students with a platform to express their views on how the appropriation of cultures implies oppressive undertones.

“We’ve always wanted to do a dialogue on Halloween costumes and how they perpetuate stereotypes,” said Judy Park ’14, co-director of Harvard College Sustained Dialogue.

Sustained dialogue is part of a larger national and international campus network where university students participate in a model of dialogue, attempting to bridge issues of diversity and difference through personal experience with the goal of galvanizing change on campus, according to Humza S. Bokhari ’14, the other co-director of the group.

At the discussion, students expressed concerns over racially and culturally insensitive costumes, such as “Blackface,” Trayvon Martin, and terrorist costumes for young children–all of which they argue put minorities on the periphery and whiteness as the norm in society.

“It is difficult for people to think critically about these costumes because of our desire for color blindness,” said Light. She then went on to describe the consumer culture that allows ‘blackness’ and ‘ghetto culture’ to have market value.

The event also incorporated dialogue on the fetishization and sexualization of women from marginalized groups, such as geisha or ‘Pocahottie’ costumes.

“It denies history and portrays racially minority women as perpetually wanting sex, as the willing objects of white conquest,” said Light. She argued that the appropriation of a Native American stereotype is especially problematic because of the history of oppression and appropriation by white colonists.

However, students discussed the merits of donning a different identity, so long as it is done respectfully.

“I believe you should be able to dress up as someone, even someone of a different race, if you admire them,” said Keyanna Y. Wigglesworth ’16, recruitment and publicity chair for HCSD. “You can dress up like Beyoncé, but you don’t have to paint your skin black to do so.”

The event is part of “De-Stereotype Me Week,” organized by the group as a means of addressing different issues that exist at Harvard but are not necessarily vocalized.

“We borrowed the idea from someone in the Sustained Dialogue network,” said Park, “and the idea was that people would wear t-shirts or buttons that expressed one way they defy the stereotype. For example, ‘I am a legacy and I am on financial aid.’” Students are encouraged to wear their pins or buttons this coming Friday.

“We’re hoping that through our discussions of personal experiences we can actually build real understanding and empathy as opposed to staying in the real academic or political debates that we see a lot [on campus],” said Park.