Cosplaying as a Person of Color and Racism Issues

New York Comic Con 2012 was my second year attending that con, and the first time attending a con feeling like a real cosplayer, after making my first cosplay that summer a few cons back. I was having a blast at the con, and a lot of pictures taken of me. However getting home after the con, and posting about my cosplays on my fanpage, I was the victim of my first racial cosplay bashing. At the this point in time, I was still new to running a fanpage as well as cosplay, and had never dealt with race and skin color comments towards my cosplay. This group of friends found out my skin color and then began to bash and barrage me daily with insults, calling me a bad cosplayer because of my skin color. I have received nothing that positive feedback for my cosplays. So this was the first time I was hearing negative comments. I almost gave up cosplay because of it, but after dealing with the issue, I kept on doing what I loved.

However, over the course of this year I have noticed the same issues pop up in the larger cosplay community. Apparently to a select few critics, no matter how accurate the cosplay is, no matter the hard work put into a cosplay, or how perfect the representation of the character, if the skin color is not the same, it’s a bad cosplay.

What shocked me most is that a lot of this bashing has come from pages devoted to cosplay. I never really thought much of it after my experience, but after reading several different stories from fellow cosplayers of color I think it’s necessary to be one of the few to speak out on cosplay racism.

For those who don’t know racism, it is prejudice, or discrimination directed against someone of a different race based on a belief of superiority. It is something that we all at some point of our life will deal with, and has been in this country’s history for hundreds of years dating back to the time of slavery (and even before, for Native American people.) These people, with great passion, truly hate people of different ethnic groups, and backgrounds. Saddening yes, but this has been an issue in our society for a long period of time.

To see  this attitude in the cosplay community is heartbreaking. I’m not saying it is only in this community, it is in every community. And in some communities it is much worse. It can break out into altercations, and in extreme cases assault, and murder. In the cosplay community, no matter how accurate the cosplay is, the attention to detail, or the labor that cosplayer put into their craft, some people will trash the entire thing because of their skin color.

It’s not fair to bash a cosplayer because of their skin color. And then if somebody uses makeup to fit the skin color of their character,  it is also considered racist. So what do you do? In my opinion, just do whatever character you feel like doing. If it doesn’t match your skin color, who cares? One of the main purposes of cosplay is to show your love for a character. So do it regardless of your skin color. I’m speaking to dark skinned, light skinned, and white skinnedpeople. Cosplay the characters you love. If you wanna turn yourself blue, green, or polka dots for a cosplay, go for it.

I have noticed that because of this racial bashing, people who are new to cosplay or want to get into the cosplay community, don’t try it because they fear this happening to them. I’m here to tell you that yes, you may experience this racial cosplay bashing. But please don’t let that stop you from cosplaying, or getting into this community.

You have amazing cosplayers of color such as Jay Justice Cosplay, Tony R Ray, Brian Gregory, Maki Roll, Macdaniel Macleod, Polychrome Dreams, Larry Smith, Jazzmin Jolly, and even Chocolate Covered Cosplay. They cosplay who they want, and are some really awesome cosplayers in this community, and I’m sure at some point in time they were victim to this racial bashing as well. Also there are Facebook pages, Tumblr blogs such as Best Black Cosplay and Cosplaying While Black, that are devoted to showcasing some amazing cosplayers of color. One of my favorite cosplayers, and somebody I look up to, Eric “The Smoke” Moran probably said it best “Cosplay Is Colorblind”. So take that into consideration, and don’t be afraid to cosplay who you want, and get involved in this community.

I learned from my experience: yes, this happened to me, and I was devastated by it. But after it was all said and done, it motivated me to get better and better with each passing con. It motivated me to make more and better cosplays, attend more cons, and showcase my work to this community. It made me a stronger cosplayer, and gave me that drive to become better. So don’t be afraid to cosplay, or get into this community fearing your skin color will limit what you can, and can’t do. After all, cosplay is for everyone.

Photos in this article are taken by A.G. Vask.