Halloween is a time for spooky decorations, tasty treats, and fun costumes with friends and family.  When choosing costumes, it's important to avoid cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation happens when someone adopts elements of a culture that isn't their own, especially from a marginalized group, without understanding or respecting its significance.  Dressing up as a racial or ethnic group turns someone's identity, traditions, and history into a costume.  While you can remove it at the end of the night, people from those communities live with the real impacts of stereotypes and discrimination every day.  Many culturally appropriative costumes rely on harmful stereotypes, such as “Native American”  , “Indigenous princess”, “Geisha”, and "Señorita" outfits.  Your options are endless, but cultures, races, and ethnic identities should never be used as costumes.  Avoid blackface, painting your skin to mimic another race, or wearing sacred clothing or symbols from a culture you don't belong to.  Adopting culturally significant hairstyles that do not belong to your culture, such as having dreadlocks, afros, or braids as part of your costume, is also cultural appropriation.  Costumes that involve strait jackets and other costumes that make a mockery of mental illness and being institutionalised can also be considered distressing and offensive.  Halloween is an exciting time of year, and being mindful while choosing your costume can make the experience equally fun for everyone.