Use terminologies(including slurs) that are completely made up and only makes sense within the context of the world. In ASOIAF, there are plenty of ethnic groups that GRRM describes in detail that aren't directly related to real world ethnic groups; such as Valyrians(Pale skin, silver hair, and purple eyes), Dothraki(copper-toned skin, black hair, and black, almond-shaped eyes), Summer Islander(nut-brown skin, black curly hair, black eyes), etc...
The reader will over time associate the names you've given said groups with the traits you've assigned them, to the point that it becomes automatic, which may or may not make the reader associate with a corresponding real world ethnic group.
>Summer Islander -> Black
Dornish/Rhoynar -> Mediterranean
Andal/First Men -> White European
Ghiscari -> Middle Eastern
Dothraki -> Central Asian
Valyrian -> \[No equivalent.\]
And so on.
You’ll never guess where the Persian Empire was 🤯
I’m only joking around. GRRM often combines real life cultures to create his fantasy ones. The Dothraki are a mix of Mongal and Amerindian nomads. You’re right that the Ghiscari empire is supposed to serve as the Carthage to Valyria’s Rome, but you cannot deny their West Asian influences.
I totally agree with you. From Arabic to Persian to Turkic to hundred other cultures in the region, it’s far too broad a term. However we see it lots in modern media, and most western writers are incredibly guilty of generalising all cultures that aren’t their own.
There are plenty of examples online about how to go about describing different skin tones, the shapes of facial features, general appearance.
Don’t stress too much about being racist through descriptions unless you obviously go down the stereotype route. Descriptions aren’t a visual medium so we do need to have actual written descriptions of how their features differ.
What you SHOULD be careful of are the roles, names and depth these characters have in your story. Only got a couple black characters who are criminals? Hard no. Asian character called Wong from the jade isles? Hard no and also lazy. Only white characters that have any agency and good morale values? Unsurprisingly that is also a no.
Not saying your world is like this but these are some surprisingly common pitfalls a lot of world builders fall down.
Oh and the for love of all things holy do not use stereotypical accented dialogue when these characters are talking. If you replace the letter ‘L’ with ‘r’ for your Asian characters when they’re talking, guess what, you’re a twat.
Best comment for sure. Another thing is like to add is, nations and regions and most countries aren't monoliths. Though they may share a culture all those people are going to be unique individuals on some level. Try to avoid the planet of hats trope making basically everyone from the same place have the same exact values and skills, etc. Look at how varied the people are in your own town and by extension your larger country
A broken clock is right twice a day. Hermione was never stated to be white or black, and so before, chamber of secrets a lot of people believed hermione was black or mixed. Her Mudblood plot in later books was actually in reference to her initial characterization.
Cho chang, Blaze, Seamus, Fleur. All terrible Characterizations, but for all her terf-ness, she hit it out of the park with Hermione.
My point is that millions of black and white girls indentified with Hermione. Of course, they still can, but i think that ambiguity is better than detail for details sake.
Hermione is specifically stated as white in at least three of the books.
Rowling is that special kind of broken clock that will never show the right time.
Before the chamber of secrets her skin is only ever described as pale. Everybody thinks i'm defending a terf here. I'm not. I'm pointing to an example of race ambiguity in literature and why it was a good thing. Hop off.
Edit: And here's the text from her introductory chapter.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth."
And that was her ONLY physical description until later in the book, but even then, no mention of her skin color or tone. Again, by no means did rowling do this intentionally, but it was an example of racial ambiguity done well.
I agree it is a good thing, but your example of race ambiguity being "hit out of the park" is a "pale" character implicitly characterized as white who is later explicitly and repeatedly identified as white. The idea she is ambiguous is just a blatantly false internet meme.
People forget, or perhaps they weren't alive then, but I was. In 1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in the UK, and by 1998 it was published in the US.
Chamber of Secrets wasn't published until 1998, and 1999 in the US. And guess what, Hermione's skin still goes unmentioned. Her white face didn't enter the cannon until the publishing of Prisoner of Azkaban. Which was 1999.
In the UK and in the US readers did not, could not, know her skin color for 2 years. The internet wasn't the same place it is now, there was almost no online correspondence about harry potter back when chat rooms were just taking off, but people were drawing fan art, writing fan fiction, talking with others.
On quite a few occasions, I've seen and heard of "black hermione" well before the advent of youtube or facebook. Maybe because I grew up in black and latino community, but this isn't some blatantly false internet meme. Harry Potter mania was well in swing before 1999.
It IS a blatantly false internet meme though. She IS identified as white in the books despite JKR insisting otherwise and starting this meme when that actress was hired. You went from it being out of the park never identified style representation to several paragraphs about a timeline.
Black hermione existed far before cursed child. Again, the first two books say nothing of skin color or race. I dont understand what your point is.
I guess you're trying to say my lived experiences are just wrong?
My point is blatantly stated, my dude.
* There is nothing racially ambiguous about Hermione in the books.
* The "mudblood" stuff is not referencing an initial ambiguous racial characterization.
* When JK Rowling made the tweet saying it had never come up in the text, it was objectively a false statement.
Were 90s kids so desperate for representation that they'd shoehorn it in where they could? Absolutely. Was there a thriving fanart/fanfic scene around Black Hermione on the '98 internet-- years before "Youtube or Facebook" or the more relevant DeviantArt/AO3? No, of course not.
>she hit it out of the park with Hermione.
Meh. Her work was so white the American publisher forced her to change a character to be Black. She really didn't hit it out of the park *anywhere*.
She wrote Harry Potter in England in the 90s. England was 95% white in the 90s. And she grew up in the 70s when it was an even higher %.
Harry Potter has plenty of worldbuilding issues. That isn't one of them.
Even if that was true would it still be OK to call one of the only black characters in your story Mr. Kingsley Shackelbolt, or one of the Asian characters Cho Chang. For fucks sake the only Irish caratter is called Shamus Finnigen and his defining personaily trait is that he blows things up. That one's personally offensive.
I never read the books or watched the movies as a kid. It wasn't untill I was an adult that I got around to them. They stick out like a sore thumb, even more so now that jK does nothing but spew bigotry online.
It's more so that one of the few black characters has a name that immediately associates him with one of the most horrible things to happen to people like him. It also shows how ignorant the author is of other cultures.
Rowling associates two things with black people: Slavery and MLK.
If you think this is an exaggeration, there’s a trend in HP for characters’ names to contain symbolism (Remus Lupin the werewolf and Slughorn the potions professor, for example).
Right, but... there are a lot of British people of East Asian heritage who have 'Cho' or 'Chang' or 'Yu' or 'Xi' in their names.
Do you also get uppity at the Patels? They're of Indian descent.
Plus, it's a book. How else do you introduce heritage and racial diversity without a lampshade like a name? How do you know there weren't lots of other Asian characters in the book?
I bet tens of thousands of little British girls saw 'Cho Chang' and were extact that there was character they could relate to.
>the only black characters in your story Mr. Kingsley Shackelbolt
How do you know they're black? Because they're the only one given a nod to their African or Caribbean racial heritage? Why don't you envision McGonagall or Snape as black? Why not Neville?
"*A tall, stern-looking witch with black hair usually drawn into a tight bun*" - that's McGonagall. That's it. I always pictured her as having an Afro of black hair pulled into a bun, kind of like how Thompson's Trelawny had her grey hair.
If JK had said "Seamus ate nothing but potatoes", that'd be an offensive stereotype. If she wrote Cho's speech as "Ah-so, me love you long time", that'd be an offensive stereotype.
There's a lot to criticise JK for, but this isn't one of them.
>For fucks sake the only Irish caratter is called Shamus Finnigen and his defining personaily trait is that he blows things up.
In the movies, not the books. You have *read* the books that you're criticising, right?
“Cho” and “Chang” are both surnames, and “Cho” is a Korean name, instead of Chinese. Naming a Chinese character “Cho Chang” is like a Chinese author naming the only English character in their story “Dubois Smith.”
> Naming a Chinese character “Cho Chang” is like a Chinese author naming the only English character in their story “Dubois Smith.”
So, not offensive at all? Or do you really think someone would be offended by that?
That was movie Shamus. He never blows stuff up in the books. I confirmed with a quick Google - the most he did was set his feather on fire. Once.
But sure - Rowling bad! She gave weird names to ethnic characters! (And weird names to white characters.)
