10 racist Halloween costumes you should never wear

Of course, costume selection is crucial. Are you buying one at a store, or going the DIY route using what's already in your closet? Are you hitting a house party, or attending a warehouse jam? Are you coordinating with bae, or is this a last-ditch effort to snag a cuffing-season partner to prep for the next five months of winter and chill? (For inspiration, Beyoncé has already decided that she’s going as herself.)

Halloween is the most fun and freewheeling holiday of the year, but occasionally, some people take it too far by wearing costumes that perpetuate offensive and racist stereotypes.

In 2011, members of Ohio University’s Students Teaching About Racism in Society launched the “We’re a culture, not a costume” campaign to highlight the problem of reducing cultures to caricatures. Unlike Halloween-goers, people of color don't have the luxury of removing their ethnic identity (and the oppression that comes with it) after several hours.

You don’t have to be yourself on Halloween, but that doesn’t mean you get to be anybody.

To help you out, NTRSCTN has compiled the following list of racist costumes to avoid, so everyone can enjoy the holiday.

Two years ago, a Virginia mother made headlines for letting her 7-year-old son wear a Ku Klux Klan Halloween costume. But it's probably a good idea to steer clear of dressing up like a member of America's most notorious white-supremacist organization. Clearly, not a smart decision.

This costume may look like it's from another galaxy, but the green card and orange jumpsuit emblazoned with "illegal alien" are clearly meant to mock immigrants.

Referring to people as "illegals" is dehumanizing and racist language that promotes anti-immigrant sentiments. It's one of the reasons why social-justice organization Race Forward launched its "Drop the I-Word Campaign" in 2010, pressuring media outlets to stop using the term in their reporting.

Blackface originated from the minstrel shows of the early 19th century, when white actors would rub greasepaint, shoe polish, and burnt cork on their faces to perform racist caricatures of free and enslaved black people.

In 2013, Julianne Hough received backlash after she donned blackface for her costume as Crazy Eyes (played by Uzo Aduba) from Netflix's original TV series Orange is the New Black.

Two men came under fire in 2013 for dressing up as George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin—complete with blackface and a bloody hoodie—after a photo of their Halloween costumes circulated online.

Many criticized the men for trivializing Martin's death, including Grey's Anatomy actor Jesse Williams who sounded off via Twitter:

Zimmerman, 32, was charged with murder for fatally shooting Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, in 2012. However, a Florida jury acquitted him in 2013. The verdict sparked national outrage, and helped propel the #BlackLivesMatter protest movement.

There are better ways to pay tribute to India's prolific Hindi film industry than a "Bolly Ho" costume that is not only stereotypical, but also slut-shames the wearer by including a sexist term in its name. Check out this Indiewire article, which explores common misconceptions about Bollywood, so you can create a more informed homage.

Retailers are selling this tunic and headdress combo, which includes the option of buying a separate goatee beard, under the offensive label, "Arab costume" (as if an entire cultural and linguistic group can be reduced to one costume). What's more, it's a poor imitation of the thobe (or thawb), an ankle-length garment typically worn by men in the Arabian Peninsula.

Pro tip: If your costume is everyday clothing for people in another part of the world, definitely reconsider.

The “Tribal Tease” costume is a hyper-sexualized stereotype of Native American culture, and reduces the feathered headdress—considered a "badge of honor and power"—to a mere fashion accessory.

There are many different styles of Native headdresses, and no one style is used by every tribe. This Halloween costume's headdress (poorly) imitates the kind worn by Plains Natives.

It's fine to order takeout packaged in a Chinese food delivery box, but avoid wearing Halloween costumes that box Chinese women into a fetishistic role.

This particular costume plays into the cultural stereotype that women of East Asian descent are exotic, submissive, and hypersexual.

Watch award-winning poet Franny Choi describe a racist encounter in which a man hit on her by yelling, "I like pork fried rice":

Bonus: And then there's this terrible costume of a "Chinese gentleman"...

Before you think about dressing up like members of the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group for Halloween, remember Ahmed Mohamed. He's the 14-year-old Muslim student who was arrested after teachers mistook his homemade clock for a bomb.

Since the World Trade Center was attacked by Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda in 2001, the word "terrorist" has become synonymous with "Muslim," leading to roughly 100 to 150 anti-Muslim hate crimes each year—a rate five times higher than before Sept. 11, according to FBI statistics.

Once again, a nationality is not a costume.

Unfortunately, many retailers are selling serape and sombrero sets, and calling them "Mexican" costumes. This label is also stereotypical because the serape isn't indigenous to Mexico, and didn't actually become a part of the country's textile tradition until European colonization. What's more, sombreros have more to do with shading the wearer from the sun, than partying as the costume suggests.

In the United States, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have become targets of xenophobic violence. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump fanned anti-immigration flames after calling Mexican immigrants drug dealers, criminals, and rapists in his campaign launch speech. Citing Trump as an inspiration, two Boston brothers allegedly beat up a homeless man in August for being Hispanic. Police said one of the brothers told them, “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported."