Residence Halls at Florida State University recently hung posters reminding students what is culturally appropriate to wear when dressing up for Halloween. The school defended the hall’s efforts explaining that they are not telling students what to wear on Halloween, but recognizing the diversity among students on campus.

“This is part of a larger education effort by our housing office,” said Mary Coburn, vice president of student affairs at Florida State University. “We have a campus-wide diversity and inclusion program. This was the housing office’s effort to make this more concrete for students; to give examples of what stereotyping looks like.”

An article from the Tallahassee Democrat featured one of the posters which stated, “Florida State University is reminding students in one residence hall to avoid wearing Harambe costumes this Halloween in order to avoid cultural appropriation.

After the gorilla was killed because a 4-year-old boy fell into its habitat at the Cincinnati Zoo, people took to love and appreciate the situation in a humorous way. Shirts have been made, songs have been sung and even professional athletes are paying homage to him by wearing Harambe-inspired cleats.

The gorilla is sure to be a big hit among college students all across the country this Halloween and what better way to remember his legacy than to dress up as him? Students at Florida State misinterpreted the posters that were displayed in their residence halls. The school was simply reminding everyone to not take their costumes too far.

Whether people like it or not, someone will be offended because of someone else’s costume. It is inevitable. The best way to deal with an offensive costume, is to simply ignore the person wearing it. If people make a big deal out of a costume it just gives that person more power than they deserve, especially if the costume was done last minute and looks terrible.

There is also a line that should not be crossed when choosing your Halloween costume. Dressing up as someone who is Native American by putting feathers in your hair and trying your best to do a war chant might be discriminatory. Although this is going to upset some people, it is not as bad as dressing up as Nazi solider or throwing on a Stanford t-shirt and writing Turner on the back.

Wearing costumes will always be a part of Halloween and people are just going to have to deal with that. If we start monitoring what people can wear it will only back fire on the colleges trying to suppress the students. The worst thing someone can do is tell a 19-year-old college student what they cannot do. Most likely they will find a loophole or just come back stronger and more offensive to prove a point.

There are also so many costume ideas people can think of. If we limit what people can wear, we will end with every girl dressing up as a Disney princess and guys being a superhero, no one wants that. The best part of Halloween costumes is the creativity some people can come up with, who does not like going out and seeing a costume that just amazes you.