What is My Culture Is Not Your Costume?

It is a Twitter catchphrase, also written 'My Culture Is Not A Costume,' that began as sincere criticism of racist Halloween costumes and became a satirical caption format for absurd non-cultures.

Where did My Culture Is Not Your Costume come from?

The sincere slogan came from Ohio University's STARS 'We're a Culture, Not a Costume' poster campaign in October 2011, and the exact catchphrase wording appeared in a November 2013 Tumblr essay by monishaholmes.

What does My Culture Is Not Your Costume mean?

In sincere use it means ethnic and cultural identities should not be worn as Halloween costumes. In satirical use it applies the same wording to things with no culture at all, like ghosts, vegetable mascots or trash cans.

How do you use My Culture Is Not Your Costume?

People typically caption a photo of something that is clearly not a cultural identity with the phrase in the earnest tone of the original awareness slogan, as @KevinBuffalo did with vegetable mascots in May 2018.

Is My Culture Is Not Your Costume still popular?

Usage peaked around Halloween 2022, when @ripseraphim's fake 'Polyamorous Mixologist' costume tweet drew around 128,300 likes in two days, and the catchphrase still resurfaces every October.

My Culture Is Not Your Costume

2013catchphrasesemi-active

Published October 27, 2026

My Culture Is Not Your Costume is a Twitter catchphrase that started as sincere pushback against racist Halloween costumes and then flipped into a running joke, with users captioning photos of things that are not cultures. The sincere version traces to a 2011 Ohio University poster campaign and a 2013 Tumblr essay, and satirical riffs took hold on Twitter beginning in 2014. By October 2022, a tweet applying the line to a fake 'Polyamorous Mixologist' Halloween costume drew roughly 128,300 likes.

catchphrase memes halloween memes snowclone memes race and identity memes ironic memes

Overview

Satirical posts follow a simple template: a photo of something clearly not a culture, captioned 'my culture is not a costume' or 'my culture is not your costume' in the earnest tone of the original awareness slogan2. Subjects include ghosts, vegetable mascots, trash cans and anatomical mock-ups, and the humor sits in the mismatch between sincere phrasing and absurd subject3.

Sincere use of the catchphrase still appears every October, aimed at costumes based on Native American, Mexican, Asian and Black cultural identities1. The two modes coexist on Twitter during Halloween week, with sincere infographics circulating alongside joke captions applied to anything from cartoon ghosts to fictional 'Polyamorous Mixologist' outfits10.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Tumblr (sincere origin) / Twitter (viral spread)

Date

2013

Ohio University's Students Teaching About Racism in Society (STARS) launched a poster campaign in late October 2011 titled 'We're a Culture, Not a Costume,' and the group's president posted the posters to Tumblr on October 21, 20111. The slogan laid the groundwork for the later catchphrase variant. On November 21, 2013, Tumblr user monishaholmes posted an excerpt from a class paper titled 'My Culture Is Not Your Costume,' which gave the exact wording of the catchphrase its first documented form2.

Satirical use arrived next. On October 31, 2014, Twitter user @pale_teen tweeted 'I am a ghost year round my culture is not your costume,' which is the first known joke iteration of the line3. The STARS campaign was the sincere catalyst in 2011, while the earliest known satirical meme post is dated October 31, 2014.

How It Spread

@WereABetterShan posted a photo of a little girl in a trash-can costume on October 27, 2015, captioned 'Remember everyone my culture is not your costume please be respectful when dressing for Halloween this year,' earning around 30 likes5. Virality arrived on October 2, 2016, when @queenmahala tweeted a 'Culture Not Costume' infographic with the message 'Halloween is coming up, so everyone please remember that my culture isn't a costume,' which drew roughly 4,600 likes and 5,000 retweets within four days6. Culture Trip then ran an article headlined 'My Culture Is Not Your Costume' off the back of that momentum7.

Satirical posts spiked after the queenmahala tweet. On November 1, 2016, Twitter user @anthoniexg posted a video of himself in white face paint with the caption 'My culture is not a costume,' which gathered roughly 127,700 likes over six years. Later entries kept the joke running: @KevinBuffalo captioned a photo of vegetable mascots with the phrase on May 8, 2018, drawing about 1,400 likes8, and @freaky_walrus did the same with a screenshot of a fake foreskin on June 8, 2019, earning around 3,100 likes9.

Late October 2022 is where engagement peaked. On October 18, 2022, @ripseraphim tweeted a likely photoshopped Halloween costume labeled 'Polyamorous Mixologist' with the caption, drawing roughly 128,300 likes in two days10. That tweet is the highest-engagement example in the KYM record.

Timeline

2011-10-21

The STARS student group at Ohio University posts its 'We're a Culture, Not a Costume' Halloween posters to Tumblr.

2013-11-21

Tumblr user monishaholmes posts a class paper excerpt titled 'My Culture Is Not Your Costume,' documenting the exact phrasing for the first time.

2014-10-31

@pale_teen posts 'I am a ghost year round my culture is not your costume,' the earliest known satirical use.

2015-10-27

@WereABetterShan applies the phrase to a photo of a girl in a trash-can costume.

2018-05-08

@KevinBuffalo captions vegetable mascots with the catchphrase, drawing around 1,400 likes.

2019-06-08

@freaky_walrus posts a fake foreskin screenshot with the phrase, earning about 3,100 likes.

2022-10-18

@ripseraphim's fake 'Polyamorous Mixologist' Halloween costume tweet draws roughly 128,300 likes in two days, the format's engagement peak.

My Culture Is Not Your Costume

Overview

Gallery

Origin & Background

How It Spread

Frequently Asked Questions

References (10)