“Rumor has it that Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.”

Props to Tina Fey for nailing a very true depiction about the one holiday a year that promotes an epidemic of promiscuous attire around the world.

Unfortunately, she forgot to mention the fact that Halloween has also morphed into a racial roast for all the ignorant, ballsy human beings that feel like carrying around a gun and a turban will get them a few extra high fives by the end of the night. That goes for you, young racist grasshopper on my floor that has yet to learn that you are offending 3.5 million Arab Americans, and millions more that quite possibly have never touched a gun in their life.

This progressively inappropriate annual trend makes Halloween a holiday no longer about originality and creativity, but who can disregard a person’s heritage in the quickest and cheapest way possible. I am not saying that every participant of Halloween succumbs to this lack of insight, but the chance to be culturally insensitive is handed to consumers on every corner of a costume store. I do not remember a Halloween where a sombrero, kimono, or sumo suit was within a ten-yard vicinity of my face. Racial humor has officially become just humor, and thousands of Halloween stores across the country take advantage of this unfortunate truth to make a pretty penny.

It seems that the line has been crossed year after year, and will continue to be crossed, stretched, and disfigured, especially after news reports claim that there have been Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman costumes flaunted by a Florida couple so far during Halloweek. I had no idea that a racial upset was now being perceived as pop culture.

For all you brave souls that claim, “I am not a racist,” there comes a time where actions speak louder than words. Being racist does not require being an active member of the Ku Klux Klan. It entails the act of degrading a group less powerful than in your own society. The motive behind every costume wearer is different and usually innocent, but let us not forget that these are cultures, just like our own, but with distinct traditions and practices. I would hate to see someone foreign to our country put on a fat suit and McDonald’s T-shirt and called themselves “American.” Let’s keep the offensive to a minimal and start getting clever again.

_— Morgan Lieberman, mjlnrd@mail.missouri.edu_