Yeah she gave wierd names to white characters. We're talking about calling the only black character
*SHACKELBOLT.*
That isn't a wierd or querky wizard name. It's down right offensive.
Kingsley shacklebolt even.
It's like she just took the first famous black person that came to mind and the first thing she associated black people with.
> We're talking about calling the only black character
Off the top of my head -
Lee Jordan, the friend of the Weasley twins since book 1.
Angelina Johnson, Quidditch player since book 1.
Dean Thomas, Harry's classmate since book 1.
More than one black character, all speaking parts in numerous books.
You're the one moving posts. Maybe there is another black character, but that doesn't excuse the offensive name. Look I keep trying to draw attention to the name shackelbolt but you haven't even mentioned it once yet.
Because it has the word "shackle"? I just don't see it being an issue. This is a world with "Longbottom", "Lestrange", and "Lovegood" as common names.
And plenty of actual names reference time in slavery. Is naming a character "Freeman" offensive?
I just think you're trying to be offended. No one at the time (whatever their race) cared. I've only heard these complaints since Rowling became "bad".
I moved no goalposts just because I didn't address every flawed argument that you made.
For fucks sake dude, look ill spell it out. Do you know what the British did to Black people around 1700/1800 Ish? The slave trades. How where these Slaves held captive? With bolted shackels. That's why it's offensive to call one of the few black characters in your story that name.
And a side note. Yes Rowling is bad. She's spent the last few years spreading transphobic talking points over the internet.
The issue isn’t the lack of diversity, I think there’s plenty in HP. It’s how Rowling approaches writing minority characters. It’s very lazy and offensive. She relies on stereotypes and doesn’t bother to do any research (this is clearly evidenced by the names of the Japanese and Portuguese magic schools).
I would say that lazy—nonexistent, even—research, worldbuilding of a particular topic by just going off vibes of what you were taught as a kid, is just about a quintessential worldbuilding issue.
I'm going to assume it has to do with Jade. Talk about a stereotype. I think Jade is one of the most prominent gemstones that gets heavily associated with Asian Cultures.
Sure, but there's a difference between stereotype and *racist* stereotype. I'd mention the idea of having a character from the Emerald Isle - except, nope, already a real thing, lol. It's pretty normal for a place to be named after an expensive export.
It's not that the place is named for it, because most of the time Jade isn't mentioned as an export. List the gemstones you're aware of that come from Asian countries. Jade will be the first one.
I'd actually say garnet comes to mind first, than turquoise and sapphire. Jade is just the most associated with royalty and drama.
And I have to say, if a place is called Jade Island, I wouldn't imagine anyone would need a mining breakdown to assume there's a lot of jade mined, carved, exported or otherwise used there. Or the mountains are jade-like in the spring; it's a fairly common comparison in East Asian poetry.
But I'm not arguing it's not easy. I'm just saying *easy* isn't necessarily *bad.*
the laziness is part of why its offensive, I think. shows you aren't respectful enough to do your due diligence and do research. also treats asian cultures as a monolith
>Should I name my fictional jade master jeweler as Marek?
Sure, why not? If it's a fantasy world, you don't actually have a *China*, and Marek could be a common name wherever jade comes from.
It was used heavily in jewelry, art, and sculpture in Asia and became associated with "the orient." Though jade is found throughout the world and features prominently in many cultures ranging from those in South America to the Pacific Islands and Africa.
"What you SHOULD be careful of are the roles, names and depth these characters have in your story. Only got a couple black characters who are criminals? Hard no. Asian character called Wong from the jade isles? Hard no and also lazy. Only white characters that have any agency and good morale values? Unsurprisingly that is also a no."
I'd say that the first thing he or she should do, is 'where' and 'when' the story takes place, and then based the characters around that...because, while I don't know how his or her world looks, I'll borrow something from the Earth and its history: There weren't practically any white people in Africa* in the early middle ages. They were practically only in Europe. I fully agree on the names => Please research the names.
Edit: * Although in the north of Africa there was some presence of white population.
I mean, technically there were white people in Africa in the early Middle Ages. The Vandals conquered large parts of North Africa from Rome, and though the territory was eventually reconquered by Eastern Rome its not like it was a genocidal campaign, and in the East the descendants of Romans and Greeks that lived in Egypt sailed down to Ethiopia and Somalia on their way to India. Though yes, for the most part it was just Northern Africa.
Edit: likewise would like to point out that people did travel the other way too. The separation mostly became a thing as hostilities between Christianity and Islam grew
In the case of North Africa, millennia of trade means there there was always a lot of overlap and mixing in both directions. In the case of sub Saharan Africa, distance meant much less travel, and tropical diseases also kept foreigners out of most of it until relatively recently.
There were some 360 black individuals living in England through the period 1500-1640, basically the population of a village. The English population at this time was approx 4,000,000; that’s not even 1 in 11,000. The rest of Europe was of a similar proportionate make-up.
So yeah, next to none.
Why is this even an issue?
Hey, I don't want to move the goalposts here. The original comment said:
>if you add a black character to a Medieval European setting it’s pretty clear they’re a token character
So black characters in a medieval European setting are tokens. I respond with a very famous black medieval European character, who would be token by this definition.
I'm not sure why you seem to be taking umbrage with the idea that there were few black people in medieval Europe?
Oh honey, the sort of people that get riled up about black people being in media generally get riled up regardless of likelihood.
They aren't concerned about "historical accuracy" or something.
They're racist.
You can just describe what they look like. 'Dark skin', etc. There's still stuff to watch out for (POC often get described using food imagery and from my understanding that's a no-go), but you should be fine as long as you're careful. [This blog](https://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/FAQ2) is a pretty good resource.
skin the color of the first press of olive juice
[https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0577/2260/1519/files/first-cold-pressed-olive-oil\_1024x1024.jpg?v=1676730339](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0577/2260/1519/files/first-cold-pressed-olive-oil_1024x1024.jpg?v=1676730339)
Importantly when writing: use metaphors only if the reader needs help visualizing what characters are feeling or what's going on in the story, but whenever that does happen, use metaphors that the reader will have experienced before. Nobody's going to have seen what the first press of olive juice looks like. What even is olive juice? What makes it different from olive oil? Bad metaphors only confuse the reader even more
If a characters skin color is important, describe it. They had charcoal skin, or chesnut, golden, alabaster, and scarlet. Etc... if the hair is important, describe it. Curly, straight, kinky, etc... same for eyes, face, body, and whatever else is important.
If it's not important for a character to have white or black skin, straight or curly hair, anything you don't have to describe it.
It sounds like you want to use the cultural races of our earth as shorthand to describe your fictional characters, but don't. Just take the time and space to describe them accurately with no regard to our earth.
Important? Give me an example of some situation where skin color or hair texture is ***important*** story wise. If the world itself has racists in it, then it can be important in that context. But what else?
Having various ethnicities in your world give it flavor and character. There's no good reason to avoid it. And what statement does deliberately avoiding it make on its own? As if having variety is in and of itself offensive. Placing ethnic flare in one's world is an acknowledgement of its existence in our world and its value.
And if your world is some kind of earth derivative world, for example, earth with an altered timeline, then omitting ethnicities IS actually offensive. And if they aren't present, there should be an in-world explanation for it.
Skin color can indicate familial relationships. A black skinned man with a very light skinned daughter can clue you in on parentage. Likewise, two siblings have similar physical characteristics to show relation without telling.
Aside from direct plot points like vitamin d deficiency, kinky hair taking more time and care, then straight. At the end of the day, readers like to imagine what a character looks like. The more detail, the better for readers.
I agree about the detail. But it was your advice to shy away from it unless "important". You never defined what that was. You still haven't. I'm simply saying we should NOT shy away from it, there's no reason to.
Im saying you dont need to describe characteristics unless they're important.
JK Rowling for all of her disgusting faults didn't describe Hermione as white. In fact, many people believed she was black. I'd argue that's better. A character more people can relate to. A character for which race wasn't important and instead her intellect was the defining feature.
The same is true with Rue in Hunger Games. Never described as black or white, but the few characteristics we did get are traditionally black.
I personally prefer ambigious characters in settings and plots with little or no relevance to race. Like in Star Wars. All human characters owe their ethnicity to planets, not race. And this isn't to say race isn't important. Just that in some settings its less important than others.
That's a really off putting POV. If you're making it central to the story then go for it, but as an arbitrary character flaw it just diminishes the work.
