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Well, Halloween is coming up and I came across this in the news.

http://www.northwestohio.com/news/story.aspx?id=678980#.

I suppose drama isn't exclusive to the furry fandom.

Anyways, what do your think? Are we too sensitive to racial stereotypes, or are we taking stereotypes too lightly?

I think that's just being too touchy. I fail to see a problem with dressing up as something from a specific country or culture, as long as you don't take it overboard, and spout derogatory phrases or something.

Don't dress up like a Zombie because it's an offense to Zombie culture!  You might make them upset, and then they'll stage a protest and shamble around in large numbers. 

I feel that a certain small number of people in society take themselves way too seriously.  And these can be people from any racial, religious, cultural, economic, or sexual orientation background-- there are people with sticks permanently up their behinds from all backgrounds.  It is true that people of many different backgrounds have been targeted for horrible attacks and injustices in the past, and there is nothing wrong with trying to be sensitive to that.  However, at the same time, the people in these groups need to realize that not every single thing that is said or done is meant to be some sort of malicious attack or injustice being target towards them.

At the same time, people from these groups also have to be conscious of the realities of their people's histories-- I am constantly flabbergasted when I hear things brought up in the news about how Italian-American groups are speaking out against television shows like The Sapranos because they show Italians acting like gangsters, or from Arab-American communities that are upset because a terrorist-villain of a television show or movie was shown to be an Arabian Muslim, or even one of the examples given in the article that you linked to where people got upset about others dressing up in sombreros and ponchos because that is stereotypically Mexican, etc.  Well hey, guess what-- there were many Italians who actually were high-profile gangsters throughout American history, anyone who followed the news from about the 1970's onwards knows that there are a small group of Muslims that have performed high-profile terrorist acts, and sombreros and ponchos (or more technically a "serape") are part of the traditional dress of some regions of Mexico.  I am sorry if you don't like others remembering those aspects of your particular group's own past, but they are part of your history and they are part of the public's consciousness, so you can't be surprised if those images then end up in popular culture.  Those are just the breaks.

Halloween is often about dressing up as a caricature of someone else for the sake of fun.  Caricatures, by their very nature, exaggerate or distort the essence of what they are trying to portray in order to be easily recognizable to others.  Since sombreros and serapes are easily recognized to be of Mexican origin, if you want to dress up like Pancho Villa, a notorious figure from Mexican history, you are going to wear a sombrero and serape so that people know who you are trying to portray.

People need to learn how to take these kinds of small things in stride.  People need to focus on the big injustices of this world an not sweat the small stuff such as Halloween costumes that are meant for fun.  We all need to learn how to laugh at ourselves and not see everything as some kind of insult.  I think that society would be a much happier place if everyone was free to make fun of everyone else in good spirits equally.  Then we can all have a good laugh, pat each other on the back for the good jokes, and move on.  This whole idea of "political correctness" on steroids where everyone has to tip-toe on glass all of the time just in case they say or do something that may be found to be offensive to somebody somewhere just makes everything miserable to everyone, and causes unnecessary tension in our society.

Someone, somewhere, will be insulted by something. If I placed a bed sheet over my head, I'm sure a ghost will be insulted, accuse me of making them look like racists.

People need to take into consideration what is appropriate. People also need to grow some skin, regain some sense of humor. It is all about the intent.

We already have people makeing a fuss out of scary and gpry costumes, and now this. I'm personaly of the opinion that people are just weak, so over sensitive that it's a very negative in society. But SK puts it pretty good.

Honestly, I think they are being a bit too sensitive.  I find stereotypes like these funny solely because of the exaggeration...

Honestly, I think they are being a bit too sensitive.  I find stereotypes like these funny solely because of the exaggeration...

So long as they are so exaggerated as they usually are, in a way it could actually help by pointing out the stupidity of stereotypes.

A geisha costume, terrorist, Native American chief, gangster and pancho-wearing Mexican man

Now, I probably don't see any problem with people wearing any of the above costumes except for the terrorist and the gangster. Those two are just in bad taste so to speak.  The terrorist one especially so as that could be offensive to people.
If these students really wanted to go after offensive costumes, then should look at all the ones marketed for kids that are WAYYYYYY too sexy/sexist in nature. Girl's costumes that show too much cleavage or where the skirts are too high, etc. We don't need our kids dressing and looking like sex symbols. 

I don't see how a girl's choice to wear something that doesn't cover them up like a nun is "Sexist." They chose to wear it, it's their right. If they can't do that, then should we ban males from being allowed to take off their shirts or dress up as things like pirates, bodybuilders or even just wearing tailored suits which can have the same effect on ladies~ It's sexist to only stop the girls from dressing to attract others, so lets all wear potato sacks and cover our faces so that nobody may be lead astray by a pretty face?

Anyhow, stereotypes are generally there for a reason. People need to lighten up and learn to laugh at themselves. Fighting it just results in much the same debarcle that furry got itself into. And most people don't mean any harm by dressing up as certain national icons, the truly racist ones would probably avoid allowing themselves to be associated with them. I really don't understand the problem with most of the listed stereotype costumes anyway, especially the Geisha, who are beautiful and not really negative in any way, chieftains are respected, gangsters and mexicans are cool, okay the terrorist might rub some the wrong way in america, but it's all in good fun. Maybe things are different in Australia, we dress up as things that we generally think are cool, not in an attempt to slander anyone. Besides, the stereotypes are still there whether people dress up as them or not for one day of the year.

I see a few Pegasus/Unicorn hybrids every year.

_{If my fursuit frightens the kids away--more candy for me.}