Halloween, as we learned about, has quite a history behind it. We learned about its old Christian and Celtic roots, and how today it has become a commercialised festivity. One such way that it has become commercial is how much people spend on it- from candy to costumes. We learned that people dressed up in scary costumes, but sadly some people in today’s society, do not understand how hurtful and humourless their costume choices can be.
One of my favourites is when people dress up in another person’s cultural dress. For example, some of the popular ones are: a Kimono (Japan), Saree (India), Thobe/Keffiyeh (Arab), or Aboriginal clothing… which are NOT Halloween costumes!
But unfortunately, we should have written this post before a large group of elementary teachers decided to make a very terrible mistake. This is how:
And sadly… it get’s much, much, MUCH worse…
These pictures were posted on the school district’s Facebook page but were quickly removed. But just to briefly summarise- the top picture is a bunch of teachers wearing very stereotypical
Mexican dress with maracas (instruments) and sombreros (Mexican hats). If you look
really closely, the lady in the middle’s hat reads ‘Mexican.’ The bottom picture is a group of teachers holding a wall which says ‘Make American Great Again.’ Remember who spoke of the wall and why?
Yep, none other than Trump, who said that a wall between Mexico and the US would stop 99% of illegal Mexican immigrants- many of whom are drug dealers. (Obviously, a completely and utterly false and racist remark).
These teachers are from Idaho, US. Idaho is located by Washington and Montana… they are very close to Canada.
You can read the full story here: https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/02/us/idaho-teachers-border-costume-trnd/index.html
So now it is your turn to weigh in on this. Do you think that these individuals made an innocent mistake which was not meant to hurt anyone’s feelings? Or do you think that they should have known better than to dress and act in an insulting manner? How would you feel if your ethnicity or culture was Mexican? Would this have offended you? Since these individuals are teachers (clearly not as great as yours :)), does this affect your opinion of the situation at all? Remember to write detailed answers which are roughly 20 (grade 5) to 25 (grade 6) sentences.