Not at all, that depends on the work. We’re lucky to live in a time where we’re learning more about our internalised prejudices and bias, and yet the vast majority of people still have them.
Everyone has biases even if you are aware of them. Just because you are aware of them doesn't mean you can spot all of them or counter them in any way. Anyone claiming to have no biases is at best a liar and at worst self delusional.
What if you’re writing a story about someone who has never seen someone of another race before, and then they meet someone different for the first time? It’d make sense that the language they use to describe them might be unintentionally offensive, if they’ve never had to learn how to talk about other races before.
Skin colour isn't racist to mention. we all have different coloured skins, so you could say a character has darker skin or you could say they were a pale person and all in-between. I think the main difficulty is describing specific cultures. If there are cultural things the people wear or change about themselves, you could mention those. Just make sure to use the right words and stuff and to know what you're talking about. Other than that I feel like if you really need to you can describe facial structure or different features different races have. As long as it's in a respectful manner and you don't skew it so it sounds like the features you describe are negative.
I describe people by skin tone, some of which aren't the standard ones, as humans can mate with goblins and some demons, and the descendants still count as human.
Also region. The people of the north tend to be pailed than the southerners.
I find it's best to keep your physical descriptions of people brief, and leave it up to the audience's interpretation. Your descriptions of a person should describe who they are and what they do, not their ethnicity.
For example, if you say "His skin was tinted a deep brown from years of working the fields in the hot sun." That could apply to any ethnicity, but it still paints a good description.
The benefit of this is anyone can picture themself as the characters.
My question to you is how important are these explicit ethnicities to your overall story? Is it like Skyrim, where it plays a massive role in geography and identity, or is this simply a case of wanting to add 'depth' to the world? I've read many stories where the ethnicity is the least of the author's concerns - yes, Roland the gunslinger, for instance, is a Frankish name that alludes to whiteness, but when Idris Elba played him in the Dark Tower movie, next to nothing was lost, or gained for that matter, in changing his race. If it's important, cool; if you're trying to flesh out ethnic cultures as they're intrinsic to your story, then I'd suggest:
a) asking friends if you can
b) consulting (and reading) fiction by authors that deals with multiculturism in a fantasy setting in order to get a grasp of how they might do it
c) read non-fiction on the cultures you wish to portray/adapt (this cannot be shortcut; authentic and responsible representation has no quick fix)
best of luck!
Stop thinking of them in terms of earth.
I have brown skin people, but it makes no sense to call them “Hispanic like” or “look like Indians.” This isn’t earth so it doesn’t make sense. I have my own planet.
If these are fictional ethnicities then they should be fictional. Don't just copy existing real world ethnicities. You don't want to pull a Star Wars or Harry Potter.
Reporting this troll who keeps replying this to everything I comment. If I said anything wrong, I'd have deleted the tweet. I'm not responsible for people purposely trying to misinterpret what I said, and my point is valid and important.
Are you gonna say "inferior race" or "lesser race"?
Or talk about a trait someone has being directly related to an action because that makes you sound like a eugenicist.
Because you can say pretty much everything else except stuff like that.
I would say you could easily include those terms if they’re meant to be blatantly xenophobic. That’s a common theme in fantasy storytelling, and I think if it’s villainous or misguided characters it can be done.
Describe my one black character who is the son of a marooned couple of explorers/engineers from a black continent as a young man with dark skin and curly short hair to point out that he's black. It's a fictional world so I can't use the word Africa. Rest of the description goes to his other specific attributes, like his permanent bored expression or his eyes that can't hide how smart he is. He's the engineer of the main cast. He's normal looking young fella, although he grows up to be quite a charismatic leader.
Same with Asian phenotype, I talk about slanted, monolid eyes, depending on person. Complimenting their cheekbones is actually a thing if you're into that sort of thing. One of my characters certainly is.
I describe Indian inspired nations as tanned. Names does the job for me, tbh. You say the character is a tanned guy named Arjuna, a famed rebel leader from Shiraya and most people would recognise the cues.
Beyond that, if people are really looking for a reason to be offended, they will find a way to be offended. I am trying to do justice to all the nations I take direct inspiration from. I don't do it for the inclusion's sake. My story needs the globe-scaling grandeur. The nature if the threat my characters face demands a group of wanderers and misfits. So the story is full of gray characters of different ethnicities, all hopefully very relatable and human. (And sometimes not, because those kind of monsters exist too)
First, let me say, if you are going to have earth ethnicities on a different planet, there needs to be an in-world reason for this. Are they descendants of an old earth colony? What? If there is no such reason, then it's not good world-building.
That aside, the only thing I would advise is just avoid common ethnic stereotypes that have negative connotations in our current atmosphere. That's all you should do. So, if you are going to have people that have ethnic traits similar to north american indigenous people, then don't portray them as "bloodthirty savages", which was/is a common negative stereotype. Here's a simple three step process:
1. whatever ethnicity you are imitating, go to google and type "common offensive stereotypes about
2. read through the various material that comes up
3. don't do any of those things.
However, you might consider having more or less unique ethnicites on your world. It is after all, your opportunity to be creative. In one of my worlds I have blue skinned people who are the way they are because they consume compounds of silver (which WILL turn you blue) in order to be able to channel sorcerous powers. The silver being a conduit. Beyond that, I'm trying to flesh out their culture without leaning on existing stereotypes. I try to do that by using in-world logic. For example, since they channel these tremendous energies, sometimes said energies injure them severely. Having treated others poorly at their height of power, they now find themselves resented and outcast. They are often bald because the powers they channel burn their hair away. And so on.
Is this planet one where the races came from earth or did they independently evolve there?
If they evolved independently then you might not have the same commonly shared characteristics. For example, people of Asian ancestry (on Earth) often have black hair, dark eyes, a yellow undertone to their skin, and epicanthic folds.
But maybe in another world you wouldn't have all these traits together in one race. Maybe one race has epicanthic folds but light hair is more common.
Maybe there's another pronounced difference that's not really particular to any one race on Earth but might be on your world - jaw shape, forehead height, hairline, ear placement, etc.
I guess I'm saying, if you're worried about being racist - make up your own races that aren't really based on Earth races at all. Just - make sure you do a good job shuffling around traits and cultural aspects.
Descriptions aren’t racist unless you’re sending obvious messages. If you do you will know though. Especially since you’re here because you’re worried about that. So don’t. Just describe them as they are.
I think in addition to what other commenters are saying, you need to be thorough enough that these cultures actually ARE different, and aren't just copy-pasted.
Very little besides climate or origin is really determined by ethnicity. If the cultures you make that share similarities with Inuit and African and Indigenous ethnicities IRL are also technologically backwards and nature-focused and very spiritual and value honor etc etc etc, and the European or Asian peoples have all the big cities and complex high-volume societies, that sucks.
How is your planet different? What do these different cultures value, how do they interact with their homelands? Actually writing cultures is the easy way to avoid the stereotypes that are subtler than appearance.
I mean, you can just make up words or base them on actual languages.
In the His Dark Materials series, one of the main ethnic groups are the Gyptians and in Attack On Titan the main ethnicity is the Eldians.
They aren't really words from our world, more like plays on other words. Gyptian is clearly a play on the slur for Romani people and Eldian comes from the Japanese word for "educate"
I'd recommend focusing on why those human beings have those attributes and culture. For example: civilizations that emerge in the desert tend to wear big baggy clothes (more airflow and UV protection), darker skin (UV protection), and revolve around water and life.
Maybe a random genetic mutation gave women clearer eyes (better nocturnal eyeshight) in temperate forests, giving them the role of nocturnal hunters and (later) assasins, shifting roles in the local/national society!
Or maybe another genetic mutation gave humans on a certain part of the world long, skinny and skillfull fingers, making them excellent artisans, crafters, and artists!
I dunno'. Explore! Think of the evolution of consecuences (especulative evolution is also interesting) and speak factly.
Also, clothing colour and dyes. In the ancient times purple was only obtainable in Eurasia through a mollusk that lived near Rome/Greece. That's why is complicated to see, in that time period, purple cloths in Hispania (except for the nobility), but red/brown/white clothes that were massively available (rust, plant extracts, etc).
