Even Fido can be racist this season!

Okay. So we all got this email:

Dear Harvard, As we approach the Halloween weekend, Native Americans at Harvard College (NAHC) would like to urge Harvard University students, staff and faculty to think critically about their costume choice. While some look forward to the annual Halloween festivities many people brace themselves for the recurring parade of Harvard students in culturally insensitive costumes whether it be the quintessential Pocahontas or Indian Squaw or the hypersexualized Geisha just to name a few.

And for those of you who didn’t have the patience to read the entire thing, we sympathize… kinda. Except we read it in its entirety out of sincere love for you and because they made us feel really, really guilty. Here is a paragraph-by-paragraph summary of its content:

• Wearing costumes that culturally appropriate is RACIST. It’s like wearing blackface, you ass. Also, your hipster Minnetonka Moccasins are tacky.
• Traditional dress ≠ costume. Traditional dress = an outfit.
• Think of the children….the Native American children.
• You can’t count your crummy costume as “honoring” Native Americans, but you can do your part on Sunday, the first day of Native American Heritage Month, by schoolin’ your racist ass.
• A paragraph on the interwoven histories of Native Americans and their contributions to the United States and Harvard University that we so love.
• “If people take the time to learn about other cultures and to get to know the Native American students at Harvard perhaps they would realize that we are not a costume. We are Harvard. And we have been since 1655.” (Sorry, that’s sort of hard to gist.)

Now, we understand the message but a picture is worth a thousand words isn’t it? Here are several long emails worth of pictures plus some controversy, after the jump!

Already there’s been some buzz on the House Open lists about this, we should point to the particularly snarky retort by one Pfoho-ite. And while we should try to be kumbaya about it all, we can see how an interweb hissy fit could devolve into the sort of diatribe we see in YouTube comments on Sarah Palin videos… or any video for that matter.

But it’s hard to say what can be done about that. We hear at Noice wholeheartedly agree with the NAHC, but we should point out that Halloween costumes are almost always offensive. Whether its the impossibility of finding a women’s costume that isn’t of Tara Reid’s calibwhore, or a men’s costume that doesn’t offend or play into gender norms… what’s the conscientious Harvardian to do? Maybe just to take it all in stride as much as possible. Halloween is about fun and fantasy. If we get under each others skins or into each other’s skins for one night a year, maybe that will blow off the steam or the racial tension headaches that so overwhelm this crazy country. We need a chance to laugh and to go all out. But uh, still, just be careful if you’re picking any of these and recognize that you will get dirty looks or a swift punch in the nads if you don’t think twice:

Images courtesy Sociological Images and BuyCostumes.com