E&A Office takes new approach to tackling cultural appropriation

Requests for costumes changes at the Grawood will be no more

Materials distributed by the E&A office as part of their Halloween campaign. ••• Eleanor Davidson / Dalhousie Gazette

In a sudden change from last year’s policy, students entering the Grawood with culturally insensitive or appropriative costumes will no longer be asked to change.

Instead, the Equity and Accessibility Office (E&A) of the Dalhousie Student Union has focused on developing a new policy.

“The approach of enforcing different costumes at the Grawood event was too divisive, and also kind of impossible to enforce,” said an E&A office staff member. “This year we decided that we wanted to focus a lot more on outreach in the weeks leading up to Halloween, and to try and get the word out beforehand.”

In 2013, many students filed complaints to the VP (external) of the Dalhousie International Students Association, stating they were uncomfortable with other students wearing costumes that included blackface, a burqa, and non-aboriginal students wearing aboriginal-themed costumes.

In addition to the specific costumes mentioned by students, the issue of costumes being “culturally appropriative” was also mentioned.

Cultural appropriation involves the adoption of elements of a certain culture by people that are not members of that culture. It can often be perceived as offensive, or even racist.

As a reaction to these complaints, the E&A Office tabled outside the Grawood in 2013, with a stock of backup costumes for students whose costumes were seen as inappropriate.

While students did not express strongly negative reactions to this approach, the E&A Office decided to take a different stance for Halloween 2014.

“People work so hard on their Halloween costumes, and they’re wearing them and then telling them to change, it seems a lot more difficult,” said the E&A office staff member.

This year, the E&A office will be using an approach that is “preventative instead of reactive.”

“We thought that getting the word out a lot in advance and helping people to put together better costumes was better than a reactionary thing on Halloween,” said the E&A office staff member.

The E&A Office has been distributing pamphlets about the dangers of cultural appropriation all over Dal and King’s. They will also be handing out treat bags including condoms, pamphlets and candy in the week leading up to Halloween.

To ensure that students wear costumes that are not insensitive to other cultures, the E&A office suggested a short list of guidelines to follow, so that students can be sure to be respectful.

The E&A staff member said the amount of complaints by students about the nature of other students’ costumes indicates the presence of a serious problem.

“For every person who actually goes to the international students rep to talk to them about it, and then they come to us to talk,” they said, “how many are just experiencing it and just talking to their roommates or not talking to anyone?”

This article was updated to remove the name of the E&A staff member due to online harrassment and abuse received by the staff member.