# My Culture Is Not Your Costume 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. ## Origin 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, 2011[1]. 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 form[2]. 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 line[3]. The STARS campaign was the sincere catalyst in 2011, while the earliest known satirical meme post is dated October 31, 2014. - **Platform:** Tumblr (sincere origin) / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2013 ## 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 slogan[2]. Subjects include ghosts, vegetable mascots, trash cans and anatomical mock-ups, and the humor sits in the mismatch between sincere phrasing and absurd subject[3]. Sincere use of the catchphrase still appears every October, aimed at costumes based on Native American, Mexican, Asian and Black cultural identities[1]. 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' outfits[10]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### 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[3]. ### 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[1], and the exact catchphrase wording appeared in a November 2013 Tumblr essay by monishaholmes[2]. ### 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[4]. ### 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[8]. ### 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[10], and the catchphrase still resurfaces every October. ## References 1. [https://web.archive.org/web/20111023234851/http://saucy-sarah.tumblr.com/post/11738327654/im-glad-everyone-likes-our-poster-campaign]() 2. [https://www.tumblr.com/monishaholmes/67678341179/my-culture-is-not-your-costume]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-culture-is-not-your-costume]() 4. [https://twitter.com/pale_teen/status/528238615907012608]() 5. [https://twitter.com/WereABetterShan/status/659180279567929344]() 6. [https://web.archive.org/web/20161006075344/https://twitter.com/queenmahala/status/782765025286955008]() 7. [https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/my-culture-is-not-your-costume-halloween-ideas-that-every-american-can-enjoy/]() 8. [https://twitter.com/KevinBuffalo/status/993976882881355776]() 9. [https://twitter.com/freaky_walrus/status/1137270638618468353]() 10. [https://twitter.com/ripseraphim/status/1582493116308652032]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/my-culture-is-not-your-costume Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library