4.5: Culture Is Not A Costume: Cultural Appropriation And Halloween
First Name Basis Podcast
Jasmine Bradshaw
5 • 629 Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2021
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Can you believe that Halloween is just around the corner?
I know some of you super-prepared parents out there are already getting costumes put together for your kiddos, and you may be wondering about cultural appropriation as you're looking through the shelves and online at all the costume options.
I get asked all the time about how to avoid cultural appropriation with Halloween costumes, and it’s actually a topic I’ve covered in the past.
In Season 3, Episode 1 of the First Name Basis Podcast — “Your Top 5 Cultural Appropriation Questions Answered” — I answered two questions about how to avoid cultural appropriation at Halloween.
Because this topic is sort of hidden in that episode, I decided to take pieces of that episode, add a bit more info, and make one episode — a one-stop shop for you to get all of your costume questions answered.
In this episode, you will learn about:
- Indigenous appropriation on Halloween and how these costumes put Indigenous women in danger.
- How you can avoid appropriation in Halloween costumes.
- When it is appropriate to wear cultural artifacts.
Race Talk Roadmap
Our Race Talk Roadmap is the tool you need to begin conversations about race and racism with your children! We have a list of three tips for parents of older children and a list of three tips for parents of younger children. Visit firstnamebasis.org/racetalk to get the Race Talk Roadmap sent straight to your inbox.
Ally Elementary
Parents have been asking for a practical, interactive way to implement the anti-racist strategies that I lay out in the First Name Basis Podcast. So this October we are launching “Ally Elementary: Anti-Racist Education For Families."
During this five-week program parents will work together with their children to create a culture of anti-racism in their home, and I will be there to guide them every step of the way. We will use hands-on activities to teach our children about everything from the untold story of how race was created to how they can disrupt racism in their everyday lives. I am so excited to watch the families in our community make a meaningful transformation and improve their communities through anti-racist action.
Articles, Studies & Podcasts Referenced In The Episode
First Name Basis Podcast: Season 3, Episode 1: “Your Top 5 Cultural Appropriation Questions Answered”
“These costumes objectify Native American women. Retailers won’t stop selling them” by Nadra Nittle, Vox
“Our Society Can Never Really Eradicate Patriarchy or Sexual Violence When We Permit Violence Against Indigenous Women,” by Dani M., Wear Your Voice
“Yandy Responds to New Times Article, Says Costumes ‘Pay Homage’ to Native Americans” by Molly Longman, Phoenix New Times
“Yandy Finally Got Rid Of An Offensive Costume. So Why Are Some Protesters Still Angry?” by Molly Longman, Refinery29
“How to dress your Pākehā child up as Maui or Moana without appropriating Pasifika culture” by Emmaline Matagi, The Spinoff
“Please don’t tell your kids they can’t dress as Moana this Halloween” by Preeti Varathan, Quartz
“PSA: Don’t Let Your Kid Dress Up In These Costumes” by Rachel Garlinghouse, Scary Mommy
“Why Your White Kid Probably Shouldn’t Dress Up As Moana For Halloween” by Eden Hagos, Today’s Parent
Song Credit: “Sleeper” by Steve Adams” and “Dive Down” by VYEN
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the First Name Basis podcast, Season 4, Episode 5. Culture is not a costume. |
| 0:07.4 | Cultural appropriation on Halloween. |
| 0:15.8 | Teaching our children to be inclusive and anti-racist starts with us within the sacred walls of our home. |
| 0:24.0 | First name basis is designed to empower you with the confidence you need to be a leader in your |
| 0:29.0 | family and a change maker in your community. Together, we will wrestle with hard questions and use |
| 0:35.0 | the answers to create the world we want, a world that reflects |
| 0:39.2 | our values of inclusion, compassion, and courage. I'm your host, Jasmine Bradshaw, and I am so |
| 0:46.9 | excited to be on this journey with you. Hello, First Name Basis fam. I am so glad you are here. |
| 0:57.2 | This week we are talking about the ever popular topic, cultural appropriation on Halloween. |
| 1:04.5 | So I have gotten a million, billion, zillion questions from you all about Halloween costumes |
| 1:10.4 | and how to avoid cultural appropriation |
| 1:12.9 | when you are choosing your Halloween costumes. And I think that there are a lot of you who |
| 1:19.2 | might have missed that I actually talked about this specific topic in the very first episode |
| 1:24.8 | of season three. It's called Your Top Five Questions about |
| 1:28.9 | Cultural Appropriation. |
| 1:30.4 | And I embedded this whole topic in that episode, so it was kind of hidden in there. |
| 1:36.2 | And so what I wanted to do was pull out this topic specifically and make one episode |
| 1:41.3 | where you can go to get all of your costume questions answered. So this is kind of a |
| 1:46.6 | funky episode. It's a little different from what I've done in the past. But what we're going to do |
| 1:50.4 | is first talk about indigenous appropriation on Halloween and then talk about Halloween costumes in |
| 1:57.6 | general. So this first part about indigenous appropriation is brand new information that I felt |
| 2:03.9 | like, oh my gosh, I cannot talk about Halloween costumes and cultural appropriation without talking |
... |
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