Taking your own life is prohibited by law in this country. Apparently, the same is true of appropriating your own culture in Canada.
MRCTV notes that a student at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario was told he could not wear the costume he had picked out for Halloween because “culture is not a costume” and the costume he had chosen was “culturally offensive.” The costume was that of a mariachi musician and included a sombrero and serape. Hispanic apparel has been a recurring flash point this Halloween season.
@STABrampton Hey, will I be allowed to wear this? I’ll have a group of friends with me too, to be a whole mariachi pic.twitter.com/dQKqS98m9T
— IsmyCostume Racist (@IsMyCostumeRaci) October 23, 2015
The only problem with that ruling is that the student, Joshua Sewerynek, is Colombian. And in Colombia, mariachi is part of the culture. Sewerynek told MRCTV:
Although mariachi didn’t begin in Colombia, it has become a huge part of their culture. Every year my grandfather still hires a mariachi band to play for his birthday, because he had such fond memories of them when he was back in Bogota.
What this amounts to, then, is the school telling a student he cannot dress up in a costume associated with his own culture. Even after learning this, the administration refused to back down, telling Sewerynek to “feel free not to participate in the Halloween fun if you cant [sic] accept the rules.”
When another individual questioned the school’s decision, the school insisted, “This costume perpetuates that culture can be used as a costume, which is disrespectful and offensive.”…
Any questions?
