Scary-oke Community Guidelines

Thank you for attending Squeaky Wheel’s Scary-oke fundraiser!

Halloween is one of our favorite times of the year. It is a chance for us to come together and express ourselves by dressing up as a different character for one night. That is why it is important for us to ensure our party provides a safe outlet for creativity and self-expression of our community. Please review the following guidelines we’ve put together for Scary-oke!

Culture is not a costume

Squeaky Wheel asks attendees to be mindful of their Halloween costumes and refrain from appropriating cultures that are not your own. That involves dressing up in ways that may perpetuate harmful stereotypes and stigmas for marginalized identities. We ask attendees to eliminate the usage of culture as a simple commodity. Squeaky Wheel reserves the right to not admit any attendees who ignore this request. If you are unclear or want to know more, please check out this great video by Teen Vogue magazine, or contact us at office@squeaky.org. This is a learning process for all of us and we hope that sharing and implementing this policy will inspire important conversations!

Code of Conduct

Scary-oke! is a celebration of Halloween, music, and art. To ensure the party remains a positive and safe space for party-goers Squeaky Wheel expects all attendees to be respectful and considerate of others. Squeaky Wheel will remove anyone that we deem is enacting the following:

  • Oppressive behavior: any conduct that demeans, marginalizes, rejects, threatens or harms anyone on the basis of identity, background, or ability.

  • Harassment: deliberate intimidation; stalking; following; harassing photography or recording; disruption of events; aggressive, slanderous, derogatory, or threatening comments online or in person; and unwanted physical or sexual attention.

  • Destructive behavior: damaging or altering any part of the building, inside or out, including furniture and equipment; damaging, altering or using other people’s belongings, and other conduct which could reasonably make other attendees feel unsafe.

If you witness or are subject to unacceptable behavior, or experience marginalizing or silencing behavior that limits your full participation in this event, please talk to a representative of Squeaky Wheel, who you can identify by their fluorescent green lanyards.

Land Acknowledgement

Squeaky Wheel’s Scary-oke fundraiser takes place on Haudenosaunee land. We honor the sovereignty of the Six Nations and acknowledge that this land is protected by the “Dish With One Spoon” wampum covenant, a peace agreement made between Indigenous nations before the Europeans arrived. As a settler institution that occupies this land uninvited, Squeaky Wheel commits to continue to learn and implement ways to turn this acknowledgment into action.

 

Squeaky Wheel’s Scary-oke guidelines were adopted from the Dames Making Games Code of Conduct, Sugar City’s Code of Conducta guide prepared by the Housing and Educational Education office at the University at Denver, and  “We’re a Culture, Not a Costume” campaign, initiated by Students Teaching Against Racism in Society at Ohio University,” “Indigenous People of Western New York” fact sheet from Partnership for the Public Good, this video on “Understanding Land Acknowledgements” by York University, and local community members, among other sources.