Neither the costume's purported theme nor the promotion of Tweedy's book can excuse the idiocy of this professor's costume. The fact that the inappropriateness of the costume did not occur to this person when she/he was smearing black make-up on her/his face is incredible. First, this is 2016 and second, we have an overtly racist candidate running for president whose platform actively scapegoats non-white American citizens as the root of all of America's problems. 
This was a grotesque act and clearly a nod to this entire political spectacle of racist rot coming from the far-Right.