Is wearing a native american costume in the carnival racism?

[angus]

What do you think?

I think that's more of a New Orleans thing.  They always have them, at some point after the second-line dancers in the Mardi Gras parades.  Also, in the first grade, we all dressed up as Algonquins to honor the Thanksgiving People.  I got to be Squanto.  Quite an honor, as I recall.  That was in 1973.

Don't know whether it's racist.  I suppose that it depends upon your definition of the term.  I think racism requires some sophistication.  Usually the things that are labelled racist lack that.  Dressing up more like the sort of innocent bigotry we see every day, which I generally assume is the result of insensitivity and ignorance, rather than the result of racism.  People got really upset about the blackface performers.  That brings wisdom.  After wisdom, one cannot claim ignorance.  A blackface European or European-American nowadays might be reasonably labelled a "racist" by a reasonable definition.  I know of no widespread publication of the sort of wisdom that might inhibit non-indigenous peoples from dressing up like them during parades or carnivals, so it's a little hard for me to legitimately label them racist in the same spirit.  If the moral fashion sets in that regard, then we might reassess, of course.  Just my opinion.

[angus]

If a person of African descent dressed up as a Viking, which is closest to my heritage, would that bother me? Hell no.

That's just no comparison. Africans didn't oppress Vikings.

Not during the Viking age of exploration, but their descendents were.  Barbary Corsairs in the 17th Century regularly raided as far north as Scandinavia.  Although obviously the bulk of their European slaves were Spanish, Portuguese, and British, there have been a number of documented Scandinavians. 

Still, I don't think that's really the best criterion for establishing racism.  If that's the case, then every Halloween costume ever sold is racist, because every witch, lion, ninja warrior, prisoner, mullet-wearer, waitress, robot, zombie, sailor, pokemon, grizzly bear, and cable guy could be said to represent some exploited individual.