Colleges trying to control students' Halloween costumes
In the weeks preceding Halloween, several universities across the country have begun to issue guidelines to their students about what they should -- or shouldn’t -- wear as costumes this Oct. 31.
“Every piece of literature that I see highlights the impact that these damaging costumes could have, and my question is: What tangible impact are these costumes having? And no one’s been able to answer that for me yet,” The Conservative Millennial Allie Stuckey told FOX Business’ Liz MacDonald on “Risk & Reward.”
One of the schools, Northern Arizona University, started a campaign called, “We are a culture, not a costume,” suggesting that students avoid wearing costumes that include headdresses typically associated with Native American culture or sombreros.
Likewise, the University of Texas issued a 29-point checklist for students on how to avoid wearing an offensive costume that could potentially appropriate the culture of someone else. And the University of St. Thomas sent a flyer to students explaining what cultural appropriation was, and how they could avoid it.
“Where is it going to end?” Stuckey said. “Are they not allowed to dress up as witches because that offends the Wiccan culture? Are they not allowed to dress up as animals because that might trivialize the endangered species?”
Universities spending days trying to enforce how an individual dresses is the precipice of privilege, Stuckey said, adding that liberals often decry cultural appropriation because it’s a “product of the evils of privilege.”
“I would argue that there is nothing more privileged than these universities spending days on end talking about how someone might be emotionally damaged by a hula skirt,” she said.