“But if she didn’t paint her skin you would call it whitewashing”
“These characters have no designated race they are fictional”
Stop with the double standards.
I’m so tired of seeing this ignorance.
I’m not even a cosplayer for this reason and I see this shit all the time. Black people get so much shit in the cosplaying community. I see my people get told to “go cosplay your own characters ‘so and so’ isn’t black” and then when we cosplay OBVIOUSLY black or darker skin characters (and have been confirmed black or other minorities) of other races to be more “accurate” and not get hate it’s always “this character isn’t black”. So no black characters exist ever in anime? No MIXED characters ever existed? Yeah okay. Idk if y’all are dense or really just hate black people and can’t fathom someone wanted to draw a black character lmao.
You can absolutely cosplay people of color without being insensitive and making it your own. I have seen so many black creators NOT paint their skin and cosplay characters and use their afros curls or box braids in the characters’ hair color and you still know who they are trying to cosplay. I have seen fair and olive skin people NOT paint their skin and cosplay black characters and NOT have an Afro or locs or braids and I still know who it is.
The OUTFIT is what is the identifiable aspect of any cosplay. You can still keep your physical appearance intact and absolutely cosplay a black character.
If black people are telling you this is wrong or makes us uncomfortable get off your fucking high horse and see it’s wrong. Educate yourself. Self tanning is one thing but painting yourself black is just weird especially in 2026.
“Umm she’s not black”
“Why would she be black”
“It doesn’t make sense for her to be black”
“Actually she’s [other ethnicity based on nothing]”
“She’s not even real so why would she have a race”
Black girls and black characters deserve better than constant discourse and dismissal
mind you I’ve had Japanese people online tell me I’m MORE racist for cosplaying a non black character than they are for blackfacing to cosplay dark skinned characters before 😭
@DarkVinePrince after that discourse where they absolutely fucked them, i feel more convos spark w/ french snd japanese ppl on here now. but yea they should do it again and its even funnier they had anime pfps while bullying them