Imagine my surprise when I discovered that although I graduated last December, I made the Exponent in the recent article “Thoughtless Halloween Costumes Can Be Hurtful.”

I’d like you to hear both sides of the story. This was my first college Halloween experience because, for the past several years, I’ve been on duty for the military on that holiday. This Halloween I dressed up proudly in a Border Patrol look-alike uniform. I felt it was the perfect outfit for me because I had just accepted a job offer as a U.S. Border Protection hiring official for the Department of Homeland Security upon graduation.

My boyfriend and I wanted to dress up as a couple, and it seemed the “Mexican” costume was the closest match in the costume shop. We spent two hours on Halloween enjoying the many unique and creative costumes that surrounded us. We never acted out stereotypes, verbalized slanderous remarks or anything else that resembles acts of inhumanity: We simply wore two matching costumes. If dressing up, hanging out with close friends (two of whom were Mexican-American) and acting in love are acts of cultural inhumanity and are hurtful to others, then maybe Halloween should be banned from our American culture altogether. Does dressing as a ghost or goblin mock our beloved deceased? Perhaps witches should be banned from Halloween because they remind us of the persecution of innocent women during the Salem witch trials?

The Inter Tribal Council Executive Committee said, “All Mexican people are not lined up at our borders constantly attempting to steal across into the United States to undermine our economy and steal jobs from our children.” I work for Border Patrol hiring Mexican Americans to protect our nation’s borders every day. I am insulted and disgusted that this statement of accusation came from such an organization, one whose purpose should be abolishing stereotypes and promoting peace among different cultures, not insinuating that everyone else is “inadequately educated.”

The purpose of this article is not to cut down this organization, it is to restore my own integrity as one who feels strongly about equal opportunity in the workforce and speaking the truth as a wised-up recent grad: That things aren’t always as they seem.

Jill Thalacker
jill_thalacker@hotmail.com