(BTW–while I might think that altering skin appearance to resemble another race might not be inherently racist, the Austrailian skit is far, far, far beyond that line into “racist as fuck” territory.)
Cosplayers are free to wear whatever they want–just as I am free to personally judge the success or failure of their costuming by whatever criteria I want.
Oh. You think they are dressing up to entertain you, and not to amuse themselves. Okay.
Just be aware that if you articulate the “failure” of their accuracy based on the mismatch of skin tone, then, rightly or wrongly, you will probably receive criticism about that, some of which may imply that you have a racial bias.
I love “Cloud Atlas”, but the “yellow facing” always takes me way out of the movie. I don’t find it offensive. It’s just that the actors look straight-up weird. When I first watched the movie, I thought the focus had suddenly shifted to another planet–one populated by Romulan-like humanoids or something.
I actually think a major part of the bad feelings surrounding racial mimicry stems from the crazy way people usually end up looking. It seems disrespectful because the end result is usually ugly and strange. It looks like mockery rather than mimicry.
But if you have no love for sumo wrestling, then it doesn’t make any sense to cosplay as a sumo wrestler. Even if you are 350 lbs. And it seems to me you’d have to have serious love to be motivated enough to wear only a loin cloth in a crowded convention hall.
It’s hard to believe that was only 20 years ago.
It is a tiny bit funny that the white guy painted his face white to look like Michael Jackson. But he could have at least not worn that horrible afro wig. Michael Jackson didn’t have hair like that even when his skin was brown.
How hard is it to believe that it was only 10 years ago? 
Well shut my mouth. The youtube commenters were saying it was from twenty years ago, so I just went with it.
Coplayers don’t dress up as Hercules only to be a “convincing” Hercules. They also do it to be their own kind of Hercules.
Especially in the case of a fictional character, there’s no reason to set the standard for a cosplay based on one particular manifestation of that character.
I recall recently listening to a podcast about cosplaying. I can’t recall which one, perhaps an episode of Imaginary Worlds, which included an interview witch an African-American ciaplayer.
And he made it a point to say when he cosplays as Superman, he’s not cosplaying as “a black version of Superman” or some “alternative reality Superman.” He’s Superman, period. In this case Superman looks like him.
Judging a cosplayer based on a standard that makes the cosplayer’s own body a detriment reflects a lack of imagination and a misunderstanding of the whole exercise.
White supremacists. In the 1977 TV movie Minstrel Man, a Black performer in a traveling minstrel show hates the indignity and humiliation of Black performers having to wear blackface and act foolish. One night he crashes the performance in whiteface then gets upset and runs away. The white audience riots and the cops throw the whole minstrel troupe in jail. Next morning when they get out they find him lynched from a tree, still in whiteface.
I don’t even cosplay, but some people here seem to be commenting on it with little or no experience dealing with cosplayers and the cosplay scene at conventions.
Gender swap costumes, male or female, are generally open field. Black people in the costumes of pale-skinned characters has also been acceptable as long as I’ve been going to cons, which has been since I was a teenager back in the (mumble) nineties; mostly because everyone going to these realizes, and especially back then realized, there are a lot of series and genres where there are almost no black characters. What if you’re a black fan, and your favorite character is white, but a bunch of your friends are dressing up as characters from a book, game or show where everyone (or everyone with an exception or two) appears white? Do you ALWAYS go for that exception or two in every series just as your default ‘role,’ or do you dress up as the character you like? The more serious the cosplayer, the greater odds they’re part of a group.
Being a perfect representation of the character might be the goal for someone going onto the stage (I guess that’s what someone meant by “for their entrance” they would be on their knees? :smack:) for a cosplay competition, or someone who takes photos and posts them en masse in cosplay form. But even then, it’s largely based on the cosplayer too, their likes and needs. There are a lot of fun and interesting cosplays that are as much about the character interpretation as an effort to just look like the character ‘in the movies’ or whatever. And there are children who come in simpler costumes, various other people who aren’t perfect matches but just dressing up for fun…
Blackface to do “cosplay” will make you look stupid and probably bigoted. “Whiteface” makeup, if not done professionally, may not look bigoted so much as just puzzling to people, but I think both con-goers and cosplayers in general would rather see that avoided as an effort too… our cons are honestly white enough without bleaching them further artificially.
