Posting here too even if it was on my cosplay page (and deleted by the poster), but I feel like it needs to be said because I’m sure it’s going to come up this month, the, “If I had a month dedicated to sharing white cosplayers…” comments. 

Besides the fact that it is actually Black History Month… here’s the honest truth. We all want equality, we do. But part of striving for equality is making people feel like they deserve equality, and the sad reality is that some black people feel like they don’t deserve it, because they feel like they’re less than everyone else. In the sense of cosplay, there are black people who feel like they can’t cosplay because of the color of their skin. There are plenty of times where words like “ghetto” are flung around, “Ghetto Venus,” towards the black woman cosplaying Sailor Venus, or even, “Nigga Moon,” for the black Sailor Moon cosplayer. “That character isn’t black,” or in my personal case, “Go and fry some chicken” just for being black and holding a frying pan as Princess Peach, who does use a frying pan as a weapon. These things happen, and these things do make black people feel like they can’t take part in this community.

If someone tells me that I’m not worthy of something enough times, I’ll start to believe it. I have believed it. I’ve believed that I wasn’t worth it because of my race. I’ve believed that I was ugly. I’ve been told to “stop acting white” because I like anime, video games, and cosplay. And I know a lot of others have felt the same way because of the color of their skin. Those people need to be shown that they are beautiful, that they’re worth it, that they’re equal.

It’s great to think we all should be equal but there are plenty of black people out there who think that they shouldn’t be because of the crap that gets flung at them, who think that they CAN’T be. Equality is great, but you have to WANT it, and if you feel like you’re beneath everyone around you, you’re going to think you don’t deserve it.

That’s what “28 Days Of Black Cosplay” is about. It’s to show those people that they are beautiful and can do this. It’s the same thing I do on this page when I get called a fat, retarded baby (which happened this last week). I stand up and say, “I’m fat and I’m beautiful.” That’s what I’m doing here. I’m black and beautiful. I’m worth it. I deserve to be treated with respect. It’s not segregation, it’s confidence building.