Dressing up as Moana or Black Panther for Halloween isn’t cultural appropriation
The scariest thing you’ll encounter this Halloween won’t be someone in a costume. It’s the outrage mob on the prowl for children who dare to dress up as someone who doesn’t share their skin tone.
Allow that, and the internet trolls may descend on your child and pronounce you guilty of cultural appropriation. That’s defined as using parts of another culture, especially without showing respect for that culture.
In saner times, a girl dressed up as a Disney princess wouldn’t have garnered a second thought. Not so in the age of hyper-progressive scolds. Earlier this month, People magazine wrote that “parents are divided on whether it’s OK to let their kids dress as Moana for Halloween.” Moana is the lead in a Disney cartoon movie of the same name. She’s a spunky and brave Polynesian princess who adventures across the sea.
A white girl shouldn’t pretend to be Moana, the argument goes, because the Polynesian community has collective ownership over their cultural heritage. The unstated assumption is that everyone in that culture is opposed to people with different backgrounds using elements of their culture. But that’s not so.
Consider Auli’i Cravalho, the Hawaiian actress who voiced Moana.
“I think it’s absolutely appropriate,” Cravalho, 17, told People about girls of all ethnicities dressing up as Moana. “It’s done in the spirit of love, and for Disney and for the little ones who just want to dress up as their favorite heroine, I’m all for it.”
You also saw this disconnect after a white Utah girl wore a Chinese dress to prom this spring. Some people on the internet branded her a racist. People in China couldn’t understand what the fuss was about.
“It is not cultural appropriation, it’s cultural appreciation,” a user named Wuyiya wrote on Chinese social media, according to USA Today. “Can anyone living in the U.S. let the girl know that many Chinese people think she looks stunning in this beautiful dress?”
Ironically, when children dress up as someone from another culture, it’s usually a sign they like someone from the other culture. That’s a good thing.
This doesn’t mean costumes can’t be racially insensitive or are never used to insult others. Say a 7-year-old white boy wants to dress up as LeBron James, his favorite basketball player. He suggests darkening his skin to look more like his hero. It’d be appropriate — and imperative — for his parents to veto that idea because, historically, blackface has been used to mock African-Americans.
Notice the difference between this and cultural appropriation. African-Americans object to blackface because it’s closely associated with efforts to demean them. It isn’t a part of a culture over which they claim exclusive domain.
There are lots of things in the world worth being outraged by. Children dressing up as someone they admire — whether a cartoon character, superhero or athlete — isn’t one of them.
Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Listen to him discuss his columns each Monday at 9 a.m. with Kevin Wall on 790 Talk Now. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.
