Who Do You Want to Be Today?

Via Bug Girl, who has a post of her own about Halloween costumes, comes this campaign to get people to think a little bit harder about their costumes this year.

Not a Costume

From the blog post:

These incredible posters were created by the student organization at Ohio University called Students Teaching Against Racism (STARS).  Amazingly, these posters became popular over Tumblr on their president’s blog site (here). Their mission is “to educate and facilitate discussion about racism and to promote racial harmony and to create a safe, non-threatening environment to allow participants to feel comfortable to express their feelings.”

There are five posters. You really should see them all.

Update: If you still have questions after reading that post, I suggest you try Crommunist’s FAQ on the topic.

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Who Do You Want to Be Today?
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7 thoughts on “Who Do You Want to Be Today?

  1. 1

    That picture is of someone with a serious lack of imagination in addition to cluelessness/insensitivity syndrome.

    Much better to be a stick of dynamite with a bunch of dolls strapped to you.

  2. 5

    I don’t know if the costume itself is racist. It’s lame but I don’t know if it itself is supporting bigotry.

    The guys who say ‘I’m dressing up like a Hadji!’ and then put that thing on definitely are though.

  3. 6

    julian, the thing is that this costume isn’t going to work without the ethnic stereotype. If this guy were dressed the way suicide bombers actually dress, no one would get it. The person putting it on may or may not think that all Arabs are suicide bombers, but the costume does reinforce the stereotype.

  4. 7

    If this guy were dressed the way suicide bombers actually dress, no one would get it.

    Heh, oh yeah.

    I was going to argue that, like in the case of pirates, this stereotype is just the cartoon depiction of a villain and should not be taken too seriously. But because, like you mentioned, it’s depiction isn’t that of a villain but of a racial group (or that the group itself is the villain and this is the stereotype) it is racist.

    Regardless of his intention (dressing up as a terrorist v dressing up as a Muslim) it carries enough baggage to make it insulting to a lot of people. And unlike drawing a picture of The Prophet it isn’t combating any social or religious dogma. Just perpetuating a hurtful stereotype.

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