Twitch streamer and cosplay Sydney "Sydeon" took to Twitter on Thursday night to highlight some of the many racist responses that she got to her Hinatsuru cosplay, a character from the Anime/Manga Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Numerous comments attacked her for "not being white enough" to play the character and attacking her out for being a black woman cosplaying a non-black character.

"I have feared cosplaying anime characters forever bc I didn’t wanna deal w this," she expressed in her post. "This shit is RAMPANT in the community and it’s lame asf. My fave is when ppl say “you’re not white enough” WHEN THE CHARACTERS ARE LITERALLY ASIAN just say you hate dark skin ppl and catch this block."

She went on to clarify, "also, I’m not posting this for pity or anything. I’m posting this bc I have a platform and I wanna bring attention to it. THIS ISN'T OK!!! I think every POC cosplayer can relate to this and it sucks so bad. Cosplaying is for EVERYBODY no matter color, size, gender, etc!!!!!"

She also replied to the numerous people claiming that its a double standard, because white people aren't allowed to wear blackface, and therefore can't cosplay black characters.

She shut this argument down, saying: "A common response I see is ppl saying 'how come white ppl can’t cosplay black characters then?' You can… just don’t paint your skin black just like I didn’t paint my skin fair."

The Twitch and cosplay community rally around Sydeon 

Her Cosplay was posted on Thursday, and received positive feedback from folks like Pokimane, OfflineTV's Leena, and others. However, as Sydeon pointed out, the comment section was also filled with numerous people attacking her for being black and cosplaying a non-black character. 

In response to her post calling out the racism, she also received significant support from key members of the Twitch and anime community.

DisguisedToast responded, saying, "it's a special kind of patheticness to try and hide their racism behind the veil of protecting fictional anime character's from being cosplayed by people of all races, as if the character's entire identity is based around the color of their skin."

QuarterJade replied, "I LITERALLY DONT GET IT LIKE ANYONE CAN COSPLAY THAT'S KINDA THE WHOLE POINT ALSO YOU LOOK SO HOT SO WHY EVEN COMPLAIN IM SO ANNOYED."

Hasanabi replied simply, "you absolutely crushed it."

Ovilee May said, "What the actual sh*t... I'm sorry :(," while her fellow co-host at G4TV Goldenboy said, "Screw these douchebags. Never stop making cool stuff. You rocked that cosplay 100%. Keep thriving homie."

The entire discussion highlights ongoing issues in the cosplay community related to identity politics, whereby many white folks get angry when people of color engage in cosplay, despite the fact that many white cosplayers cosplay as Asian characters as well. This form of racial discrimination is rampant, and Sydeon highlighted this as an ongoing issue for black and brown cosplayers.