Scars Unseen said:
Allow me to reverse the situation in a context that has happened fairly recently. Do you think that it would be okay for a black actor to play the part of a Norse god?
That's not the same thing.
The other is people cosplaying as a character for fun, the other is the creators offering a job to someone.
Not to mention there are far less black characters in superhero comics than white ones.
The problem with taking a black character and having a white person portray it is that you'd be taking away one of the few black ones to make yet another white character, or cast a white guy in facepaint when you could cast a black actor.
In cosplaying, you are just giving your interpretation of the character, and you aren't taking away anyone's job.
As for this, there is nothing racist as cosplaying as someone from another race. Even if you paint your face black and make fun of the character. Because you'd be making fun of the character, not the whole race.
However, you'd have to make it pretty sure that comes across, because of what kind of a history blackface has. So you might want to avoid that, or at least portray the character respectfully.
Or in a way that steers away from any racial stereotype.
EternallyBored said:
While there's nothing intrinsically wrong with it, you've gotta remember there are still people who were alive when that crap was actually happening, this isn't some ancient history thing there are multiple generations who are living right now that remember when this was the popular perception of black people in the media. It wasn't just Al Jolson either, black characters popped up in comics and cartoon that had that same look and behavior, co-opting actual American Black culture of the time and turning it into a vicious mockery. Later on, blackface and the Al Jolson style black stereotype, were adopted by the KKK during the civil rights movement in the 50's and 60's, and used for propaganda and justification of their beliefs (I.E. the idea that the blackface stereotype was more truth than exagerration). Considering this was the time period that white mobs affiliated with the KKK in small towns were lynching black people, it's understandable that the generation that was alive at that time, as well as the one that came after and got those stories direct from their parents, would be a little wary of it.
It also depends on where you are, know your audience and all that.
Blackface in Finland, for example, has a different history. It was mostly used to portray black characters (who were usually based on stereotypes) because there were no black people to play those parts.
There is a traditional Christmas-play originating from the 17th century called Tiernapojat that depicts the Christmas story and one of the characters is a black king who has come to see Jesus, and he is traditionally portrayed in blackface.
Also there's a song about how he's black and how Herodotus basically goes 'Dude, why are you black? That's so weird. Kneel before me.'
But blackface was never a thing in the same way it was in US, and the stereotypes of the minstrel shows weren't used to harm people the same way in Finland. Because there were no black people here before, and nowadays, while there is a growing black population, the stereotypes and attitudes are dfferent from what they are/were in the US.
We do know about that stuff, though, so that traditional Tiernapojat is kinda problematic. Especially since it's played by kids, and black kids might not appreciate being called weird for being black.
