Black Anime Twitter Turns “NightSkin” Slur Into A Black Social Celebration

Once again, Black Twitter and Black consumers, in general, remain undefeated in the face of what someone intended as an insult.</span

Earlier this month, CrunchyRoll – a content, gaming, and production company that prides itself on “helping everyone belong” – announced the cast of actors that will be voicing the English translation of the popular anime title Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. Holding diversity as one of its corporate values, CrunchyRoll has openly hired Black talent in the past, allowing voice actors to portray characters that don’t look like them. Which, in 2022, should not be a problem. It’s literally been happening for decades: look up some of your favorite animated shows and movies.

Yet as we’ve seen with other characters including Marvel’s Peter Parker and Heimdall – played by Idris Elba in the Thor – series, the idea of Black actors portraying fictional animated characters remains an issue for some fans. Twitter user @InquisitorCunny, whose account has since been suspended, was one of several to use the platform to share their disapproval, writing “Our holy war against nightskins will never end. You are unfit to voice OUR characters. They are Aryan beauty and you are the antithesis (sic) to everything that is pure.”

The world may never know if he intentionally used the term “nightskins” or if it was a Google translator fluke, but thanks to content creator Tony Weaver, Jr., the term has been repurposed by the culture. “Nightskins is way too cool to be a slur. It’s ours now,” he said in a video addressing the racist backlash.

Weaver went on to site several anime creators who have spoken out about the importance of adding more diversity to the world of Japanese animation.

The term “Nightskin” is ours now. No arguments 😂 pic.twitter.com/0O7qpZj08R

— Tony Weaver Jr. (@TonyWeaverJr) April 18, 2022

“If the actual creators of the anime you make your profile hate racist people and you’re still racist, you shouldn’t be calling people ‘nightskins’,” he concluded. “You should be calling a therapist.”

“If the actual creators of the anime you make your profile hate racist people and you’re still racist, you shouldn’t be calling people ‘nightskins’,” he concluded. “You should be calling a therapist.”

And naturally, a group of carefree Black folks creating moments of joy and finding community in each other, only made the racist trolls more upset. And at every turn, Weaver has taken the opportunity to spotlight artists participating in the trend, as well as existing anime series featuring Black characters.

Nightskin fanart isn’t STEALING. We can literally do both 🤷🏿‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/QOhrxNDoqO

— Tony Weaver Jr. (@TonyWeaverJr) April 22, 2022

He is also on a mission to work this trend into something that Black creatives can monetize. “This guy did say his war against the nightskins would never end. So how bout we continue this trend: what if we took our stories and our stories of nightskin fantasy and compiled them into an anthology?” he proposes in a TikTok clip shared on his Twitter page.

Nightskins Unite! It’s time to turn this into something HUGE! pic.twitter.com/WNAmUqmUBW

— Tony Weaver Jr. (@TonyWeaverJr) April 28, 2022