Another Halloween has come and gone, and if the social justice warriors (SJWs) had their way, it had better have been a politically correct one. However, if white children dressed as anything but animals or inanimate objects, the SJWs would count this one as a fail.
According to an article in Cosmopolitan, white children, particularly young girls who enjoy movies featuring Disney princesses, had a tough choice this Halloween. If they chose to dress as the white Princess Elsa from Frozen, one of the more popular Disney princesses in recent years, or really any of the white princesses for that matter, they would be “reinforc[ing] notions of white privilege,” but if they chose a costume of any of the non-white princesses such as Polynesian Moana or black Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, they are guilty of culture appropriation.
Dilemma!
The Cosmopolitan piece pointed to an article in RaceConscious.org written by a white mother named Sachi Feris as a springboard to advance these ridiculous notions. In her piece, Feris shared the difficult struggle she had with her daughter in preparation for this year’s Halloween. Her five-year-old daughter was one of those racially insensitive white girls against whom the Cosmopolitan article warns, apparently, because she dared to want to be either Moana or Elsa for Halloween this year.
“I had some reservations regarding both costume choices,” Feris wrote, “about cultural appropriation and the power/privilege carried by Whiteness, and about Whiteness and standards of beauty.”
So instead of using Halloween as an opportunity to teach her child that character is more important than skin color, Feris introduced a world to her child in which race was under a microscope and white children had to treat other races and cultures differently.
Isn’t identity politics great?
At one point during her conversations with her highly impressionable young daughter — who likely before this debate with her mother paid very little mind to the color of anyone’s skin, Feris turned to her fellow social justice warriors on the Internet for guidance. “I’m trying to find more information about if a (white) person can dress up as another person’s culture in a way that honors the culture, without making fun of the culture or using the culture in a way that uses stereotypes or makes people who identify with that culture feel uncomfortable,” she said.
In the end, Feris won: Her daughter opted to dress as Mickey Mouse instead.
“That is a great solution,” she told her daughter. “And with Mickey Mouse, we don’t have to worry about making fun of anyone or dressing up as a culture different from our own because Mickey Mouse is a pretend mouse!”
And sadly, instead of using the example of Feris as one not to emulate, Cosmopolitan held it up as model parenting and encouraged others to do the same, stating:
At this point, you might be saying something like: “But, I dressed up as Jasmine as a child, and I’m not a racist! But one of the best things about time is that it moves forward. You should too. You can (and should) strive to be better than you were 10, 20, or 30 years ago. If you missed the mark when you were younger, maybe think about using this Halloween as an opportunity to teach your kids about the importance of cultural sensitivity.
One wonders if the theory of the SJWs works in reverse. Are non-whites allowed to dress as white princesses or heroes?
Cosmopolitan went so far as to say that white parents should deprive their children of being anything but a white character because they already have plenty from which to choose, and that they should use the opportunity to teach their children about white privilege:
If your Caucasian son or daughter doesn’t get to be exactly what they wanted for Halloween, encourage them to take a step back and realize that they’re awash in privileges that the real Moanas and Tianas of the world will likely never see, because the world is full of racist ass—-.” And those ass—- are becoming even more empowered. Our President is a hate group apologist who tries to ban refugees from seeking asylum in our country, simply because of their faith. Meanwhile, Black Americans continue to be killed by police, and antisemitic voices feel louder and more powerful than they have in decades.
What’s worse is that these SJWs actually believe that taking these types of stances is showing respect to other cultures, when in reality it is depriving people of the opportunity to celebrate anyone from another culture.
This mentality is not limited to American SJWs, either. Canadian SJWs expressed similar views that Halloween poses a risk of cultural appropriation in a video called What’s the Deal? With David Menzies in which Menzies interviewed random people on the streets of downtown Toronto.
One smiling white girl told Menzies, “If marginalized people have had to suffer, then white people can shut the f— up.”
When asked for clarity, she explained, “If you’re not black don’t dress up like you are. If you’re not Latino, don’t dress up like you are. And if you are not Chinese, don’t dress up like you are.”
So there you have it. Another holiday ruined by angry white liberals who have named themselves the purveyors of equality and fairness by treating people of different cultures unequally.
