The season for trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns and watching horror movies has arrived.
Halloween will inevitably mean trouble on college campuses as many students will choose to dress in culturally offensive costumes at parties over the new two weeks.
These racist incidents can be deeply painful, making communities feel unsafe, said Dr. Katrina Caldwell, vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).
“I think the first threshold is that people feel unwelcome, that they are not sure if they are sitting next to someone in their classroom or living in a residents hall or working in a lab with someone who might harbor some of the sentiments that most folks feel like are foundation to those types of images or that type of activity,” she said.
Caldwell should know.
Earlier this month, a student at Ole Miss admitted to posing in blackface.
According to a letter, My Culture is Not a Costume, sent to the Ole Miss community after the incident by Caldwell and Dr. Noel Wilkin, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, the student “recognized the immediate impact of this behavior, reached out to staff, expressed remorse and has already begun engaging in a voluntary educational process that includes curricular, experiential and reflective components.”
