Despite increased racial and cultural sensitivity among college students, cultural appropriation still plagues campuses when Halloween approaches.

Although many people justify racist costumes by insisting that it is all in good fun and that they do not mean any harm, wearing a race or culture as a costume can have severe consequences by helping to perpetuate harmful and sometimes inaccurate stereotypes.

Many fraternities and sororities often come under fire and controversy for group costumes that consist of a racist element, most commonly blackface. For example, this year UCLA’s Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and Alpha Phi sorority held a “Kanye Western” party where members wore baggy clothes and smeared charcoal on their faces.

College students are not the only perpetrators of racist costumes. A teacher in Georgia almost was fired for dressing as Kanye West and painting his skin completely brown.

Celebrites are often perpetrators of offensive costumes as well, and often receive a lot of media coverage and attention during the holiday. This past Halloween, Kylie Jenner wore an Eskimo costume and Nicky Hilton went in stereotypical Native American garb.

Despite receiving constant exposure to lessons about cultural sensitivity, college students still appear in culturally offensive costumes every year. There have been several awareness campaigns to prevent these kinds of Halloween outfits.

One such campaign from Ohio University shows students of different backgrounds holding up pictures of white people wearing mass-produced costumes that supposedly represent their culture: an Asian student shows a woman in a geisha costume, a Latino student shows a man in a sombrero riding a donkey and a Muslim student shows a picture of a man wearing a headscarf with bombs strapped to his chest. Under these images are the phrases “We’re a culture, not a costume” and “You wear the costume for one night. I wear the stigma for life.”

These well-intentioned campaigns help to encourage tolerance and cultural sensitivity to more and more students every year.

But still, some slip through the cracks. The costumes worn by some students are outright offensive and harmful to different races and cultures.

As people continue to dress up as Muslim men, complete with pretend bombs, Islamaphobia becomes more accepted and entrenched in our society. When college students wear blackface, baggy clothes and chains, they diminish black students into a tired trope.

Costumes may seem harmless because they are worn once a year on Halloween. But they have consequences that can affect society’s perception of different cultural groups.

We are students in New York City, one of the most diverse cities in the entire world. We can pay homage to cultures that are not our own by visiting restaurants and stores that sell authentic goods from their country of origin. We can watch films and shows from other countries and see works of art that reflect the values of other cultures.

There are clear ways to appreciate other cultures that do not involve appropriation. Hopefully next Halloween, there will be fewer instances of stereotyped costumes and blackface.