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“Blacktober is an October event [...] where black creators have a chance to turn the characters they love into people that look like them. It’s a fun art event that's meant to give artists an opportunity to put a fun twist on their favorite characters from anime, western cartoons, video games, and more”

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“Jenny Slate, the voice actress for Missy, stated in an Instagram post that she “reasoned with [her]self that it was permissible for [her] to play Missy because her mom is Jewish and white—as [is hers]. But Missy is also black, and black characters on an animated show should be played by black people.””

Above I put two of many non-white characters that are/were voiced by white voice actors. Often television and streaming networks will keep the same people around to play different roles on different shows. Two good examples of this are Tom Kenny and Tara Strong, two voice actors we all know and love. This can make it difficult for people to get into the voice acting business no matter the characters race. But finally having people that are in the “token voice actor” bunch speak up about POC play POC characters has changed so much in the voice acting community already. 

Cleveland Brown (right), formerly played by white voice actor Mike Henry, will now be played by Arif Zahir, a youtuber known for his Cleveland impression. A new voice actor for Missy (left) has not yet been announced.

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“A really big argument that is normally in the comments of black cosplayers work is “This character isn’t black!” but under a white cosplayers comments it never seems to be an issue. A lot of cosplayers and artists tend to forget that these characters are created by Japanese people making them Japanese unless stated otherwise, often these creatives assume that a character is white because of their fair skin tone and don’t think twice about the double standards they have for black creatives.”

Shirleen, a internet personality and creative, is often attacked with racist and insensitive comments under her cosplay post. So much to the point that it took bigger influencers in the cosplay community speaking up for the comments to simmer down. Though they aren’t as bad as they previously were, her comments are still filled with slurs amongst other negative things. These kind of comments are rarely found under white cosplayers post and have finally been addressed with the creation of Blacktober.

cred: litdesu 

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“Blog writer Emperor Pyros, expressed that he was disappointed with Blacktober and saw it as a missed opportunity for black creatives. He felt that Blacktober should have been used for black creatives to show off their original characters and to promote their artwork”

Throughout Blacktober Serena incorporated her OCs into the days prompt. The photo above is Serena’s OC, Sol, as a sailor scout.

I found it very close minded that Pyros saw a few pieces from Blacktober artist who hadn’t yet used their OCs and decided that it was a waste of time. 

cred: chiber_san

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“It has been such a great way for artists to get their work out there and have their names acknowledged. And has been especially important right now. As the Black Lives Matter movement progresses and those in the black community begin to use their voices more and more it will become extremely important for black creatives to express themselves freely.” 

I chose these photos for this quote because Emely is an artist that immediately comes to mind when I think about the good Blacktober has done for smaller artist. She gained thousands of followers on twitter over night and became a known name in the twitter art community all because of her hard work during Blacktober!

cred: Aquiboni

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cred: AfroAmi

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cred: Keke_Shawn 

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Thank you!  Link to paper: Blacktober