Leave it to academia’s social-justice warriors to pillage Halloween and crush the spirit out of it.
Not only are college students today told what they should think or say (or where they can speak freely), they’re also instructed in how to dress for All Hallows’ Eve. Any costume perceived as a “cultural appropriation” is a no-no.
“What you might want to wear for one night of fun is a stigma that others wear for life,” admonishes the Center for Student Diversity at Towson University in Maryland, which also reminds “We’re a culture, not a costume.”
Apparently that includes dressing up as Disney-themed characters such as Aladdin, Pocahontas or Mulan, according to a memo from a Notre Dame residence hall rector.
And to avoid any confusion, the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota provided students with a “Costume or Culture Appropriation” flier that lists Native American headdresses, Mexican sombreros and geisha outfits as unacceptable.
With so much regimentation, we suppose the only suitable costume for a college undergraduate these days is to dress up as a box of colorless crayons. Of course, costume selection is a judgment call. But being so hemmed in, how do college students, themselves, discern what’s appropriate without being told so by an academic authority? Talk about scary.
Maybe the campus social-justice crowd this Halloween should dress up as Morlocks from H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine.” And their young adherents, as Eloi.
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