Black Cosplayer Receives Racist Criticism for Anime Cosplay

22-year old cosplayer Shirleen, based out of Liverpool, said that an image she tweeted back on June 29th showing her dressed as the Japanese character Rin Tohsaka from the ‘Fate/stay night’ anime received messages of racial slurs and racial comments, according to the Daily Dot.

The cosplay post quickly gained traction, amassing over 600,000 likes and over 50,000 re-tweets not long after going live, but with it came racist comments towards the Black cosplayer.

“As I got a bigger audience, people that don’t know me, never really knew me, the racist ones —they’re the ones who started the attacks,” Shirleen said, according to Insider.

Shirleen had been hesitant to dress in cosplay, despite her being a longtime anime fan, as she has seen the racist feedback that her black friends received when posting cosplay pictures online.

“I always see the kind of reception they get for cosplaying, and it’s never been that good,” she told Insider. “I knew kind of what to expect, but at the same time, it’s never really expected.”

Despite sad and terrible experience, Shirleen vows not to stop with cosplay saying that racism is “not going to stop me — definitely not.”

“It’s something that I enjoy doing, and I’m going to keep doing it regardless,” she said. “Especially if it inspires little Black girls that like anime like me, and they want to try, too, then I’m going to keep doing it for them as well.”