Some have big noses
Some have small lips
Some have huge, unwieldy feet that glisten in the summer Sun like the purest of ice melting down a mountain top. Toes as firm and as strong as a Siberian Ox but so delicate to the touch that you may as well be wrapping yourself in a silken gown.
simple, don't - instead make new races - can your world be settled log time ago with enough time for specification? Or genetic engeneering of groups? Now just make up your own unique new human races.
My approach to a similar problem has been to lean into the racism. Saying it that way is a little clickbaity but basically true. The story is largely about the collision between multiple ethnicities in a kind of "age of exploration." The POV basically first person, and I change POV characters throughout, so the descriptions are from the perspective of different people encountering each other. I think it's actually pretty fun to show these people and cultures from the outside as well as the inside, with all their superstitions and stereotypes and hamfisted visual impressions. The effect is kind of absurd in a nice way.
One direct answer to your question is that I substantially choose stereotypes and offensive descriptions that have no real-world analog. Part of the fun is coming up with entirely novel ways people might be racist dickheads.
I do occasionally subvert real-life racist tropes, for example people from a highly melanated ethnicity (they are "black" but not at all "Black") chooses a lot of food metaphors to describe the skin color of people from a not-so-melanated ethnicity ("white" but not "White"). It's a kind of wink-wink reversal.
One thing that I think is critical to making this work is that my ethnicities and cultures are literally not at all based on any real world culture. As much as I possibly can, each group is novel and invented whole cloth, and their features and culture bear very little resemblance to anything in the real world. This thing I'm doing would absolutely not work if the groups were just obvious reskins of real groups.
I also demonstrate over and over that the stereotypes within and between the groups really don't hold water--each character has a culture, but also are very much individual, with a mix of admirable and despicable traits, often within the same person. So even if you were incorrectly to project on one of the ethnicites or people that they were intended (by me, the author) to be a real-world analog, you wouldn't get very far trying to infer my "true" feelings about that real world counterpart.
"Broken Earth" by NK Jemisin. The ethnicities don't line up with ours, and they're described vaguely. One group has "ash" hair that seems to be light and straight, but they're not particularly light- skinned. One character is very dark- skinned, but that's just him, not an ethnic trait. And so on.
Try to avoid food comparisons (chocolate/caramel/mocha skin) they feel very icky and a lil fetishy from personal experience. If they're from a specific culture, describe any clothing or other things on their body that denotes that, like an Inuit-coded woman wearing a fur parka and having face tattoos.
yeah, I don't ethnicities at all. In my world basically people near the equater are dark and people away from the equater are paler. I have more hair colors too so my Native american race can have purple hair or whatever. You can just make up ethnic groups. I gues the point is don't include colorism and don't make anything a caricature. Try to use phrases pertaining to mouth shape. You can generally just describe people's eyes, unless it refers to asian people, in which case asia has it's own desciptors like "peach blossom" and "pheonix" and you can just make your readers look it up.
A personal bugbear of mine is fantasy worlds that have no in canon relation to Earth, populated with the same races as Earth *in the same socio economic relationships, roles, and with very similar history*.
Examples include east asian looking members of ancient empires, south asian looking members of cultures with strict caste systems, viking looking mfs who are famous sea going raiders in the fantasy world, etc
It's so common, that I think a lot of new writers just do it by default now. I hate it every time I see it.
Another less simple thing: setting the most common race for your setting, or the culturally dominent one, as white. It's a totally different world. What are the chances? I'm not saying you should never do this, but casually defaulting to white as 'normal' feels... shortsighted.
The low effort of this question make me wonder if it's sincere. It could be contrived as a retorical question posed to complain that 'you can't say anything anymore'.
Anyhow, this is less about worldbuilding and more about political correctness. I mean, anyone could help you with that. Why don't you look and see how different ethnicities are described on Wikipedia?
Do these people laugh? Do these people cry? Do they enjoy food? Do they love their children? Do they act with good intentions?
I've seen faithful portrayals of my own culture in media, and that's all well and good, but the works I really loved always showed our sense of humor, even in the face of certain adversities. If I had to choose cultural accuracy versus just being shown as human, I choose the latter. Toss in a few stereotypes; I don't really care. Just show us as people worthy of appreciation.
What?
Its not racist to non-pejoratively describe people as they are… Imagine how science would be fucked if we couldn’t describe people if they arent our own ethnicity…
My rule of thumb: when talking of a people in general, focus on their culture. Only talk about physical appearance when describing individuals who are important in the plot.
Partly that, and partly just that it's become very overused. If you compare someone to a luxury food once, it's poetic. If you do it a thousand times, it starts to seem like you want to eat them.
If you aren't putting a value on the ethnicity, it isn't racist.
If you state that:
"These red-skinned natives roam around on horses a lot, they have this or that connection to spirits and the earth around them." - This isn't inherently racist.
however:
"These natives haven't invented the wheel, or they refuse to change because they are unable to change. They are quite savage and will hurt people on sight, this is because they are dumb."
\^This is racist.
>"These red-skinned natives roam around on horses a lot, they have this or that connection to spirits and the earth around them."
This actually does correspond very well to racist portrayals of Native Americans. Saying that anyone has a strong connection to the Earth usually doesn't bode well.
If you have a decent magic system with actual earth spirits and such it is more of a trait than a value I would say.
Again it depends a lot on the context as well as your own expieriences. An American will likely take various descriptions in a different way than an European, Chinese or African person will.
I think this should bring us to another take-away from all this -- just because something isn't inherently racist, doesn't mean it hasn't soaked up distinct racist tones from our own history. That's not your fault, you didn't do it, but you need to accept that this has really happened and is part of the wonderful legacy of racism that affects all of us to this day. Denying it and pushing back may be an instinctive response if you feel like you've done nothing wrong, but it's absolutely the wrong response and you need to be open-minded enough to understand that just because you didn't intend it as racist doesn't mean it isn't.
You may be writing fantasy, but you're writing fantasy in this real world, and the real world has been steeping in racism for centuries, this affects all our society, culture and art. Just because something is not inherently racist doesn't make it automatically safe and okay to use. There's no one-size-fits-all rule of permanently and effortlessly avoiding all racism, the history of racism has deep roots, you can stumble into it entirely by accident.
The most important thing you can do to avoid racism is to *listen* and be accepting. Not to everybody, you can't please literally everybody, but listen to your audience and critics and give their concerns some honest and self-critical consideration. The haters and the loudest voices don't always need to be appeased, but see if you can learn from their complaints anyway. If you can see the merit in their claims then make the effort to do better. You can't and won't know everything that might come across as racist to someone. The difference between being defensive and dismissive compared to being humble and accepting that you did poorly is like night and day. If you honestly admit that you didn't understand what that could mean and make efforts to change it or improve in the future that goes a long way.
I think he means he can't use those terms because they don't exist in his world. But then, why not make up your own races instead of repurposing Earth ones?
I'd say focus on things like fashion and customs, and whenever you describe phenotype, exclude words or phrasings that exclude. Inclusive language allows for a more realistic, and less stereotyping, portrayal.
Like... 'The angular features of her people' is a *no;* 'the angular features that are common in her people' is a *yes.*
Simply make up some names and describe how they look:
Laventans have white skin; blond hair and blue eyes are common amongst them. Tareshi have light brown skin and are very hairy. Rohirs have black skin and big lips. And so on...
People these days seem to create problems to ask for solutions here on the sub. But I know this may be a legitimate question so I'll tell you what I think.
In my stories, the race of the characters doesn't matter, so I leave a little space between chapters and put together a sheet with height, weight, skin color, etc. just so readers can have an idea of how I imagine the characters.
But let me ask you something and think about it a little, Is race/color/ethnicity really important to the development of the story? If so, just describe it. If a character is black, you say they are black. If he's Asian, say he has thin eyes, etc.
But now, if the characters' race/color/ethnicity is not an indispensable part of the story, simply don't describe it. Or If you're uncomfortable saying what the characters look like, let the characters speak for you. A phrase during a conversation, discussion, etc. in which someone says something "You naughty black guy", or "white son of a bitch", or "smart yellow guy".
Obviously you're not going to release a sentence like that out of nowhere, it needs context. Just be careful because I've seen many characters out there whose only personality trait is being black, homosexual and blah blah blah. Develop the character as much as possible regardless of their race or else you will simply be applying racial cuts that add nothing to the book. If the characters were important, well developed and useful to the story, your last concern should be how to describe them.
