• About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
      Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
    • CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
      CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
    • WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
      WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Why Art Basel is partially responsible for Miami’s gentrification
      Why Art Basel is partially responsible for Miami’s gentrification
    • It’s time to put traditional grading to the test
      It’s time to put traditional grading to the test
    • What can the fall of Z-library teach us about textbook accessibility?
      What can the fall of Z-library teach us about textbook accessibility?
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • No image
      Pentimento’s Open Mic is Like an Old Patchwork Quilt–Worn, Yet Cozy
    • No image
      Kanye’s Antisemitism Steps on his Shoe Brand
    • Lousy Realities: Luca Guadagnino (2015)
      Lousy Realities: Luca Guadagnino (2015)
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
    • Books Before Boys
  • Sports and Wellness
    • Student-Athlete of October
      Student-Athlete of October
    • Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
      Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
    • The Case for Body Neutrality
      The Case for Body Neutrality
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • The Wellesley Snooze
    • Top 10 Girlbosses who aren’t alumnae, but I would totally believe you if you told me they were
      Top 10 Girlbosses who aren’t alumnae, but I would totally believe you if you told me they were
    • Wendy Wellesley’s Thanksgiving Menu
      Wendy Wellesley’s Thanksgiving Menu
    • The Snooze Awards for the Best Tanners of 2022
      The Snooze Awards for the Best Tanners of 2022
  • Miscellanea
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
      Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
    • 50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
      50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Kele Alfred-Igbokwe OpinionsNovember 18, 2015

Institutions cannot prioritize White feelings

Photo courtesy of Cosmopolitan

This October, Wellesley’s Counterpoint magazine sent out a poll to the Wellesley student body, asking whether they had ever worn a culturally appropriative Halloween costume. Answers ranged from those who’d worn such costumes unknowingly as small children to those who questioned what counted as cultural appropriation. There were even those who were irate defenders of cultural appropriation, feeling entitled to dress up in other people’s culturally significant attire,  as though such cultures were costumes. Cultural appropriation is, no doubt, a confusing concept to many. However, that does not mean that college students have a right to “explore themselves” through wearing cultural clothing as a costume. It is disrespectful, offensive and a way of inflicting violence onto marginalized people. Not only does it mock people’s cultures, it erases a history of oppression that the dominant culture (white people) inflicted upon people of color.

Yale’s Committee on Intercultural Affairs understood just that when they sent out an email on Oct. 28 to Yale’s student body, advising students to be racially sensitive when picking out their costumes. It was a simple enough email, suggesting that students be respectful of their classmates. It asserted “Halloween is also unfortunately a time when the normal thoughtfulness and sensitivity of most Yale students can sometimes be forgotten and some poor decisions can be made including wearing feathered headdresses, turbans, wearing ‘war paint’ or modifying skin tone or wearing blackface or redface. These same issues and examples of cultural appropriation and/or misrepresentation are increasingly surfacing with representations of Asians and Latinos.”

A lecturer in early childhood education at Yale and assistant house master, Erika Christakis, decided, ill-advisedly, to take that opportunity to intellectualize racism with another email to the student body urging them to allow themselves to make mistakes as young people in a learning environment. After all, what is college for, she argues, if not a safe space? Instead of lambasting the offensiveness of culturally appropriative costumes, she minimized the issue, and instead, decided to focus on what she considered to be “censorship of expression”, saying: “I wonder, and I am not trying to be provocative: Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious… a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive? American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience; increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition. [My husband] Nicholas says, ‘If you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away, or tell them you are offended.’ Talk to each other. Free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society.”

It is no small wonder why there were huge protests by infuriated Yale students in the following days, and even, weeks.

First of all, Mrs. Christakis took a reasonable suggestion and twisted it into something it was not: a ban on free speech. The committee was not prohibiting students from wearing whatever costume they wanted but was simply caring for the needs of students who wouldn’t want to see their cultures treated with a lack of respect.

It is highly presumptuous for a white person, such as Mrs. Christakis, who is a member of the dominant culture, to effectively disregard the feelings of minorities who have the burden of seeing a whole gamut of offensive costumes every Halloween, to basically say that their safety and wellbeing does not matter, as long as their white peers had a chance to “mature”. Cultural appropriation refers to a particular power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group. This is apparent when, for example, white people wear Native American headdresses. More so, she essentially gave white students a free pass to be offensive, while suggesting that the offended “look away”. Are black students supposed to look away when white people don blackface, which was used in minstrel shows to portray black people as subhuman? Once again, white people in this country were giving a chance to be “young” and “regressive”, at the expense of people of color.

Indeed, Mrs. Christakis’ plea on the behalf of offensive costumes is characteristic of America’s one sided view of respect and tolerance. White people are allowed to be “provocative” and don blackface, which was historically meant to dehumanize black people, while black people are supposed to be tolerant and respect their freedom of expression. Black people are not extended the same courtesy of tolerance and sensitivity. Likewise, Native Americans are supposed to be understanding of the importance of young white people’s “room to be a little bit obnoxious” by debasing Native American culture through wearing head dresses as a fashion statement and “look the other way”.

“Let kids be kids” is the outcry when anyone dares to take away young white people’s entitlement to be offensive. After all, college is supposed to be a safe space. Yet, young people of color are given the short end of the stick. Higher institutions of learning prioritize white feelings over people of color’s pain. As always, white students get to be young and stupid at the cost of students of color’s wellbeing.

Photo courtesy of Cosmopolitan

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleLetter to the Editor
Next articleEveryone is a journalist: the truth of social media

You may also like

Why Art Basel is partially responsible for Miami’s gentrification

It’s time to put traditional grading to the test

Banner reading this website has been seized over images of a book shelf

What can the fall of Z-library teach us about textbook accessibility?

2 Comments

  • Jess says:
    December 25, 2015 at 11:04 PM

    You sound super naive with your last statement. So in your opinion, are Disney movies culturally marginalizing other countries when they portray all the different Disney princesses? Is Pocahontas offensive? What if a little girl dressed up as Pocahontas? Where would you draw the line?

    Arguments like yours are rather tiring and reeks heavily of cherry picking.

    Reply
    • Kelechi Alfred-Igbokwe says:
      May 6, 2016 at 1:20 AM

      Actually, yes. Disney does culturally marginalize and can be quite problematic, Pocahontas is offensive, and a little girl dressed up as Pocahontas (when not Native American) is cultural appropriation.
      Your point?

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

Sorry. No data so far.

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top