A white streamer was suspended from Twitch for 30 days for cosplaying in ‘blackface.’

Lithuanian cosplayer Karina ‘Karupups’ Martsinkevich received the Twitch suspension for cosplaying as the character ‘Lifeline’ from the video game ‘Apex Legends.’ Martsinkevich conducted a live makeup tutorial on her stream in which she darkened her skin with makeup in an attempt to look “similar” to Lifeline.

Martsinkevich made the following comments in a YouTube video in which she addressed her ban from Twitch:

“Well guys, I have not-so-good news. My Twitch channel ‘Karupups’ was banned. The reason of [the] ban is “engaging in hateful conduct against a person or a group of people.” While on my previous stream, I was cosplaying ‘Lifeline’ from the Apex Legends game. I really wanted to be the same as she is, so I decided to color my hair, to wear a costume, or to wear makeup. I decided to change my skin color to [a] darker one.”

Martsinkevich added that she was not aware of what ‘blackface’ is:

“I actually read a lot of comments…on Reddit, on other communities, and the most popular comment was about the ‘blackface.’ Guys, I really didn’t meant [sic] that. I just really wanted to be as similar as Lifeline from Apex. It wasn’t meant to have a joke of anyone. It was just a cosplay, guys, for my favorite legend from a computer game. I guess you needed that explanation from me, you needed feedback. I did a mistake just because I didn’t have enough information, maybe.”

Martsinkevich apologized to anyone who was offended by her cosplay:

“And it didn’t meant to, my cosplay didn’t meant to be painful for anyone. Please let me, let me highlight that it was just for fun. I just wanted to change to my favorite legend from the game.”

Popular cosplayer ‘Kayyybearxo’ responded to controversy by saying ‘being black isn’t a costume:’

https://twitter.com/kayyybearxo/status/1117249142638764034%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1117249142638764034&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthescoop.us%2Fwhite-streamer-banned-from-twitch-for-blackface-cosplay%2F

Kayyybearxo added that she has no issue with white cosplayers dressing up as “POC characters” as long as they do not darken or paint their skin for “accuracy.”

https://twitter.com/kayyybearxo/status/1117247318682681344%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1117247318682681344&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthescoop.us%2Fwhite-streamer-banned-from-twitch-for-blackface-cosplay%2F