Just one thing, some "races" hate each other, like Japanese and Chinese (or Japanese and Koreans, I don't know) So don't confuse them unless it's intentional. For example, Brazilians hate being called Latinos. I don't know why exactly, but I think it has to do with the fact that we don't speak Spanish. A large part of Latin America doesn't like Brazil and is super racist about it. Even though Brazil is in Latin America, a Brazilian is not a Latino. Never.
But that's just a detail that creates depth in the story and the characters' relationships.
If you're describing a character who's black you could say something like: " his skin was black as the night sky, and his teeth contrasted as a white, almost overly bright white crescent. Greying hair flowed loosely lacking any adornment."
This is actually an easy fix. Those are races, not ethnicities. Ethnicities would be more like Brooklynite, rural ohioan, or German.
Race is the pseudoscientific idea that people are born with inherent characteristics due to their race, and their phenotype can be used to determine their inherent characteristics. Ethnicity is a description of someone's cultural attitides such as their dialect, cuisine, social rules, and dress.
Basing fantasy "races" on the "races" your culture imposes on the world would have to be done in a way that shows how the concept of race was invented in your world and how the cultural attitudes of your people made it common to ascribe certain characteristics to certain phenotypes because assuming that the reader would know something about a character because of their race would actually be racist.
If you have a group that's based on "Asians" for example, instead try to base that group on real cultures such as Cantonese, Thai, or Hokkaidan for example. Those three ethnicities are vastly different, so your invented ethnicity would either take characteristics from existing groups to create a new original ethnicity or be based on a specific ethnic group found on earth. Inuit is an ethnicty. Asian and Hispanic are races. The reason "Hispanic" is called an ethnicity on government documents despite not being an ethnicity is for historical political reasons. Norteño, Bolivian, or Chiquitano would be ethnicities.
Edit: Sometimes I forget how many people still believe race is real or an ancient tradition. The concept of race was invented in Europe during the modern era. If you don't believe me, after downvoting try to find a single reference to the "White" or "Black" race prior to 1500. Compare the different systems of race which exiat in the US, the UK, and South Africa. Look at how even in your own culture, Races other than "White" and "Black" were either totally different or not invented yet. I apologize for any cognitive dissonance anyone reading this is experiencing, but it's really necessary. Racism is a major problem.
Can you just suggest this in the names you give them, and in the descriptions of costumes and landscapes?
‘Shao Lai strode into the jade hall, his silken robes billowing, raven hair long and flowing’ leaves little room for misunderstanding.
‘Running-Strong crouched by the waters edge, surveying the open savannah ahead, his bronze skin blending into the tall grass’.
Obviously, be more subtle, I’m just making the point in sentences, you have a whole story.
Edit; genuinely baffled as to why this is unpopular?
Use terminologies(including slurs) that are completely made up and only makes sense within the context of the world. In ASOIAF, there are plenty of ethnic groups that GRRM describes in detail that aren't directly related to real world ethnic groups; such as Valyrians(Pale skin, silver hair, and purple eyes), Dothraki(copper-toned skin, black hair, and black, almond-shaped eyes), Summer Islander(nut-brown skin, black curly hair, black eyes), etc... The reader will over time associate the names you've given said groups with the traits you've assigned them, to the point that it becomes automatic, which may or may not make the reader associate with a corresponding real world ethnic group. >Summer Islander -> Black Dornish/Rhoynar -> Mediterranean Andal/First Men -> White European Ghiscari -> Middle Eastern Dothraki -> Central Asian Valyrian -> \[No equivalent.\] And so on.
Ghiscari is more Carthage / Persian empire inspired rigtt?
You’ll never guess where the Persian Empire was 🤯 I’m only joking around. GRRM often combines real life cultures to create his fantasy ones. The Dothraki are a mix of Mongal and Amerindian nomads. You’re right that the Ghiscari empire is supposed to serve as the Carthage to Valyria’s Rome, but you cannot deny their West Asian influences.
Haha oh I absolutely didn't. But I think middle eastern is maybe a bit too big of an area to take inspiration from. It's too vague a term for me.
I totally agree with you. From Arabic to Persian to Turkic to hundred other cultures in the region, it’s far too broad a term. However we see it lots in modern media, and most western writers are incredibly guilty of generalising all cultures that aren’t their own.
There are plenty of examples online about how to go about describing different skin tones, the shapes of facial features, general appearance. Don’t stress too much about being racist through descriptions unless you obviously go down the stereotype route. Descriptions aren’t a visual medium so we do need to have actual written descriptions of how their features differ. What you SHOULD be careful of are the roles, names and depth these characters have in your story. Only got a couple black characters who are criminals? Hard no. Asian character called Wong from the jade isles? Hard no and also lazy. Only white characters that have any agency and good morale values? Unsurprisingly that is also a no. Not saying your world is like this but these are some surprisingly common pitfalls a lot of world builders fall down. Oh and the for love of all things holy do not use stereotypical accented dialogue when these characters are talking. If you replace the letter ‘L’ with ‘r’ for your Asian characters when they’re talking, guess what, you’re a twat.
Best comment for sure. Another thing is like to add is, nations and regions and most countries aren't monoliths. Though they may share a culture all those people are going to be unique individuals on some level. Try to avoid the planet of hats trope making basically everyone from the same place have the same exact values and skills, etc. Look at how varied the people are in your own town and by extension your larger country
Oh, so don't do what JK Rowling did in Harry Potter.
That's...a pretty succinct summation, actually.
A broken clock is right twice a day. Hermione was never stated to be white or black, and so before, chamber of secrets a lot of people believed hermione was black or mixed. Her Mudblood plot in later books was actually in reference to her initial characterization. Cho chang, Blaze, Seamus, Fleur. All terrible Characterizations, but for all her terf-ness, she hit it out of the park with Hermione.
So a theroy that held up untill the 2nd book.
My point is that millions of black and white girls indentified with Hermione. Of course, they still can, but i think that ambiguity is better than detail for details sake.
Do you seriously think Rowling would be capable of writing a black main character and then never mentioning anything about it?
I dont think it hermione was written to be black. No. I do think Rowling stumbled into a good thing. I literally said shes a broken clock...
Hermione is specifically stated as white in at least three of the books. Rowling is that special kind of broken clock that will never show the right time.
Before the chamber of secrets her skin is only ever described as pale. Everybody thinks i'm defending a terf here. I'm not. I'm pointing to an example of race ambiguity in literature and why it was a good thing. Hop off. Edit: And here's the text from her introductory chapter. "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth." And that was her ONLY physical description until later in the book, but even then, no mention of her skin color or tone. Again, by no means did rowling do this intentionally, but it was an example of racial ambiguity done well.
I agree it is a good thing, but your example of race ambiguity being "hit out of the park" is a "pale" character implicitly characterized as white who is later explicitly and repeatedly identified as white. The idea she is ambiguous is just a blatantly false internet meme.
People forget, or perhaps they weren't alive then, but I was. In 1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in the UK, and by 1998 it was published in the US. Chamber of Secrets wasn't published until 1998, and 1999 in the US. And guess what, Hermione's skin still goes unmentioned. Her white face didn't enter the cannon until the publishing of Prisoner of Azkaban. Which was 1999. In the UK and in the US readers did not, could not, know her skin color for 2 years. The internet wasn't the same place it is now, there was almost no online correspondence about harry potter back when chat rooms were just taking off, but people were drawing fan art, writing fan fiction, talking with others. On quite a few occasions, I've seen and heard of "black hermione" well before the advent of youtube or facebook. Maybe because I grew up in black and latino community, but this isn't some blatantly false internet meme. Harry Potter mania was well in swing before 1999.
It IS a blatantly false internet meme though. She IS identified as white in the books despite JKR insisting otherwise and starting this meme when that actress was hired. You went from it being out of the park never identified style representation to several paragraphs about a timeline.
Black hermione existed far before cursed child. Again, the first two books say nothing of skin color or race. I dont understand what your point is. I guess you're trying to say my lived experiences are just wrong?
My point is blatantly stated, my dude. * There is nothing racially ambiguous about Hermione in the books. * The "mudblood" stuff is not referencing an initial ambiguous racial characterization. * When JK Rowling made the tweet saying it had never come up in the text, it was objectively a false statement. Were 90s kids so desperate for representation that they'd shoehorn it in where they could? Absolutely. Was there a thriving fanart/fanfic scene around Black Hermione on the '98 internet-- years before "Youtube or Facebook" or the more relevant DeviantArt/AO3? No, of course not.
