Last halloween some friends and I decided to get dressed up and walk around the neighborhoods surrounding our college that are home to a plethora of students here at Muhlenberg. Walking around and seeing people dressed up was all in all fun, until from the corner of my eye I saw what looked to be a sombrero. For people who do not know, sombrero’s are a significant part of Mexican culture and a huge part of our identity. They are often worn in celebration or to important occasions, so imagine my surprise when I saw one out in my school’s neighborhood accompanied by a man wearing a sarape (traditional shawl like clothing item) all while holding maracas in each hand. It would have been funny to me had I not gotten a glimpse at the man dressed this way, surprise surprise he was a White man.
I bring this story to light to talk about identity as someone part of the Latine community on campus, which I would argue is very very small despite being the largest affinity group on campus. While at a PWI, oftentimes POC students must fight for their seats in class, in discussions, and so on, so when things like this happen it really does feel like a step back in the “progress” our schools continue to claim they are making. While the school is not responsible for one person’s actions, they are responsible for making sure all their students feel safe but things like dressing up as a person’s identity, blatantly calling their culture a “costume” does not make anyone feel safe. Halloween in college is a fun time to dress up and relive the fun experiences we got as kids, but not when you’re using it as an excuse to be racists. So I raise the question, is there truly a way to teach White students at a predominantly White school that they are not the only race to exist?