Anime Day #7: Is Anime Cosplay by "Westerners" Racist?

~Nauri @DeviantArt

If a white man put on black face and started dancing around singing "Mr. Bones," it would be racist. We can all agree that Minstrel shows are racist. Some Japanese Cosplayers are now arguing that Westerners who don Cosplay costumes are being racist in the same way. The internet isn't buying it.


This Youtube account makes that claim: "Cosplay Are Not for Fun."

"We Asians create Cosplay which now have become as one of the world's trends are with the purpose of to impersonate or to be the characters the person which known as cosplayers want to Cosplay, that is why cosplayers not only trying to wear the same dress, costumes, accessories, etc as the characters..."

Now, the first claim here is completely false. Cosplay actually goes back to the 1st World Science Fiction convention in 1939. Forrest J. Ackerman wore a futuristic costume made by Myrtle R. Douglas and inspired a trend that spread throughout the world.

As for the Cosplay of specifically Anime, activists like this Youtube user and similar Facebook campaigns make the assumption that all characters in Anime are Japanese. Some of the characters portrayed aren't even human. Is Final Fantasy set in Japan? (Psst, the answer is No.)

By that logic, then, this totally awesome Black Butler cosplay is racist for trying to portray Victorian-Era English demons.

Photo from DeviantArt ~BeBelial

Asians against Western Cosplay go on to cite that "Crazy Westerners" even go so far as to making their hair look like the character's. This is where they poke a giant hole in their own argument. How many Japanese girls have you met with HUGE blue eyes and blue hair?







But Most Cosplay IS Trying to Impersonate Japanese Characters


Okay. That's true. Here is the difference. I'm not going to tell a black man that he cannot Cosplay the very pasty Harry Potter. Though I believe that you should Cosplay your body type, I don't believe in limiting people to characters that look just like them because it's about Fantasy! It's not about reality. I am a tiny American girl named Amy who likes computers, so I like dressing up as a tiny Japanese girl named Ami who has an awesome Mercury computer.

The biggest difference in Cosplayers playing Asians and the horrid minstrel shows of the past is this: intent. When vaudeville stars put black makeup on with big lips and danced around, they were making fun of African Americans. When we don costumes of Asian characters, we are praising our favorite entertainment.

For closing remarks I would also like to point out that every channel or blog I have seen about "Crazy Westerners" and their "Racist Cosplay" goes on to generalize that we're rapists who treat people of Asian descent like property and nuke them. This one in particular deletes any comments contrary to her opinion and only posts the support. While I agree, the Japanese have the right to be mad at the American Government for Hiroshima and Nagasaki until the end of time, making generalizations about individual Westerners (clustering many diverse countries into one identity) is absolutely racist. Pot. Kettle . Thanks.

So Cosplayers, keep it up. If someone really chews you out at a Con for Cosplaying, then they have some seriously misplaced anger. We should appreciate that interest in other cultures can bring us together. Let's rejoice about what we share instead of lashing out over superficial differences.