KALYN’S CORNER

Over the past week, there has been a photo circulating on Twitter of an individual wearing blackface to a Halloween party.

What’s most upsetting about the photo is that I just wrote an article over insensitive Halloween costumes explaining why blackface is offensive, providing two examples of a student and a professor who thought it was appropriate to paint their face black for a costume. I can’t expect everyone in the world to read an article from a university newspaper or share it with their friends. But I thought it was common sense that we don’t paint over other people’s skin to make their costumes look authentic. But since it isn’t common sense, here are costumes that are appropriate in which you can paint your face.

A Tiger: The tiger is a beautiful animal that is orange and black. Feel free to paint stripes across your face to look like that beautiful beast. Make it scary by adding a bit of blood around the mouth, or even more adorable by purchasing a headband with tiger ears.

Blue Man Group: The Blue Man Group is the perfect costume if you want to paint your entire face a color just for a night. Grab a couple of friends and you can each be a member of the Blue Man Group.

Pop Art Comic Book Character: Do you love pop art comics? Painting your face with a bunch of small dots and defining your cheekbone, jaw lines and upper lip with a black outline is the perfect way to showcase your love for comic books!

Pennywise from “It”: Stephen King’s book “IT” has been remade into a movie and is the perfect Halloween costume for those who would like to be scary, paint their face a color and not wear someone else’s skin color as a costume. A bit of white, blue and red and you’re on your way to being the scariest clown at any Halloween party!

David Bowie: Arguably the easiest Halloween costume. The iconic red, black and blue lightning stripe across the right eye is a perfect tribute to the legend, and a great way to show off your artistic ability.

Obsessed with wanting to use the color black on your face? Not a problem! Going as a cheetah will allow your face to be covered in all sorts of beautiful black splotches. But if you don’t want to be alone, grab some friends and go as a few pups from “101 Dalmations.” It’s the best of both worlds: not wearing someone’s skin color as a costume and looking adorable all at the same time! Who would’ve thought that was possible?

The main point I’m trying to make here is to show everyone that we do not have to paint our skin to look authentically like Beyonce, Aunt Jemima or even Michael Jackson. Let your skin be the color that it is, especially if the person you want to be for Halloween is darker than you.