Halloween Costumes

Melissa Hung
October 30, 2007

chinawoman.jpg mexican.jpg indian.jpg

So for Halloween this year, maybe I should dress up as white person. I mean, white people seem to think it’s OK to dress up as Asian, Native American and Middle Eastern people.

The costumes above are from an online store that even has categories for the ethnic flavoring of your choice, like “”Spanish/Mexican”. Alas, they are unable to help with my costume. There is no “White” category.

Contributor: 

Melissa Hung

Founding Editor

Melissa Hung is the founding editor of Hyphen. She was the editor in chief for the magazine's first five years and went on to serve in many other leadership roles on the staff and board for more than a decade. She is a writer and freelance journalist. Her essays and reported stories have appeared in NPR, Vogue, Pacific Standard, Longreads, and Catapult, among others. She grew up in Texas, the eldest child of immigrants. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Comments

Comments

rebecca wrote on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 4:49pm
nerd alert: i dressed up as a white person a few times, but not for halloween. it was for fur trade reenactments.
claire wrote on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 6:23pm
just get a suit from ross, and a blonde wig and white pancake makeup from walgreens. also, tape up your eyelids.it might not take, though, b/c so many asians look like that even when it's not halloween.
seng wrote on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 8:26pm
I dressed up as a fratboy a few years ago, but very few people got it without explanation (and most still thought it was a copout). This year's gutter punk costume went over much better. Neither are actually ethnicity-motivated on my part, but they probably would not have come into existence without a bit of White privilege (and class privilege on my part to have knowledge of the details).At a friend's party last weekend, two women showed up together dressed as old Chinese ladies collecting cans. I thought it was pretty funny, though some considered it racist. Would knowing the ethnicities of the women change your opinion of the costume?