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The ‘Black Panther’ Enthusiasts Who Are Changing Cosplay: ‘We’re Helping People See Us as Heroes’

Meet the people whose goal is to disrupt the stereotypes of cosplay.

>That is perhaps why black cosplayersin particular have been excited about the “Black Panther” film since Marvel Comics announced its release in 2014 and Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a new series of the comic in 2016.Itshero,T’Challa, the Black Panther, lives in a fictional advanced nation called Wakanda. There, black characters can be both the hero and the villain, a three-dimensional portrait of people of African descent often left out of comic books and movies. There is a strong sense of African pride for the nation set in East Africa, one that is permeating black American culture.

>Theyare not celebrated everywhere. Many African-American cosplayers believe that Instagram and Facebook cosplay groups tend to isolate nonwhite cosplayers. As a result, black cosplayers have used their own social media accounts to create inclusive spaces. Instagram pages like Cosplay of Color and Facebook groups like The Extraordinary Journey of a Black Nerdbwere created to promote the celebration of black cosplay and nerd culture in America and beyond.

>The goal, many cosplayers interviewed said, is to disrupt popular ideas of what cosplay can and should look like and to help create a more racially tolerantenvironmentthrough cosplay, both in Black Panther costumes and outside of them.

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nytimes.com/2018/02/15/style/black-panther-movie-cosplay.html

Ok have fun be home for dinner

Captain Drank
Super Badsmell
The Incredible thief
Mr.Fantastic at jumping fences

...

“We’re helping people see us as heroes,” said Ms. Lewis, who lives in Los Angeles. “And I think black cosplayers are changing cosplay because we are now opening up a conversation about inclusion. We’re a subculture within a subculture, and we’re hoping the nerd community can be more inclusive toward us.”

Black cosplayers are also helping to challenge limitations on what African-American cosplayers can be.
“Black people want to be the characters that we love and they might not necessarily look like us and if we want to look like them, we get a lot of backlash and ridicule and get made fun of,” she said. “The hypocrisy happens when nobody says anything about white characters portraying Asian characters or others.”

I caught one of these guys trying to break into my house last week

Wow. Just wow. I bet no one ever dressed up as a superhero before. So inspiring.

Brynne Walker, 34
“We’re redefining cosplay because we’re putting our own spin on it,” said Ms. Walker, a Los Angeles native and Black Panther enthusiast who regularly organizes cosplay meet-ups through Facebook groups like Sisterhood of the Mother of Dragons. “We add a swag to nerd culture that wasn’t there.”

Ms. Walker said that the film stood out for its positive portrayal of Wakanda, an African nation that was never colonized by European nations.

“It’s the first time in America cinema narrative where you have a country full of noncolonized black people that are all science prodigies and geniuses,” she explained. “This film is about autonomy, especially the film’s interest in science and technology, which I didn’t see when I was growing up.”

Ms. Walker said that she and other black cosplayers had faced harassment by white cosplayers, who used racial epithets in online communities and forums.

Sean Shaw, 31
Mr. Shaw, a Los Angeles native and yearly comic convention attendee, remembers the first time he put on a Black Panther costume, almost five years ago.

“I went to the San Diego Comic-Con and a little white kid who walked up to me and said, ‘You’re the Black Panther!’” he said.

“He couldn’t see me, but I was tearing up inside of my mask,” he added. “It was powerful.”

Mr. Shaw, a father of two, believes that he and other African-American cosplayers demonstrate why the comics world needs more characters like T’Challa, the Black Panther.

“It's going to be great for people of color once they start seeing that there is a black superhero who is a king and graduated with honors from four different schools,” he said. “When I don the costume, I feel like I embody the character. I am no longer Sean, I become the king of Wakanda.”

>weebs
>not subject to ridicule

>kendrick lamar
You listen to a kid that never grew up hungry, starving but raps about being OG?
Lewl. Blacks can't even black right anymore.

>other black cosplayers had faced harassment by white cosplayers
I guess everyone got to get in on the act

“I’ve always been into anime, and then one day I fell in love with comics,” he said while gripping two metal rods that he often uses as props for his Black Panther outfit. “It feels great to see other people at conventions and getting hyped over the same characters.”

“It’s harder for you to be seen when you don’t look like some of the characters that we see in the comic world,” he said. “You take it in stride, but we always put our own black twist on it when we perform and dress-up.”

