Well, Halloween is right around the corner and people are already vying for the Most Offensive Costume of the year. And I think it's safe to say that we already have our frontrunners: Sexy Ebola Nurse, ISIL terrorist (complete with doll to behead), Walmart's "Fat Girl Costumes" and the saddening yet completely unsurprising Ray and Janay Rice domestic abuse duo (with or without blackface). So, who's going to take home the gold?

Well obviously a blackface domestic abuse costume modeled after a real couple is hard to put in second place. While many are indeed shocked by the costume, I'm not going to pretend to be. Similar to rule 34 of the internet, if something exists, then there's an offensive costume of it somewhere.

READ MORE: Understand Janay Rice's Situation Before You Criticize Her

As many people know, Ray Rice is the former NFL player who was fired from the Baltimore Ravens after TMZ released a video on Sept. 8, of of Ray and his then-fiancée Janay in an elevator. Ray was caught on camera slugging Janay in the face so hard that he knocked her out. He then proceeded to drag her unconcious body out of the elevator into the parking structure. There was a wave of public outrage in the wake of the video release, although there was a not-so-small oppositional voice defending Ray and insinuating that Janay must have done something to deserve that kind of treatment, calling her a "b*tch" and a "gold-digger." I can only imagine how painful the video and public discourse around the Rice couple must have been for some survivors of domestic abuse let alone Janay Palmer Rice herself. But the severity of the event and the issue of domestic violence as a whole have been lost on those who've donned purple Ravens jerseys, do-rags, blackface and (for the Janay part) a black eye. One of the most notorious images has been one of a child dressed as Ray Rice dragging around a little Janay doll by its hair. He also has what looks like brown paint smeared over part of his face. While some people posted praising comments on the Instagram page, the word "offensive" was probably the first thing in most people's minds.

But it's time to dig beneath the surface level discussion on "offensive" costumes. We're so oversaturated that many people are rolling their eyes at the outrage of others. Everyone's too sensitive, too politically correct. It's just a joke. Lighten up. There are kids starving in Sudan. Why do you care about someone's stupid costume?

It's seems like there's a big confusion between someone being "offended" and someone being "indignant" or "righteous." The definition of "offensive" is: causing someone to feel deeply hurt, upset or angry. And I think many of us have lost touch with that. Costumes that make fun of domestic abuse are deeply hurtful. The issue isn't just about shocking others and being politically incorrect. It's about taking a visceral act of violence and turning it into a costume to be laughed at. It's estimated that 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are "physically assaulted by an intimate partner" every year in the United States. Treating domestic violence like it's a big joke dehumanizes millions of survivors and trivializes their suffering. When we laugh at something, we undermine its seriousness. When we treat certain costumes simply as self-expressive "fun," we choose to turn a blind eye to how they normalize and downplay abuse. After all, these costumes don't exist in vacuums. They exist in a world in which cause and effect is a very real thing. And I don't want to know what kinds of effects can come about from laughing at and applauding domestic abuse costumes.

.@TMZ it's sad, that my suffering amuses others

— Janay Rice (@JanayRice) October 22, 2014

And let's be clear, the Rice couple isn’t ignorant. They know people are preparing to parade around as them while prowling the streets for candy and socializing at Halloween parties this upcoming weekend. They know they're being laughed at. Janay has been particularly hurt by people dressing up as her and Ray and has let others know. I'm sure the people wearing those costumes didn't think about how Janay would feel seeing photos of white men (and children) in blackface dressed up like Ray and dragging around a doll or life-sized dummy (literal inanimate objects) meant to represent her. I'm sure they didn't think whether or not she would be hurt or feel cheapened. Janay as a human being wasn't part of the equation for people donning these abuse costumes, because we don't take domestic violence and its victims seriously. It doesn't matter that she still married Ray after he hit her. It doesn't matter what the public wanted to see happen. Her decision to stay neither erases nor excuses what Ray did to her. It doesn't erase her pain. It doesn't make her non-credible. Because she's a person caught in a complicated and critical situation. And for people to exploit that for the "fun" of the holiday, I think, is rather sick.

Offensive and negligent costumes aren't going away any time soon. A lot of people who wear offensive costumes are just trying to get a rise or laugh out of people and are completely ignorant of the effects of their actions. Costumes like the Janay/Ray getup are symptoms of deeper issues in the United States such as sexism, victim-blaming and lack of empathy. People should be aware enough to know what's crossing the line not in terms of "political correctness" but in terms of being a decent human being who's not trivializing other people's traumatic experiences. Instead of getting caught up in politics, let's keep the human element at the heart of the issue. And if you feel the need to dress up like Ray Rice, Sandusky or Michael Brown for Halloween, do yourself a favor and just go as a tool instead.