Learning to Coexist

February 18th, 2013

DJ Ranma S

What I am about to post is not my personal account of what happened. This is more like my thoughts and take on it because of sensitive the situation is.

I have been going to conventions for fifteen years. I won’t sit here and say that it’s all sunshine and rainbows. There’s always a downside to going. But I never let that get to me, I always try to make the best of things so that I can have a good time, along with the people I am with that weekend.

As I got older going to cons, I started to see things differently, as well as handling situations differently as well.

Katsucon is a fun convention, so I was saddened that I couldn’t make it the last couple of years. But I do try to follow as to what goes on since I wasn’t there.

And this year disgusted me.

I’m disgusted by the actions on both sides.

Before I continue, this article took me the entire weekend to formulate because I was quite upset as to what was being reported from there. Along with working on this, I have to thank two people for helping me put this together, Mike P and Drunk Aya. Both of their articles regarding their take on this will be noted at the end of the article.

We anime fans, cosplayers, congoers, and all people in between have always been looked down on society from time to time for what we like to do. I know that some people in the fandoms hate that and will find a way to fix that. As for me, I learned the old adage of “love and tolerate”.

So for those of who don’t know, at the Gaylord hotel, there is a gazebo that we cosplayers go to for photos. This year, access to it was just about nil because another organization called the BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) were there. They booked the Gaylord along with areas of the hotel that we’re used to having. Now, I’m used to sharing hotel and convention space with other events and organizations, it’s a given.

But evidently others aren’t.

That Thursday and Friday, there has been nothing but arguing and verbal assaults between the BBYO and Katsucon attendees. I have been saying that we need to learn to coexist. Others are saying that to hell with that, strike back. I get it, I understand it. No one likes to be insulted and talked down to, I certainly don’t. But we have to learn to accept one another in this world.

I find that how the BBYO acted towards attendees reprehensible. I also find that how attendees acted towards them even worse. Why? Racial slurs.

The kids and teenagers that attended the conference were raised differently. So seeing all those cosplayers and what not was a shock to their system. This is something that they are not used to seeing, so of course they’re going to make rude remarks. But not all of them were like that. Some from the BBYO got badges and went to hang out with attendees, which is pretty awesome in my book.

Pretty much what I’m saying is that the majority of this could have been avoided if the majority of people weren’t so hell bent on a damn gazebo. As noted by Omega Zed from Chocolate Lemon, tensions were high way before the gazebo fiasco was in place, that they were rude and disrespectful prior to that.

I have been to the Gaylord before and you know what? There are plenty of other great places to take photos people… Seriously. And what I found that was deplorable was hearing that Yaya Han complained about not having the gazebo for photos and threatening to not come back to Katsucon.

Really… Really? I hope that was nothing but a rumor.

What I feel disheartened the most is that a lot of attendees were fighting over rights to a gazebo, despite the fact that the other organization called dibs on it first. Things like I feel is not that serious, so please don’t take that personal.

We have to learn to accept and tolerate others if their views are different from us for various reasons. Most of this falls under religious views and perspectives.

So, in the long run, let’s try to learn to coexist and learn from each other.

I’ve been getting feedback from others in regards to this. I implore everyone to read the links I posted that will give better insight as to what I’ve say and my view on this. Thank you.

As I said before, I cited two sources in regards to this article, and you can find that here:

Mike P – https://www.facebook.com/mohnjaddenpowers/posts/677595361734
Drunk Aya – http://drunkaya.tumblr.com/post/43212159523

DJ Ranma S

DJ Ranma S is cosplay veteran. He has won numerous performance awards with his friends over the years. He has staffed conventions in the past, ran panels, judged a couple of masquerades, a jack of all trades. He's worked dealer's room too! Running this site is his way of giving back to the cosplay community. He feels that it's his turn to give a future cosplayer their fifteen minutes of fame.