Walking in on your knees with fake feet attached will probably look less like ‘a hobbit’ and more like you’re trying to mock the disabled, unless you have one hell of a good costume otherwise and are really careful where you do your… ‘hobbit shuffle.’ A normal looking black man on his feet with a great cape and Hobbit clothes would make a lot more sense to me as a cosplayer than a white guy with fake feet trying to shuffle on his knees past. That person would probably be the person who has heard about conventions, but never been to one before, and hasn’t seriously considered cosplay beyond the vague concept you look like the character. Maybe with a side impression most cosplayers are going to be chubby dudes wearing Spider-Man PJs. Lots of *casual *cosplayers spend hundreds on their outfits.
Why not spend hundreds to look whiter, if the character does? One, as I said, there’s a long-lasting tradition that this is just not needed at a con, people will think you are very strange even if you did put on ‘whiteface’ for a cosplay. Two, you will still look ridiculous unless the job is perfect and your own skin tone work well with it, so why spend the extra money and effort when you will look better with your own skin tone under the costume, even if it is different skin tone from the character? (Note again, especially in games and anime, the HUGE difference between the number of “white” and “black” appearing characters available.) Three, this sort of casual ‘well it sounds like it would look better to me’ idea of what would lend verisimilitude over the realities of preparing a proper costume and bringing to a convention, showing it off in the halls or on stage or at photo ops, just shows a general lack of understanding of how complex these costumes often are, how customized, and how few of them are cheap or last-minute efforts. There are a lot of factors that go into an impressive cosplay, but ‘the skin color’ or ‘the height’ rarely have any relationship. It’s the outfit and the attitude, mostly.
I feel the need to clarify here that the “probably” is my hedging other peoples’ responses. You will look bigoted. Like, you would have a good chance of getting rightfully chased straight out the convention hall door you entered, by very angry questions of “what the hell” from the people who see you in a costume that includes brown skin ‘painted on.’ You may be escorted off and possibly banned from the con for trying to cause trouble or a fight. Don’t do it!
Whiteface has less historical baggage, but it’s still not a good look. An extremely fit black man in a Captain America costume only looks ridiculous if you think that idea of Captain America possibly being a black man is ridiculous, somehow. I would like to hope most people at conventions don’t think that way.
Why would black hobbits be ridiculous, for that matter? Did the book say “Hobbits, known for their universally pale complexion” at some point? It’s been years since I read it… but it’s still fantasy, and still has room for creative interpretation.
Is John Belushi’s Samurai character offensive?
I can see both sides of this authenticity thing.
Here’s some real life examples;
I think it’s safe to say that this guy being kinda built, being black, having the hair, and actually having a vague resemblance to Wesley Snipes all contribute to the awesomeness of this costume.
This guy’s Browning up for geordi didn’t add anything to his costume and looks stupid.
Though to be fair I think he was attempting to get all the details he could and I don’t get the feeling he intended some racial putdown, he even did contacts.
Ive also seen medeival movies with knights that were black and admittedly it struck me about the same as a movie with white Zulu warriors would have. Both would easily qualify as cultural appropriation if you’re stuck on that buzzword.
Though after a few minutes it doesn’t really detract from the movie, for me at least.
From an artists standpoint, the main reason Geordi’s browning up looks stupid is the use of a single hue and saturation all over, where a multitude of hues, tones and saturation would be appropriate.
Black people aren’t walnut brown all over any more than white people are light peach all over.
That just makes you look like a cartoon.
The movie White Chicks is really almost an exact reversal of the minstrel shows. Twi black guys go full on whiteface and it doesn’t try to be realistic, pokes fun at racial stereotypes the whole way through etc.
However, theres nobody in the audience apt to believe all white women are just like that so nobody really cares.
Then there’s this guy , who’s hard to recognize as his character;
https://static.cosplay-it.com/df108288-04df-42f0-8d26-7dabec1d1620.jpg
As opposed to this guy;
But this probably has a lot to do with the amount of exposed skin the character is always seen with.
It’s certainly not for a lack of other identifiable characteristics in the character.
Probably because we are all exposed to plenty of real examples of white women.
The same is not true for racial minorities.
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