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With Halloween coming up, BSG assembly warns against cultural appropriation

October 19, 2018

Wednesday night’s BSG meeting focused on the recent bias incident report released by President Clayton Rose and included a discussion on cultural appropriation centered around Halloween costumes.

In discussing the Bias Incident Group’s report on the swastika found in the Hubbard Hall stacks, Senior Class President Henry Bredar explained his frustration with the lack of closure after such incidents are reported.

“I feel like in the past we get these emails about bias incidents occurring, and then we hear nothing about the fallout, whether they know who did it, what the punishment was, what we’re doing to ensure it isn’t happening again,” said Bredar.

The Assembly then discussed cultural appropriation reflected in offensive Halloween costumes and themed parties. BSG President Mohamed Nur ’19 reminded the Assembly of the role that previous BSG members had in incidents of cultural appropriation. In the spring of 2016, two BSG members faced impeachment articles after participating in what became known as the “tequila” party, although the articles were ultimately dropped.

“I want to adamantly declare, no one on this Assembly should culturally appropriate,” said Nur.

The discussion then turned to the role of Entertainment Hosts (E-Hosts) in confronting individuals with offensive costumes and questions about whether those individuals should be admitted into College Houses. Tessa DeFranco ’21, one of the programming chairs for MacMillan House, explained that her house had discussed how to prepare for such situations.

“We’re going to talk to our E-Hosts beforehand about how to handle a situation like that,” DeFranco said.

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