What were you for Halloween? More importantly, who did you offend with that costume? Most likely you offended someone.
This year, several student organizations were upset about the costumes many fellow UW-Madison students wore. These organizations had some legitimate gripes. Students who dressed as drunken Mexicans or Indians foolishly pushed the envelope between \just having fun"" and poor taste.
Respect for heritage, culture and race should be taken into consideration when dressing up for Halloween. There are, however, still hundreds of costumes that would not be offensive to anyone. Some of these costumes would include a clothesline pole, a doctor or a circus clown.
Actually, if you would have chosen to be a clown, as I did, you still may have been ridiculed. Yes, ridiculed for being a clown. I wore baggy red sweatpants, a big blue Hawaiian shirt, a multicolored clown's wig and a big flower that shot water. Apparently, this is not an appropriate Halloween costume and is very insensitive.
I have been informed that Hawaiian shirts are offensive, though I am not sure why. The fact that native Hawaiians and people from what seems to be all racial and ethnic backgrounds wear these shirts do not seem to faze critics.
Though I may not have to explain why the multicolored clown wig is offensive, I will humor the people out there as ignorant as I am and do so anyway. The multicolored clown wig is a form of an Afro and to wear an Afro is offensive if you are white. Many blacks had Afro haircuts in the 1960s as a political statement. However, the fact that the first circus clown appeared in the 1780s has apparently been deemed irrelevant.
Student organizations on this campus have had many legitimate complaints in the past, and this year is no different. However, when individuals and groups start going beyond any imaginable line of political correctness to condemn everything in sight, they lose credibility. The average student on this campus is considerate or at least attempts to be. Those who begin to criticize everything and everyone are not only losing respect, but are also taking away credibility from other issues that are important.
A student wearing a red wig to a Badger hockey or football game is not trying to offend anyone. The student is showing school spirit. To those groups and individuals who criticize any white student who wears any type of wig, decide what is more important: educating students about legitimate problems facing students of color on this campus or turning all students off from these important issues because of the ridiculousness of some of your gripes. Please stop clowning around. There are too many important issues on this campus.
