Blackface in the cosplay community gives me so many different headaches all at once.
The number one excuse I hear from people that do blackface to cosplay is “I wasn’t trying to offend anyone so it’s not blackface.”
Okay so the literal definition of Blackface is “a form of theatrical makeup used by performers to represent a black person.”
The definition doesn’t really say you HAVE to be making fun of them to accomplish blackface. Once you are representing the race through theatrical makeup, it’s blackface. Trying to be offensive or not, blackface is blackface and it represents a racist culture and it should not be done. Why would you want to represent a racist culture for a costume?
And since you are representing a racist culture when you do blackface, it should be easier to realize that you are being offensive. Even if it’s unintentional.
Another excuse that I cannot stand is that “Oh, this needs to be done to accurately and professionally represent the character.” This gives SO MANY bad representations of what cosplay is!! If someone needs to do black face to “professionally” represent a character does that mean for me to become a professional cosplayer I have to lighten my skin, and change my eye and lip shape with makeup to cosplay a character and get respected??? If I cosplay a character of a different race or body type than my own without changing my body I can’t be a professional?
There are so many things I can complain about this but to make my point clear, blackface is NEVER okay! Doesn’t matter if it’s personally offending you or not or if you’re trying to offend someone or not. BLACK.FACE.IS.NOT.OKAY.
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