Just make fun of white men, can’t go wrong.

Via Campus Reform:

Now that Columbus Day is over, Wesleyan University is turning its attention toward the next controversial date on the calendar: Halloween.

Wesleyan’s Office of Student Affairs has placed posters throughout campus, an example of which was obtained by Inside Higher Ed, featuring a “Halloween Checklist” to help students determine whether their costume ideas might be offensive.

“Is your costume offensive?” the poster asks. “Check yourself and your friends.”

There follows a list of several general questions that students are encouraged to ask themselves before settling on a costume, such as whether it “[mocks] cultural or religious symbols such as dreadlocks, headdresses, afros, bindis, etc.” Another red flag, according to the flyer, are costumes that “attempt to represent an entire culture or ethnicity.”

Racial insensitivity is not the only concern, though, as the poster also asks students to consider whether their costumes “trivialize human suffering, oppression, and marginalization such as portraying a person who is homeless, imprisoned, a person with disabilities, or a person with mental illness.”

An employee at the Office of Residential Life informed Campus Reform that the poster was spearheaded by the Student Activities and Leadership Development office, but calls to that department had not been returned by press time.

Insights into the motivation behind the poster can, however, be gleaned from a small disclaimer stating that “this poster was inspired by the work of Hampshire College’s Community Advocacy Department.”

Hampshire’s version of the poster, while similar to Wesleyan’s, places a greater emphasis on racial and cultural sensitivities without specifically mentioning any other groups that might be subject to offense, and also offers students a sort of broad-based litmus test for evaluating their costume choices.

“Would I be embarrassed or ashamed if someone from the group I’m portraying saw me wearing this?” Hampshire’s poster prompts students to ask themselves. The checklist that follows, presumably intended for those who struggle to answer that question definitively, proceeds to warn against costumes that “perpetuate stereotypes, misinformation, or historical and cultural inaccuracies,” as well as those with packaging that features words like “traditional,” “ethnic,” “colonial,” “cultural,” “authentic,” or “tribal.”