As far as her assertion goes - no I mean it when I say that I've heard it quite a few times before, likely distorted to "slavery trauma is encoded in our DNA" due to people's misunderstanding of what studies *actually* say. Much like, say, the assertion the doctors *injected* black men with syphilis in the Tuskeegee Experiment (the reality is that they simply did not treat syphilis in black men who showed up - which is clearly bad enough), or Elon Musk's more goofball ideas. It's disturbingly common even among college graduates who haven't actually studied biology, and largely due to a combination of (justified) wariness and poor science reporting - and simple fallible human memory.
There was a recent "blackface" blowup on either Twitch, involving a Lithuanian cosplayer who colored her skin brown to cosplay as an Apex Legends character. In short, she was banned for a month, which likely affects her income.
Full story, and a photo of her in cosplay, here.
Had she been an American adult, I'd expect her to know better (it's worth noting that black cosplayers in the US almost never lighten their skin just to look like a white American or an anime character - unless the character is actually, like, #FFFFFF on the usual RGB scale). However, she has stated outright that she had no idea that this was considered offensive, that she was simply doing her best to look like the character. I think it's reasonable to let her off the hook at least this once, especially looking at the photo of her in Cosplay, which is *clearly* not historical blackface. You have to allow for these misunderstandings when going between such far-flung cultures. And while I'm okay with a teen being extra sensitive - they're teens, of course they'll be like that - it would do everyone well to discuss the matter rather than venting in some newspaper article.