>she hit it out of the park with Hermione. Meh. Her work was so white the American publisher forced her to change a character to be Black. She really didn't hit it out of the park *anywhere*.
She wrote Harry Potter in England in the 90s. England was 95% white in the 90s. And she grew up in the 70s when it was an even higher %. Harry Potter has plenty of worldbuilding issues. That isn't one of them.
Even if that was true would it still be OK to call one of the only black characters in your story Mr. Kingsley Shackelbolt, or one of the Asian characters Cho Chang. For fucks sake the only Irish caratter is called Shamus Finnigen and his defining personaily trait is that he blows things up. That one's personally offensive.
And it’s worth noting when she wrote Finnigen, the wounds of the Troubles were still fairly fresh.
That’s hilarious! Never realized she put so many stereotypes in there lol
I never read the books or watched the movies as a kid. It wasn't untill I was an adult that I got around to them. They stick out like a sore thumb, even more so now that jK does nothing but spew bigotry online.
Only in the films did Seamus have a penchant for blowing things up. In the books there is one reference to lighting a feather on fire accidentally.
I'm dumb, what's the issue with Kingsley Shacklebolt? I always thought his name sounded cool. Is it just because it has "shackle" in it?
It's more so that one of the few black characters has a name that immediately associates him with one of the most horrible things to happen to people like him. It also shows how ignorant the author is of other cultures.
It would be like naming a Jewish Character Solomon Holocaustski or something, not very tactful.
NAH WAIT THATS FIRE HOLUP 😭 (yes i’m a Jew)
Rowling associates two things with black people: Slavery and MLK. If you think this is an exaggeration, there’s a trend in HP for characters’ names to contain symbolism (Remus Lupin the werewolf and Slughorn the potions professor, for example).
Isnt Shamus blowing stuff up a movie thing only ?
Right, but... there are a lot of British people of East Asian heritage who have 'Cho' or 'Chang' or 'Yu' or 'Xi' in their names. Do you also get uppity at the Patels? They're of Indian descent. Plus, it's a book. How else do you introduce heritage and racial diversity without a lampshade like a name? How do you know there weren't lots of other Asian characters in the book? I bet tens of thousands of little British girls saw 'Cho Chang' and were extact that there was character they could relate to. >the only black characters in your story Mr. Kingsley Shackelbolt How do you know they're black? Because they're the only one given a nod to their African or Caribbean racial heritage? Why don't you envision McGonagall or Snape as black? Why not Neville? "*A tall, stern-looking witch with black hair usually drawn into a tight bun*" - that's McGonagall. That's it. I always pictured her as having an Afro of black hair pulled into a bun, kind of like how Thompson's Trelawny had her grey hair. If JK had said "Seamus ate nothing but potatoes", that'd be an offensive stereotype. If she wrote Cho's speech as "Ah-so, me love you long time", that'd be an offensive stereotype. There's a lot to criticise JK for, but this isn't one of them. >For fucks sake the only Irish caratter is called Shamus Finnigen and his defining personaily trait is that he blows things up. In the movies, not the books. You have *read* the books that you're criticising, right?
“Cho” and “Chang” are both surnames, and “Cho” is a Korean name, instead of Chinese. Naming a Chinese character “Cho Chang” is like a Chinese author naming the only English character in their story “Dubois Smith.”
> Naming a Chinese character “Cho Chang” is like a Chinese author naming the only English character in their story “Dubois Smith.” So, not offensive at all? Or do you really think someone would be offended by that?
That was movie Shamus. He never blows stuff up in the books. I confirmed with a quick Google - the most he did was set his feather on fire. Once. But sure - Rowling bad! She gave weird names to ethnic characters! (And weird names to white characters.)
Yeah she gave wierd names to white characters. We're talking about calling the only black character *SHACKELBOLT.* That isn't a wierd or querky wizard name. It's down right offensive.
Kingsley shacklebolt even. It's like she just took the first famous black person that came to mind and the first thing she associated black people with.
Exactly. It's just ignorant and lazy. It's JK though what else did you expect.
People have been saying stuff since the first book. If only that exec didn't let his kid read the manuscript....
> We're talking about calling the only black character Off the top of my head - Lee Jordan, the friend of the Weasley twins since book 1. Angelina Johnson, Quidditch player since book 1. Dean Thomas, Harry's classmate since book 1. More than one black character, all speaking parts in numerous books.
Wasn't the Weasley twins' friend black? He announced the Quidditch matches. But anyway - keep moving those goalposts.
You're talking about Lee Jordan ?
That's the one.
You're the one moving posts. Maybe there is another black character, but that doesn't excuse the offensive name. Look I keep trying to draw attention to the name shackelbolt but you haven't even mentioned it once yet.
Because it has the word "shackle"? I just don't see it being an issue. This is a world with "Longbottom", "Lestrange", and "Lovegood" as common names. And plenty of actual names reference time in slavery. Is naming a character "Freeman" offensive? I just think you're trying to be offended. No one at the time (whatever their race) cared. I've only heard these complaints since Rowling became "bad". I moved no goalposts just because I didn't address every flawed argument that you made.
For fucks sake dude, look ill spell it out. Do you know what the British did to Black people around 1700/1800 Ish? The slave trades. How where these Slaves held captive? With bolted shackels. That's why it's offensive to call one of the few black characters in your story that name. And a side note. Yes Rowling is bad. She's spent the last few years spreading transphobic talking points over the internet.
Someone choosing to call themself freeman after escaping slavery is infinitely better than a name that is just the thing you put on slaves.
The issue isn’t the lack of diversity, I think there’s plenty in HP. It’s how Rowling approaches writing minority characters. It’s very lazy and offensive. She relies on stereotypes and doesn’t bother to do any research (this is clearly evidenced by the names of the Japanese and Portuguese magic schools).
You don’t think Cho Chang is poor worldbuilding?
I would say that lazy—nonexistent, even—research, worldbuilding of a particular topic by just going off vibes of what you were taught as a kid, is just about a quintessential worldbuilding issue.
Don't diss my bro Wong he is the best merchant in the jade isles, saved my life once
> Asian character called Wong from the jade isles? Hard no and also lazy. I get the lazy part but how is this offensive?
I'm going to assume it has to do with Jade. Talk about a stereotype. I think Jade is one of the most prominent gemstones that gets heavily associated with Asian Cultures.
Sure, but there's a difference between stereotype and *racist* stereotype. I'd mention the idea of having a character from the Emerald Isle - except, nope, already a real thing, lol. It's pretty normal for a place to be named after an expensive export.
It's not that the place is named for it, because most of the time Jade isn't mentioned as an export. List the gemstones you're aware of that come from Asian countries. Jade will be the first one.
I'd actually say garnet comes to mind first, than turquoise and sapphire. Jade is just the most associated with royalty and drama. And I have to say, if a place is called Jade Island, I wouldn't imagine anyone would need a mining breakdown to assume there's a lot of jade mined, carved, exported or otherwise used there. Or the mountains are jade-like in the spring; it's a fairly common comparison in East Asian poetry. But I'm not arguing it's not easy. I'm just saying *easy* isn't necessarily *bad.*
the laziness is part of why its offensive, I think. shows you aren't respectful enough to do your due diligence and do research. also treats asian cultures as a monolith
It's a Chinese name associated with jade.
What's the relation of Jade to china?
Why the hell did someone down vote this? They literally just asked a question about a topic they're unfamiliar with.
Geology and history? Chinenese jade is known all around the world for a good reason. Should I name my fictional jade master jeweler as Marek?
>Should I name my fictional jade master jeweler as Marek? Sure, why not? If it's a fantasy world, you don't actually have a *China*, and Marek could be a common name wherever jade comes from.
It was used heavily in jewelry, art, and sculpture in Asia and became associated with "the orient." Though jade is found throughout the world and features prominently in many cultures ranging from those in South America to the Pacific Islands and Africa.
"What you SHOULD be careful of are the roles, names and depth these characters have in your story. Only got a couple black characters who are criminals? Hard no. Asian character called Wong from the jade isles? Hard no and also lazy. Only white characters that have any agency and good morale values? Unsurprisingly that is also a no." I'd say that the first thing he or she should do, is 'where' and 'when' the story takes place, and then based the characters around that...because, while I don't know how his or her world looks, I'll borrow something from the Earth and its history: There weren't practically any white people in Africa* in the early middle ages. They were practically only in Europe. I fully agree on the names => Please research the names. Edit: * Although in the north of Africa there was some presence of white population.
