Grow Some Bloody Skin

Begin rant:

A university in Ohio is spending money to fund a campaign by some of its students to try to get people to change the way they dress up for Halloween:

“Some costumes can be offensive to some people where you are highlighting their culture in a negative way,” said Stephanie Sheeley, a spokesperson for the group and a student at the university.

Basically, putting on a costume that is a caricature of a stereotype is considered bad.  For example, the campaign condemns people who wear a dishdasha with C-4 accessories as being offensive to Arabs or Muslims. They also are against costumes that show Italians, Asians, and Mexicans, or whatever in a bad light.

Now, I'm not going to tell someone that they're wrong if they're offended by something.  Everyone has their own tastes and values, and they're valid even if I don't share or agree with them.

But here's a word of advice to someone who's unintentionally offended by something someone wears for Halloween:

Grow the heck up and add a few layers of skin.

Look, my ancestors are stereotyped as being either bloodthirsty barbarian warriors (Norwegian) or drunken midgets in green who jealously guard a hoard of treasure (Irish), or maybe warmongering bumblers with a taste for Polish sausage and French wine (German).  But you don't see the Norwegian People's Liberation Front protesting when someone dresses up as Olaf the Priest Cleaver for Halloween.  You won't see the Hibernians putting up posters because someone wants to dress up as Darby O'Gill.  The local Deutch-American Friendship club isn't going to stage a sit-in because someone came to the party as Sergeant Schultz.

But something tells me you'll see Viking, leprechaun, and lederhosen costumes, along with ones for Skeeter and his redneck cousins, at Halloween parties on college campuses without someone putting up a poster.

Here's the deal folks:  Feel offended by something if you need to.  Even feel free to tell someone who offends you why you're offended.  But for the love of sweet zombie Jesus, lighten up!  It's Halloween!  It's not a Klan rally, it's not an Aryan Brotherhood retreat, it's a bloody holiday.

If someone is dressed up as your ethnicity and is acting like an ass, don't have anything to do with them.  Ignore them. They're doing it precisely so that people will pay attention to them.  If the whole group you're with is laughing along with the guy in the sombrero talking like the Frito Bandito, and that bothers you, get new friends.  They're not worth your time.

Quit wasting your time and my tax dollars trying to convince people, especially college students, to act the way you want them to act.  That beer fueled douchebag in blackface?  He's offensive, and he was a beer fueled douchebag long before he put on the make-up.  If you give him any attention, even negative attention to make him stop, it only feeds his need to be noticed.  Shun him, and eventually he'll either go away or quit being a beer fueled douchebag.

Did something happen to the youth of America in the 1990's that made them so thin skinned?  Was there a solar storm or something that I missed?  Was it the Hale-Bopp comet?  It had to be something.  People don't get this 'sensitive' without there being a cause.

End rant