Right before Halloween, Baylor University sent out a campus-wide email entitled “My Culture Is Not a Costume.”
In the email, students are instructed to “be thoughtful and appropriate in choosing your costumes.” Further, the email says “’My Culture Is Not a Costume’ is intended to raise student awareness about how the costumes they choose might negatively impact members of our community who identify with various cultures.”
The email then provides a link to a page with further detail, including “5 Questions to Consider,” such as “How Is the Group that the Practice or Artifact Belongs to Oppressed?” and a link to an article titled “5 Simple Questions That’ll Help You Avoid Unintentional Cultural Appropriation,” from Everyday Feminism, a left-wing website dedicated to promoting intersectional feminism. This website also provides social justice training, such as “Healing from Internalized Whiteness,” and strongly advocates for abortion.
The website includes an article titled “5 Problems with ‘Keep Abortion Rare.’” As one of the supposed “5 Problems,” the author says “Abortion Isn’t a Bad Thing…when people say ‘keep abortion rare,’ they’re promoting a narrative that says abortion is inherently a bad thing…But abortion isn’t something bad, and it isn’t something to be ashamed of. It can actually be a positive experience.” The author further asks the question, “Who Cares What the Number Is, Anyway?” in reference to the number of abortions performed annually.
The “Halloween guidelines” on Baylor’s website then gives several examples of what students should refrain from wearing, saying, “The images below name cultural appropriation for what it is. It’s not a shock and awe tactic, but an opportunity to grow in our intercultural competence and move our community towards one that embodies cultural humility.” Students are instructed against wearing dreadlocks, gold jewelry, and sombreros, among other things.
It seems as though Baylor, in its quest to promote social justice and defend college students from the horrors of Halloween, has abandoned its supposed Christian mission and fully embraced left-wing radicals who believe things like abortion is not only permissible, but moral.