“While the ’90s gave us some black science fiction — ‘Blade,’ ‘Blankman,’ ‘Shazaam,’ ‘Spawn,’ ‘Static Shock’ — ‘Black Panther’ is unprecedented. It takes place partly in an African-run city, the powerful, beautiful, protected, wealthy land of Wakanda, which is unlike the dystopic, dark lands that nearly all science fiction movies put us black people in,” he said.

Mr. Miller said that as a result, black cosplayers’ fantasy world came with barriers.
“Black cosplayers have had to awkwardly insert ourselves into the canon of science fiction fandom,” he said. “We can now be more confident that we belong.”

i wish niggers would take on the role of superhero more.

"I feel extremely comfortable in costume, and cosplaying has allowed me to envision myself as a character,” Ms. Kaufman said. “I like to use my imagination and interpret characters based on whatever is inspiring me at the time, and when those inspirations, whether they’re based on music, historical events, feelings, couple nicely with the identity of a character who I can relate to, I feel accomplished.”

“I really liked when I heard Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ in the film’s trailer,” said Ms. Kaufman, who regularly attends cosplay events with Mr. Okafor throughout Southern California. “That happened in the 1970s when there was a revolution and people were upset. That’s happening again today.”

Mr. Okafor, a Black Panther enthusiast whose interest in cosplay can be traced to elaborate Halloween costumes in his youth, believes that Marvel’s decision to hire a black director and a predominantly black cast conveys a strong message.

“Without saying it they are taking a political stance,” he explained. “It’s directed and the actors are mostly black and it’s for the people.”

Jesus christ, why are people so addicted to validation these days. EVERYBODY GETS VALIDATION! YOU GET VALIDATION! YOU GET VALIDATION!!

>we, the black panther cosplaying community need recognition for what were giving back to the nerd community.

Can entry level nerd culture just fucking die already?

Why weren't they portraying Black Panther before the movie?

>It’s harder for you to be seen when you don’t look like some of the characters that we see in the comic world

Nigga, neither do I. Comic characters are hyper-real caricatures of people. Nobody looks like that.

Welp, no more complaining that "why are cringe threads only white people?"

I want to get in on this action, what's the best way to paint my face black? burning a cork?
shoe polish has nasty stuff in it, right?

This is pathetic. Blacks should aspire to more then becoming the same as white Bugmen.

>I want to get in on this action, what's the best way to paint my face black? burning a cork?
shoe polish has nasty stuff in it, right?

please no cultural appropriation, japan

Anyone find it funny when black people use eye shadow?

>The goal, many cosplayers interviewed said, is to disrupt popular ideas of what cosplay can and should look like and to help create a more racially tolerantenvironmentthrough cosplay

wow!

Is he alright?

Funny thing is that the worst thing you could do is simply be white and cosplay as one of those characters. Just wait, soon there will be a story about them chimping out because "EVIL WHITTEY APPROPRIATING OUR JEWISH MADE SUUUBAH HERO!!!".

To be honest they pull cosplay off a hell of a lot better than white people do. You guys are pretty bad at fashion for the most part. Japan laughs at white cosplayers constantly.

WAKANDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Not only are they doing that, DEY changing da game! aka they cant do shit right. It has to be niggerized.

woah! that's amazing!

What the fuck is he on about? Niggers' been dressing up in black, climbing in people's windows since way before Black Panther.

they should cosplay back to afri- i mean wakanda

This pic is prime meme material.

India is such a shitty country, you should be ashamed like the rest of your filthy kind and hide behind meme flags, at least then I can pretend your shitty posts are from Canada

WE WUZ HEROES N SHIEET!

Nobody—I mean NOBODY—who does “cosplay” is a fucking hero.

Oh, cool. We can turn niggers into upholders of public decency by encouraging them to wear spandex.

Is that Lauren Southern's BASED half-Black half-Irish ex-boyfriend?

>Changing cosplay
By dressing up in hero outfits? Like everyone else?
This is literally "blacks can do it too!" Level autism

I wouldn't know about that. I'm just waiting for the buzzfeed story with the title "Can White People Cosplay as Black Panther?" with the article's picture being some white dude in a shitty costume giving some kind of pose. Probably some screenshots of barely literate tweets with black people in the little profile square thrown in there.

>We add a swag to nerd culture
Cringe

Yo i aint a thief shiiiiiet im blak panther cracka!

>tfw going to an anime con and thinking of dressing up as goku

What do you think guys? Will i get told i dont look the part because im black?

WE WUZ ANIME N SHIET

...

...

So is black panther the roodypoo deadpool now?

Dafuq?

we wuz fukkin all yo wh*te nerd bitches and shiiiiiieeeeet

What's going on here?

