# Least appropriate Halloween costume (Kids' Division) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 1, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108 "2010-11-01T18:17:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elysium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@Elysium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysium)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108/21 "2010-11-04T16:35:24Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Well, not if you’re dressed as a Rastafarian! I absolutely see nothing offensive in that. A friend of mine dressed like this for a Halloween party some 10 or 15 years ago. No one thought it was offensive. We weren’t personally offended so much as a bit shocked to actually see someone in blackface. I always considered any form to be pretty taboo, regardless of the context. I know I would probably not let my kid wear full blackface, if he asked me to. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108/22 "2010-11-05T02:41:58Z")
Is there a tradition of black face in Rastafarian culture or something? (I myself found the “Illegal Alien” costumes from last year hysterical, though, so I probably shouldn’t talk) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108/23 "2010-11-05T02:57:17Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > Meh, we’re Canadian. It isn’t offensive to us because we didn’t have the big civil rights fight. > > Now, if I darkened my skin a bit and threw on a chief’s headdress I’d be called out. You can’t tell me that [this](http://www.thestar.com/news/article/885090--campbellford-reels-after-halloween-costume-furore) isn’t offensive. ---
**Author:** ![longPath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@longPath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longPath)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108/24 "2010-11-05T11:02:20Z")
Royal Canadian Legion Branch closed for [inappropriate costume](http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/11/03/15942461.html)at halloween party. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108/25 "2010-11-05T13:26:47Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I didn’t see anything too horrifying. One little girl in the grocery store had a kind of Spanish dancer dress on, with one shoulder bared, and she was younger than ten. That was the worst one. Maybe she was dressed as [María Isabel](http://www.google.es/images?q=%22mar%C3%ADa%20isabel%22). The pics in the first page are way mild; the song she had a hit with was called “antes muerta que sencilla” (I’d sooner die than dress discreetely). ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108/26 "2010-11-05T14:14:34Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Is there a tradition of black face in Rastafarian culture or something? > (I myself found the “Illegal Alien” costumes from last year hysterical, though, so I probably shouldn’t talk) Uh, Rastafarian culture is typically black, if that’s what you mean. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108/27 "2010-11-05T14:26:32Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > You can’t tell me that [this](http://www.thestar.com/news/article/885090--campbellford-reels-after-halloween-costume-furore) isn’t offensive. Of course that’s offensive. There’s a difference between the KKK and blackface and a Rastafarian and blackface. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108/28 "2010-11-06T05:20:40Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > Uh, Rastafarian culture is typically black, if that’s what you mean. So that means black-face is automatically non-offensive? Seriously? :dubious: I know Rastafarianism is usually black. However, I was talking about [blackface](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_face), which is different, and considered extremely offensive. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108/29 "2010-11-06T14:08:00Z")
To me, I would distinguish between blackface to dress as “a black person”, and to dress as a particular person, who happens to be black. Dressing as “a Rastafarian” is closer to the line, but dressing as Bob Marley would be better and, I think, be OK. By “blackface”, I don’t mean like the guy on the right in **Guinastasia** ’s link, but just to look black. I don’t know if “blackface” always means like in **Guinastasia** ’s link, and there’s some other term I should have used instead. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-appropriate-halloween-costume-kids-division/559108.md?page=1)