Kfetch

Huffington Post offers a selection of racist Halloween pet costumes. [via The Awl]

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ahoward17

I know that racism is a very serious issue and should not be taken lightly in all circumstances. However, if we don’t have laughter then what do we have? I think that sometimes we need to not take things so serious all the time and take time out to laugh. We should even make fun of ourselves more. So much of our society is based on image and what others think of us. We need to let loose sometimes because our lives are short on this earth and making the most of it is important. These costumes are all in fun. Lets take life a little less seriously and have fun!
voivoed

Dumb: yes, racist: no. Aren’t we getting a little too sensitive?
StRevAlex

Woof!
Adam Stanhope

Forgive me if I don’t share your outrage at these costumes…

There is no shortage of genuine racism alive and well in the US and around the world. These examples are underwhelming as examples of offensiveness.

We lefties need to choose our battles carefully lest we resemble the caricature painted of us by the right as intolerant alarmists without any sense of humor.

I don’t think there is anything in that collection that should bother any of us. We’re talking about Halloween costumes for animals, here, friends. There is nothing here to get worked up about.
mermaid

meh, not so racist.
Brainspore

So all dogs go to heaven because their concept of the afterlife does not include a provision for Hell?
Rob Beschizza

Er, who is outraged? Projecting, much?
- Spoon
  
  I don’t think his assumption that you would be outraged from what you called ‘racism’ above should really be considered ‘projecting’ instead of really calling for a bit of clarity… I’ll leave it to you to list at least five instances that are ‘racist’ but not ‘outrageous’ in an attempt to clear up how racist things are not necessarily outrageous… if you really think his assumption was completely wrong.
slideguy

I’m Jewish and think “Kfetch” is adorable.
MonkeyBoy

I saw those doggy costumes several years ago being produced by Jews for Jews to have their dogs look like them.

My question at that time was “What’s next. Doggy moyels?”
mdh

I’ll choose to fight the battle that keeps ‘racist’ and ‘bigoted’ both as separate words and concepts. These are racist, but they’re not terribly bigoted.
- Anonymous
  
  you have that backwards. ‘Jewish’ isn’t a race anymore than ‘Muslim’ is. If anyone was actually outraged by this, it would be over bigotry not racism.
StudioRobot

UGH! you people are frustrating!

you really need to read this article in the context of the rest of disgrasian.com

bleeding heart liberalism, this is NOT! it is a silly commentary on bleeding heart liberalism. their site is jilarious
pickleops

This is faux-hysterical noise polluting our society.
SimeonW

As a racist, I am outraged that there costumes do not go far enough!
Anonymous

Okay the Indian and Pimp costumes are questionable. But as a Jew I can tell ya that I know plenty of others who would think the one above is cute, and might even buy it.

Racist? Not so much, but definitely silly.

JamesPadraicR
- Derek C. F. Pegritz
  
  Prettymuch every one of my Jewish friends think the same. Their dogs are proud of their Jewish heritage, too!
Xeni Jardin

Well, the wiener dog outrages me. Look at those eyes. How can you not be furious at that doggie.
Xeni Jardin

I just showed Rob’s post to an older family member who is a dog owner. “This image is highly offensive to me because it degrades the dogs. Look at how seriously they are taking the costume. They don’t know it’s a joke, at their expense. This is an outrage alright, but it’s an outrage to our fellow dog-Americans.”
Talia

I don’t particularly buy those as racist.

The pimp one is particularly stretching it. What, the outfit is racist because the DOG is black in color? Riiight.
Ford MF

From your post title, I was expecting pictures of pets made up to look like Kevin Federline.
- Anonymous
  
  Embarrassed to admit I sort of thought the same, then realized it’s Kvetch! Gevalt, I should know better.
  
  JamesPadraicR
Xeni Jardin

Bark Mitzvah
- David Pescovitz
  
  Oh, Xeni. Does Virgin service the Borscht Belt?
Gloria

Come on, people. “Kfetch” wasn’t enough of a clue for you all? I don’t think “outrage” or “hysterical” count here.
- Spoon
  
  I don’t think ‘racist’ is a term that should be thrown around lightly… even if it’s just for a laugh, or ‘someone elses words’ when it goes without out any sort of comment for clarity… especially if the hidden ‘lol j/k’ is something like ‘Kfetch’… is that somehow humorous? does it have additional meaning? what’s the ‘everyone should know this’ meaning here that I should have gotten and would have somehow have shown this wasn’t an indictment of racism?… Honesty I feel bad here having thought ‘well that’s not very racist’ and then reading the comments here and posting something, then reading the article, and then thinking ‘yeah those costumes on humans could be maybe racist… even if they’re cute… how do I feel about this?! and why?’… and all I’m getting is “nah its cool, no outrage here!” from Rob… Does the huffingtonpost post have a legitimate point about these being racist? and if so why are they not outrageous?… honesty I’m conflicted here.
Anonymous

I think this is racism, and a very serious issue. this should not be taken lightly in all circumstances. “This image is highly offensive, and it degrading to Jewish people. I think who did this is ‘anti-semitic’.

