This lady is making a mockery of cultural appropriation claims. A blogger, Sachi Feris is urging parents not to dress their children up as characters from other racial backgrounds and ethnicities, calling it “cultural appropriation.”
On her blog, Raising Race Conscious Children, Feris wrote a feature titled, “MOANA, ELSA, AND HALLOWEEN.” It reads in part:
I had some reservations regarding both costume choices…about cultural appropriation and the power/privilege carried by Whiteness, and about Whiteness and standards of beauty…and so our conversations began:
“Elsa is an imaginary or made-up character. Moana is based on real history and a real group of people…if we are going to dress up a real person, we have to make sure we are doing it in a way that is respectful. Otherwise, it is like we are making fun of someone else’s culture.”
Hearing me push back against her Moana choice, my daughter re-asserted her desire to dress up as Moana (for Halloween 2018!). I closed this initial “Moana” conversation by telling her: “We would have to do some research and figure out if there is a way to dress up as Moana that is respectful of her culture.”
Waymint. This writer’s four-year-old granddaughter Paris Grace has chosen to dress as Elsa, from the Disney movie Frozen, this year and we’re supporting her request. She enjoys life as a happy, healthy, intelligent and proud Black girl every day. Spending one day as one of her favorite Disney characters doesn’t mean she has any secret or hidden desire, and her white and Asian friends who choose to dress as Moana or a character of color shouldn’t be deemed racists or making a mockery of other cultures.
Does Feris have something against her daughter having a desire to be a brown girl on that special day of play?
Can’t really dissect her thought process, so I digress. I can say, y’all taking this -ish too far. And you’re taking the fun out of shopping for Halloween costumes and playing dress up, so in my Elsa voice, “Let It Go.”
