How a blog called “Cosplaying While Black” lends a safe space for anime fans of color.
Via: facebook.com
You'd think a fandom as proudly geeky as cosplayers would be an embracing, welcoming bunch. But Chelsea Medua didn't always find that to be the case online.
"I follow many cosplayers on the Internet who I see at times get crude comments and remarks for just being black," she told the Daily Dot.
Chaka Cumberbatch says it more bluntly in an XOJane article titled I'm a Black Female Cosplayer And Some People Hate It: "In person, nobody has the balls to say a word about whether or not they think darker-skinned people should cosplay lighter skinned characters," she notes. "But online is a completely different animal."
In the article, she remembers cosplaying as Sailor Venus and being reblogged as an example of "black cosplayers doing it right, as if 9 times out of 10, black cosplayers were doing it wrong by default." Meaner comments followed. The experience scared one of her Indian friends away from trying non-Indian costumes.
Via: cosplayingwhileblack.tumblr.com
Stumble into any net subculture and you'd be remiss to assume it's anything but diverse. At the same time, it's widely known that geekdoms (whether in animation, comics or music) aren't always inviting to women and minority fans. Either way, Chelsea stresses that she started Cosplaying While Black as a positive fandom inspiration, to encourage fans to not feel limited by a character's race.
"The site exists to inspire black cosplayers, to not make them feel alone in the community, or feel discouraged from cosplaying," she says. "The blog does not exist to prove anything to white people, to shame white people, or anything like that."
Bottom line: everyone should feel at home doing what makes them happy. Below are some lovingly crafted costumes on her site.