Al Omran
Outtacontext

More important than the costume (or should I say the tallis and yarmulke) is that those puppies have been circumcised. I know a mohel who specializes in doggy circumcision.
Rob Beschizza

The quality of that satin is the real outrage. They want $29.99 for that?
Antinous / Moderator

Muzzle tov.
jtegnell

The only offensive thing I saw was calling the Chinese dog costume a “geisha”, thus showing that Huffington Post, like so many others, considers Asians to all be indistinguishable and interchangeable. And that’s not the costume manufacturer’s error, but the blog whining about it being racist.
failix

I don’t know about you guys, but I find the fact that all these costumes are caricatures of actual cultural customs and worn by dogs a little weird… and they are all about a typical subject of white conservative xenophobia (except for the jewish costume which I think doesn’t fit with the rest). And the illegal alien one?…
No really, I don’t find it funny at all. Sure, the dogs are cute, but if you think about it, this is very similar to a blackface kind of costume, without paint… on dogs…
Anonymous

really? i can’t speak for everybody, but I’m jewish and I smiled and thought this pic was kind of cute.
and I’m pretty sure that if i showed this to my very conservative father (who likes to shout ‘anti-semitic’ at pretty much anything), he would laugh too.
Gloria

Ok, so if not racist … how about “racial stereotype”? Oh wait.
Ferry

Did anyone else notice the Jewish dogs were both German breeds?
tboy

For those who aren’t outraged, consider the following:

If you’re a woman, you get angry when rappers call other women “bitch”.

And that Mexican dog outfit… what, are you trying to say that Mexicans are dogs? Of course not, you’re blind to race.

Post-racial, huh? Really?
Lady Katey

Shame on you, Boing Boing. I really wanted nothing else than to be majorly offended and angered this late on a Friday evening, and this post was VERY disappointing. It’s almost funny, even.

I don’t come to this site to be amused. I come to be offended. Tsk, tsk.
Rob Beschizza

Well, it’s huffpo offering it as racist. I thought that claim to be a bit reaching, but haven’t thought it through. Mostly, I just found the pic was a delightful absurdity. To be honest, Israeli not that important.
- Spoon
  
  I can get why I wasn’t outraged initially and why I’m (sadly?) only conflicted now… I can totally see it being ok 20 years ago to dress kids up this way… but as Diana Nguyen and Jen Wang point out that would make us feel weird today… so why is it cool on pets? is it going to stop being okay on pets in 20 years? Should I save the outrage I’m finding myself suddenly conflicted on for another 20 years? or should I be more comfortable with the ‘yeah thinking about that… that’s wrong… people shouldn’t do that…’ outrage that’s slowly bubbling up?
  
  I’m thinking since I wasn’t initially put off by them I’m going to save it until next Halloween to find it terribly distasteful, and then the year after that worth commenting on the underlying racism and theoretical outrageousness…… now I’m disheartened that I’m so willing to allow race issues to progress so slowly… that’s life I suppose, good thing I’m a white male.
- Spoon
  
  Just to be clear, I completely agree with Adam in that “There is no shortage of genuine racism alive and well in the US and around the world.” and “We lefties need to choose our battles carefully lest we resemble the caricature painted of us by the right as intolerant alarmists without any sense of humor.”
  
  It’s just that I’m drunk and alone on a Friday night listining to pink floyd and finding it harder to argue internally in the same conservative tone I did in college…
StudioRobot

lolz

i’d suggest reading disgrasian.com before taking Jen too seriously!

such an endearing little blog they have…very tongue in cheek!
Anonymous

yom kibble
Jayel Aheram

Even if children wear these, how is it racist?

Is it so wrong nowadays to dress up as people from other cultures? I used to dress up as a cowboy (the American kind) as a kid. In the Philippines.

Even to this day, it would be a stretch to claim that it is somehow bigoted or racist against Americans, stereotypes notwithstanding!
muaythai

HuffPo is getting a little drudgey.
Anonymous

what if the geisha costume was Mulan and the Indian costume was Pocahontas? (cant think of one for the ‘spanish’ dog as the whole costume is a bizarre stereotype and i don’t know any characters besides that cartoon mouse). would they be racist then? and the tricked out pimp has become, for lack of a better term, a cultural icon. and as a jew, i could name tens of other jews who would find that hilarious.

i think the offensiveness is in the descriptions, not the costumes. and if my dog didn’t mind clothing, i would SO jew her up.
Daemon

I’m offended by all pet costumes equally.
rationalist

1) Huffington Post isn’t “offering” these costumes, the article is critical of them. They are pointing out what they call “racist dog costumes” offered elsewhere.

2) @jtegnell, it isn’t the Huffington Post that called it a “Geisha” costume – it was the Huffington Post pointing out the ignorance of the seller’s description of this “Geisha Dog Costume” as being a “Chinese themed dog dress”. Didn’t actually read the article, did you?

3) Rob Beschizza, HuffPo isn’t “offering it”, they are criticizing it as racist.

Doesn’t anyone actually read the articles they comment on any more? Not even the people who write about them on the front page here?

I’m no fan of HuffPo and their cultivation of anti-vaccine anti-science cranks and wackos, but it doesn’t make sense to criticize them for criticizing the things you are criticizing.
- Rob Beschizza
  
  Rationalist, are you being deliberately silly? I can’t imagine how you would walk away from my post thinking that the thing being offered by HuffPo is the actual costumes, rather than its criticism of them.
misterjuju

These are racially-themed, not racist.
mgfarrelly

In the Catholic Church the Feast of St. Francis is celebrated with a blessing of the animals. It’s kind of a kids thing, lining up with their hamster cages and dogs to a blessing from the parish priest. Growing up, our Pastor would regularly purchase several costume priest collars and put them on some of the cats and dogs and refer to them as “Domesticated Deacons”.

There are a good number of religious folks who don’t take themselves all that seriously. Thank God.
Cefeida

Pfffft if these are racist, how about those comments in the Sikh turban post?

I get the same feeling as Jayel Aheram up there. What’s wrong with letting kids dress up as other cultures? Without context given by the person dressing up, none of these costumes really seem to propagate bad stereotypes (and I refuse to acknowledge Illegal Aliens and Pimps as a race, sorry :P) They’re just not very accurate, but sheesh, they’re dress-up.
coaxial

Hell, that looks like something you’d buy from Your Source for Everything Jewish [and Mahjong Related]. Why am I supposed to be upset again?