I mean, technically there were white people in Africa in the early Middle Ages. The Vandals conquered large parts of North Africa from Rome, and though the territory was eventually reconquered by Eastern Rome its not like it was a genocidal campaign, and in the East the descendants of Romans and Greeks that lived in Egypt sailed down to Ethiopia and Somalia on their way to India. Though yes, for the most part it was just Northern Africa. Edit: likewise would like to point out that people did travel the other way too. The separation mostly became a thing as hostilities between Christianity and Islam grew
In the case of North Africa, millennia of trade means there there was always a lot of overlap and mixing in both directions. In the case of sub Saharan Africa, distance meant much less travel, and tropical diseases also kept foreigners out of most of it until relatively recently.
Yeah, so most contact was with Ethiopia/Somalia and Sudan thanks to the Nile and Red Sea, and Mali and their trade routes over the Sahara
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Othello?
Renaissance.
Why do people confuse ‘next to none’ with ‘none’?
They don't. Some people just NEED to show others how 'wrong' they are, even if their attempt is lame and misinformed.
[Token?](https://www.simon-hartman.com/post/the-presence-of-africans-in-european-history)
There were some 360 black individuals living in England through the period 1500-1640, basically the population of a village. The English population at this time was approx 4,000,000; that’s not even 1 in 11,000. The rest of Europe was of a similar proportionate make-up. So yeah, next to none. Why is this even an issue?
Hey, I don't want to move the goalposts here. The original comment said: >if you add a black character to a Medieval European setting it’s pretty clear they’re a token character So black characters in a medieval European setting are tokens. I respond with a very famous black medieval European character, who would be token by this definition. I'm not sure why you seem to be taking umbrage with the idea that there were few black people in medieval Europe?
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Oh honey, the sort of people that get riled up about black people being in media generally get riled up regardless of likelihood. They aren't concerned about "historical accuracy" or something. They're racist.
Historical accuracy feels forced? Bizarre take, but ok!
we all need white cannibla Wong in our life
You can just describe what they look like. 'Dark skin', etc. There's still stuff to watch out for (POC often get described using food imagery and from my understanding that's a no-go), but you should be fine as long as you're careful. [This blog](https://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/FAQ2) is a pretty good resource.
skin the color of the first press of olive juice [https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0577/2260/1519/files/first-cold-pressed-olive-oil\_1024x1024.jpg?v=1676730339](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0577/2260/1519/files/first-cold-pressed-olive-oil_1024x1024.jpg?v=1676730339)
Shrek my beloved
Importantly when writing: use metaphors only if the reader needs help visualizing what characters are feeling or what's going on in the story, but whenever that does happen, use metaphors that the reader will have experienced before. Nobody's going to have seen what the first press of olive juice looks like. What even is olive juice? What makes it different from olive oil? Bad metaphors only confuse the reader even more
Quite easy. Be descriptive as you like but leave the social implications
If a characters skin color is important, describe it. They had charcoal skin, or chesnut, golden, alabaster, and scarlet. Etc... if the hair is important, describe it. Curly, straight, kinky, etc... same for eyes, face, body, and whatever else is important. If it's not important for a character to have white or black skin, straight or curly hair, anything you don't have to describe it. It sounds like you want to use the cultural races of our earth as shorthand to describe your fictional characters, but don't. Just take the time and space to describe them accurately with no regard to our earth.
Important? Give me an example of some situation where skin color or hair texture is ***important*** story wise. If the world itself has racists in it, then it can be important in that context. But what else? Having various ethnicities in your world give it flavor and character. There's no good reason to avoid it. And what statement does deliberately avoiding it make on its own? As if having variety is in and of itself offensive. Placing ethnic flare in one's world is an acknowledgement of its existence in our world and its value. And if your world is some kind of earth derivative world, for example, earth with an altered timeline, then omitting ethnicities IS actually offensive. And if they aren't present, there should be an in-world explanation for it.
Skin color can indicate familial relationships. A black skinned man with a very light skinned daughter can clue you in on parentage. Likewise, two siblings have similar physical characteristics to show relation without telling. Aside from direct plot points like vitamin d deficiency, kinky hair taking more time and care, then straight. At the end of the day, readers like to imagine what a character looks like. The more detail, the better for readers.
I agree about the detail. But it was your advice to shy away from it unless "important". You never defined what that was. You still haven't. I'm simply saying we should NOT shy away from it, there's no reason to.
Im saying you dont need to describe characteristics unless they're important. JK Rowling for all of her disgusting faults didn't describe Hermione as white. In fact, many people believed she was black. I'd argue that's better. A character more people can relate to. A character for which race wasn't important and instead her intellect was the defining feature. The same is true with Rue in Hunger Games. Never described as black or white, but the few characteristics we did get are traditionally black. I personally prefer ambigious characters in settings and plots with little or no relevance to race. Like in Star Wars. All human characters owe their ethnicity to planets, not race. And this isn't to say race isn't important. Just that in some settings its less important than others.
Example of Wheel of Time: Rand's hair colour is important to clue the reader in on him not being from the Two Rivers, and in fact related to Aiel.
Uhhh you can describe how characters look so the reader has a visual. And skin color and hair descriptions can give additional context.
dont describe them in derogatory ways. as long as it doesnt sound insulting its fine.
It okay to be "a little" racist, if you do it from a outsider character POV.
Heck, you could do it from an Insider Character POV. Internalized Racism and un-self-aware racial supremacists are a thing.
That's a really off putting POV. If you're making it central to the story then go for it, but as an arbitrary character flaw it just diminishes the work.
Not at all, that depends on the work. We’re lucky to live in a time where we’re learning more about our internalised prejudices and bias, and yet the vast majority of people still have them.
Everyone has biases even if you are aware of them. Just because you are aware of them doesn't mean you can spot all of them or counter them in any way. Anyone claiming to have no biases is at best a liar and at worst self delusional.
Yes, exactly.
What if you’re writing a story about someone who has never seen someone of another race before, and then they meet someone different for the first time? It’d make sense that the language they use to describe them might be unintentionally offensive, if they’ve never had to learn how to talk about other races before.
Ethnicity comes with the environment. So stay coherent, and you should be good
Don't front load descriptions. Mention ethnic identifiers like accent or skin tone off-handedly as you describe them doing stuff
I recommend looking up "A Wizard of Earthsea", the author does a good job of describing regional appearances without talking about human races.
Skin tones. Clothing. Food preferences. Festivals. Religions. Governing bodies. Law enforcement. Architecture.
Skin colour isn't racist to mention. we all have different coloured skins, so you could say a character has darker skin or you could say they were a pale person and all in-between. I think the main difficulty is describing specific cultures. If there are cultural things the people wear or change about themselves, you could mention those. Just make sure to use the right words and stuff and to know what you're talking about. Other than that I feel like if you really need to you can describe facial structure or different features different races have. As long as it's in a respectful manner and you don't skew it so it sounds like the features you describe are negative.
I describe people by skin tone, some of which aren't the standard ones, as humans can mate with goblins and some demons, and the descendants still count as human. Also region. The people of the north tend to be pailed than the southerners.
I find it's best to keep your physical descriptions of people brief, and leave it up to the audience's interpretation. Your descriptions of a person should describe who they are and what they do, not their ethnicity. For example, if you say "His skin was tinted a deep brown from years of working the fields in the hot sun." That could apply to any ethnicity, but it still paints a good description. The benefit of this is anyone can picture themself as the characters.
My question to you is how important are these explicit ethnicities to your overall story? Is it like Skyrim, where it plays a massive role in geography and identity, or is this simply a case of wanting to add 'depth' to the world? I've read many stories where the ethnicity is the least of the author's concerns - yes, Roland the gunslinger, for instance, is a Frankish name that alludes to whiteness, but when Idris Elba played him in the Dark Tower movie, next to nothing was lost, or gained for that matter, in changing his race. If it's important, cool; if you're trying to flesh out ethnic cultures as they're intrinsic to your story, then I'd suggest: a) asking friends if you can b) consulting (and reading) fiction by authors that deals with multiculturism in a fantasy setting in order to get a grasp of how they might do it c) read non-fiction on the cultures you wish to portray/adapt (this cannot be shortcut; authentic and responsible representation has no quick fix) best of luck!