>Run around the neighborhood at night in a ninja >outfit not on Halloween.
Incoming crime spree they wont talk about on the news anons.

>black friend of mine is a turboweeb
>she cosplays and goes to cons all the time, presumably because she has fun doing it
>she's been doing this for at least 10 years

>these niggers
>WE WUZ CHANGIN COSPLAY N SHIIIIEEET
Everything surrounding the reaction of uppity blacks towards a single capeshit movie has me irrationally angry and this is just one more check on the list.

There can be only one.

but how are they changing anything? Isn't race just a social construct? So before it was just people dressing up in costumes, and now it is still people dressing up in costumes.

Literally what is different, except the incident rate of rapes and theft at comic and costume conventions?

Why is black panther such a big deal? Have all these niggas already forgotten about Blade? Spawn?

niggers

Go as Mr.Popo

I don’t get it. BP has been around since the 70s. He was in Captain America Civil War aka Avengers 3. Why are they losing their shit over this movie?

I can't wait to see lefties and militant blacks lose their shit later this year about little white kids dressing up like Black Panther for Halloween.

Marketing

This movie has put on such a huge spotlight on the lefts lunacy and I love it. Apparently before this movie black people had never been portrayed as heroes before and there had never been a depiction of a stable and prosperous African nation before on the big screen.

Could we have any more proof that they live in a fantasy world where all white people are oppressing every other race just by existing?

They're incredibly gullible idiots.

They're every marketer's wet dream.

So how long until they start dressing like this and start robbing houses?

He’s climbing the roofs of Grove St. There’s a Tec 9 up there.

nice

As Schopenhauer said, on incongruities that are “ludicrous to all”:
>For example, one of the free negroes in North America, who endeavor to imitate the whites in every respect, just recently placed an epitaph for his dead child, which begins: “Lovely, early broken lily.”

the Negroes of today are still assiduously imitating the whites, and the contrast between a dead black cricket and a pale-petalled lily remains the same too

And here I was thinking only whites can be manchildren...

>“We add a swag to nerd culture that wasn’t there.”

SWAGGY SWAG

what if whites start cosplaying as black panther ?

Looks like the Jews got to the blacks. Now the blacks will be acting like white nerds now, very sad!

Blerds!

Blacks are very good at being disruptive

Thank fuck, maybe now cosplaying poofters will all shoot eachother.
I can't wait to see 500 black panther niggers ruin the stupid conventions too

Why are you streetshitters spamming this fucking black panther threads? don't you have to be at the potty training program?

looks like a cat burglar, not a black panther

Great, now we're seeing vultures on the roof of houses in the US.

Holy shit, the Jews may have ironically fixed the Niggers.

Kikes just KIKED themselves.

guys it's right there
>wazkanga
also, original comics was created by (((white))) men, blacks cannot even make fictional successful african country

Shouldn't you be making tacos, Paco?

Poos like to punch down at other minorities because it's easier than not shitting in the street.

So now black people get to play at this faggotry. That's real progress.

No one gives a shit. These fucking nogs taking advantage of hollywoods racial divisiveness. Theres been tons of non white nerds for years, even blacks.

Mungo Jerry

Too bad they don't really get into the cosplay and fuck off back to Africa

Stop eating monkeys.

would you guys rather have them be nerds or gangbangers

also bravo marvel for finally having a black hero there has never been one in the mcu before this weekend no black heroes have been in avengers movies or had cool fight scenes until now

Stop carving people's hearts from their chests while it's still beating.

>some rival gangs kill each other
>same as 6 million monkeys being eaten by niggers every year

Cosplay is retarded. This is why so many people have nothing but contempt for news media outlets.

>Yes hello police. There is a blackman prowling around my home. He is dressed all in black and I think he is holding knives. Send help please.

>34
>cosplay
>swag
guys maybe whites and blacks aren't so different after all.

also >ms

Cosplaying is for faggots and attention-deprived women.

Black Panther is an action hero movie released at a time of significant social tension, in order to increase that social tension.

With that being said, I am glad that it's giving black people a chance at "cosplaying" their own characters, and not having to either resort to Blade or going whiteface. I'm glad that black people are being given their own hero who looks like them and comes from the same place as them. It costs us (other races) nothing.

I'm enthusiastically awaiting the story about a nig getting shot while larping as black panther.

So these are the 40m whites in brazil eh

>Set in East Africa.
American nogs are from West Africa. Why the fuck is it on the other side of the continent? It's like Mexicans building their superstate in Russia.

WUZKANGA!