chaosbutterfly: Hi! I need to ask a serious question and I'm sorry to have to ask you, but I can't find another way without upsetting a lot of people. Anyway, I've just read a few blogs (including yours) about the blackface controversy and I wanted to know, how can a white person cosplay a black character without it being seen as blackface? If someone maybe wanted to be Teal'c from Stargate or Lana from Archer, how would they do it without being seen as racist? Surely remaining their natural colour would worse.
This is somewhat of a contentious question, seeing as there remains an ongoing debate about cosplay, blackface, and cultural appropriation. Some people think that cosplay is reason enough to permit blackface and cultural appropriation (of garments, accessories, or cultural identities), however many do not.
As a rule of thumb, I would suggest that if there is a POC (person of colour) whom you really want to cosplay that you do so, but that you not significantly alter your skin pigment. If your cosplay is good enough everyone will know who you are, and you are sure to avoid offending people.
There are lots of things that cosplayers don’t actually do, for example women cosplaying men don’t actually grow facial hair (usually). People cosplaying Princess Bubblegum don’t actually make their costume out of candy etc. Changing the pigment of your skin is the same thing: equally silly, superfluous, and offensive.
There are contexts to be aware of, and using other people’s cultures or racial features is pretty derogatory. It denotes a certain level of fetishisation and exoticism, and in the case of blackface, honours a hideous past.
To recap: wanting to cosplay a POC is great. Using blackface (ever) is not. Thanks for the question, and if you or anyone else has any further queries, I’m here all evening.