Three years after the controversial “blackface” Halloween incident, stereotypical costumes exaggerating identifiable cultures — ill-meaning or not — are still an eyesore during Halloween.
In a 2009 Halloween party held by student councils from three University of Toronto colleges, five students won “costume of the night” for dressing up as members of the Jamaican Bobsled Team, with four of them darkening their faces and one wearing white makeup.

“Having dealt with students and club executives, every Halloween we see stereotypical costumes like [the blackface costumes],” said Shaun Shepherd, Vice-President External of the University of Toronto Student Union (UTSU). “I think we are seeing about the same, if not more.”

Demeaning costumes can also be spotted during frosh and at dress-up parties on- and off-campus hosted by students year-round, Shepherd added, citing the example of students dressed in First Nations costumes during frosh week earlier this year.

Shepherd, who was a former executive of the Black Students Association (BSA), helped organize a town hall meeting with UTSU’s support shortly after the blackface incident. Over 300 people attended.

In response to the issue, the University sent a letter to BSA’s president, posted on the U of T Equity website.

The approach was described as “piecemeal” and “a serious failure of public leadership” in a petition drafted by four faculty members and two student leaders who demanded a full public apology. Women’s and gender studies professor Alissa Trotz was one of them.

“[U of T] has in fact made some serious blunders and missteps in relation to how it dealt with the incident,” said Trotz.

She said U of T could learn from HEC Montreal, an independently-operated business school affiliated with the University of Montreal that faced a similar equity crisis in September when more than two dozens of students painted themselves black and chanted in Jamaican accent at a sporting event to acknowledge Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

HEC officials issued a formal apology a week later, calling the incident “unacceptable” and “highly regrettable,” and offering students a training program on intercultural sensitivity.
Trotz said U of T needs both educational and institutional initiatives to ensure that in the future, it “will not be caught in a situation [similar to the one it] found itself in three years ago where it was scrambling to catch up.”

“What I think is important is we ask ourselves three years later, what have we learnt from the blackface incident … to ensure as much as possible that at a tertiary institution that describes itself as a leading university in Canada, that kind of ignorance doesn’t happen again,” said Trotz.
The Office of the Vice-President, Human Resources and Equity did not follow up with The Varsity’s requests for comment.