A student a St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Ontario, Canada was forbidden from dressing up as a mariachi for Halloween on the grounds that it could be offensive to Hispanic students — even though he’s Hispanic himself.
Ninth-grader Joshua Sewerynek told the Media Research Center’s MRCTV that, per the school’s instructions, he had tweeted asking permission for he and his friends to wear the costume.
(Yes, the school was allegedly actually demanding that students ask for approval to wear their costumes.)
“Sorry, that costume will not be approved as it is very offensive,” the school’s official account tweeted back. “Please let your friends know.”
Sewerynek tweeted back asking why, explaining that he’s “Colombian and everything but the guitar is from the country.”
“Although mariachi didn’t begin in Colombia, it has become a huge part of their culture,” Sewerynek told MRCTV. “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 Bogotá.”
#share#Makes sense, right?
Nope! Not to the school!
“The fact of the matter is, a culture is not a costume,” the school account responded. “While you may not find it offensive, others may.”
#related#When we reached the point where “cultural appropriation” concerns became so tyrannical that people are not even allowed to celebrate their own culture isn’t clear — and neither is how anyone could not realize how much more offensive that is than any costume.