Halloween is a time to wear spooky costumes, go trick or treating and get offended. One young man managed to offend people without even knowing that he was being offensive with his scary Halloween costume.
Ryan Lytwyn, dressed as a demon for an on-campus Halloween party at Edinburgh University. His costume featured a black outfit and he painted his face black to become a frightening demon. However, he was not allowed into the party because an administrator said Ryan ghoulish outfit was deemed racist.
“I had on black, white and red face paint — I was obviously a demon. One told me I wasn’t allowed unless I wiped it off,” Lytwyn told Heat Street.
“He said the manager sent him because the paint ‘could be construed’ as blackface,” the 22-year-old politics graduate said of the staff at Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA).
https://twitter.com/RyanLytwyn/status/792486693588860928
“I also pointed out that no one had complained, that I wasn’t impersonating a black person, and that other people were wearing black paint too. I was told the manager wasn’t interested,” Ryan said.
“Someone in the queue offered me tissues so I wiped it and they let me in.”
It appears he was going for a Grim Reaper look, and the Grim Reaper does in fact have a black face or no face.
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/615578805248266240/R_Isocp5.jpg
He did technically have black face paint on, but he also had white and red face paint around his eyes. By this logic, you could not dress up like Darth Maul because it could be deemed as offensive.
If you are an administrator at a college and can’t tell the difference between a harmless costume and an actually offensive person wearing blackface in an effort to denigrate African Americans than maybe you need a new job.
When I saw the costume all I saw was a demon Halloween costume. Race would have never entered my mind. Which makes you wonder, maybe the person who declares that this costume is racist is the one who is actually racist?