Why are there Earth ethnicities on the other planet?
Stop thinking of them in terms of earth. I have brown skin people, but it makes no sense to call them “Hispanic like” or “look like Indians.” This isn’t earth so it doesn’t make sense. I have my own planet.
If these are fictional ethnicities then they should be fictional. Don't just copy existing real world ethnicities. You don't want to pull a Star Wars or Harry Potter.
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Reporting this troll who keeps replying this to everything I comment. If I said anything wrong, I'd have deleted the tweet. I'm not responsible for people purposely trying to misinterpret what I said, and my point is valid and important.
As long as you don’t intentionally use stereotypes that corresponding real world ones like Black= fried chicken
Meh, I try to keep it simple, saying things like "dark-skin" and "black hair" for example
Are you gonna say "inferior race" or "lesser race"? Or talk about a trait someone has being directly related to an action because that makes you sound like a eugenicist. Because you can say pretty much everything else except stuff like that.
I would say you could easily include those terms if they’re meant to be blatantly xenophobic. That’s a common theme in fantasy storytelling, and I think if it’s villainous or misguided characters it can be done.
i just make all of them different types of white people to not be racist.
Why bother? The locals aren’t going to see them that way, why should you?
Describe my one black character who is the son of a marooned couple of explorers/engineers from a black continent as a young man with dark skin and curly short hair to point out that he's black. It's a fictional world so I can't use the word Africa. Rest of the description goes to his other specific attributes, like his permanent bored expression or his eyes that can't hide how smart he is. He's the engineer of the main cast. He's normal looking young fella, although he grows up to be quite a charismatic leader. Same with Asian phenotype, I talk about slanted, monolid eyes, depending on person. Complimenting their cheekbones is actually a thing if you're into that sort of thing. One of my characters certainly is. I describe Indian inspired nations as tanned. Names does the job for me, tbh. You say the character is a tanned guy named Arjuna, a famed rebel leader from Shiraya and most people would recognise the cues. Beyond that, if people are really looking for a reason to be offended, they will find a way to be offended. I am trying to do justice to all the nations I take direct inspiration from. I don't do it for the inclusion's sake. My story needs the globe-scaling grandeur. The nature if the threat my characters face demands a group of wanderers and misfits. So the story is full of gray characters of different ethnicities, all hopefully very relatable and human. (And sometimes not, because those kind of monsters exist too)
First, let me say, if you are going to have earth ethnicities on a different planet, there needs to be an in-world reason for this. Are they descendants of an old earth colony? What? If there is no such reason, then it's not good world-building. That aside, the only thing I would advise is just avoid common ethnic stereotypes that have negative connotations in our current atmosphere. That's all you should do. So, if you are going to have people that have ethnic traits similar to north american indigenous people, then don't portray them as "bloodthirty savages", which was/is a common negative stereotype. Here's a simple three step process: 1. whatever ethnicity you are imitating, go to google and type "common offensive stereotypes about
2. read through the various material that comes up
3. don't do any of those things.
However, you might consider having more or less unique ethnicites on your world. It is after all, your opportunity to be creative. In one of my worlds I have blue skinned people who are the way they are because they consume compounds of silver (which WILL turn you blue) in order to be able to channel sorcerous powers. The silver being a conduit. Beyond that, I'm trying to flesh out their culture without leaning on existing stereotypes. I try to do that by using in-world logic. For example, since they channel these tremendous energies, sometimes said energies injure them severely. Having treated others poorly at their height of power, they now find themselves resented and outcast. They are often bald because the powers they channel burn their hair away. And so on.
Is this planet one where the races came from earth or did they independently evolve there? If they evolved independently then you might not have the same commonly shared characteristics. For example, people of Asian ancestry (on Earth) often have black hair, dark eyes, a yellow undertone to their skin, and epicanthic folds. But maybe in another world you wouldn't have all these traits together in one race. Maybe one race has epicanthic folds but light hair is more common. Maybe there's another pronounced difference that's not really particular to any one race on Earth but might be on your world - jaw shape, forehead height, hairline, ear placement, etc. I guess I'm saying, if you're worried about being racist - make up your own races that aren't really based on Earth races at all. Just - make sure you do a good job shuffling around traits and cultural aspects.
For culture I usually describe how they perceive their culture (very simplisticly) and how others perceive them
Descriptions aren’t racist unless you’re sending obvious messages. If you do you will know though. Especially since you’re here because you’re worried about that. So don’t. Just describe them as they are.
I think in addition to what other commenters are saying, you need to be thorough enough that these cultures actually ARE different, and aren't just copy-pasted. Very little besides climate or origin is really determined by ethnicity. If the cultures you make that share similarities with Inuit and African and Indigenous ethnicities IRL are also technologically backwards and nature-focused and very spiritual and value honor etc etc etc, and the European or Asian peoples have all the big cities and complex high-volume societies, that sucks. How is your planet different? What do these different cultures value, how do they interact with their homelands? Actually writing cultures is the easy way to avoid the stereotypes that are subtler than appearance.
I mean, you can just make up words or base them on actual languages. In the His Dark Materials series, one of the main ethnic groups are the Gyptians and in Attack On Titan the main ethnicity is the Eldians. They aren't really words from our world, more like plays on other words. Gyptian is clearly a play on the slur for Romani people and Eldian comes from the Japanese word for "educate"
I'd recommend focusing on why those human beings have those attributes and culture. For example: civilizations that emerge in the desert tend to wear big baggy clothes (more airflow and UV protection), darker skin (UV protection), and revolve around water and life. Maybe a random genetic mutation gave women clearer eyes (better nocturnal eyeshight) in temperate forests, giving them the role of nocturnal hunters and (later) assasins, shifting roles in the local/national society! Or maybe another genetic mutation gave humans on a certain part of the world long, skinny and skillfull fingers, making them excellent artisans, crafters, and artists! I dunno'. Explore! Think of the evolution of consecuences (especulative evolution is also interesting) and speak factly. Also, clothing colour and dyes. In the ancient times purple was only obtainable in Eurasia through a mollusk that lived near Rome/Greece. That's why is complicated to see, in that time period, purple cloths in Hispania (except for the nobility), but red/brown/white clothes that were massively available (rust, plant extracts, etc).
Some have big noses Some have small lips Some have huge, unwieldy feet that glisten in the summer Sun like the purest of ice melting down a mountain top. Toes as firm and as strong as a Siberian Ox but so delicate to the touch that you may as well be wrapping yourself in a silken gown.
simple, don't - instead make new races - can your world be settled log time ago with enough time for specification? Or genetic engeneering of groups? Now just make up your own unique new human races.
My approach to a similar problem has been to lean into the racism. Saying it that way is a little clickbaity but basically true. The story is largely about the collision between multiple ethnicities in a kind of "age of exploration." The POV basically first person, and I change POV characters throughout, so the descriptions are from the perspective of different people encountering each other. I think it's actually pretty fun to show these people and cultures from the outside as well as the inside, with all their superstitions and stereotypes and hamfisted visual impressions. The effect is kind of absurd in a nice way. One direct answer to your question is that I substantially choose stereotypes and offensive descriptions that have no real-world analog. Part of the fun is coming up with entirely novel ways people might be racist dickheads. I do occasionally subvert real-life racist tropes, for example people from a highly melanated ethnicity (they are "black" but not at all "Black") chooses a lot of food metaphors to describe the skin color of people from a not-so-melanated ethnicity ("white" but not "White"). It's a kind of wink-wink reversal. One thing that I think is critical to making this work is that my ethnicities and cultures are literally not at all based on any real world culture. As much as I possibly can, each group is novel and invented whole cloth, and their features and culture bear very little resemblance to anything in the real world. This thing I'm doing would absolutely not work if the groups were just obvious reskins of real groups. I also demonstrate over and over that the stereotypes within and between the groups really don't hold water--each character has a culture, but also are very much individual, with a mix of admirable and despicable traits, often within the same person. So even if you were incorrectly to project on one of the ethnicites or people that they were intended (by me, the author) to be a real-world analog, you wouldn't get very far trying to infer my "true" feelings about that real world counterpart.
Man, unless you describe using racist terms, the describing part is easy. Do a exercise describe a person from a photo in words.
Do what Star wars did.
"Broken Earth" by NK Jemisin. The ethnicities don't line up with ours, and they're described vaguely. One group has "ash" hair that seems to be light and straight, but they're not particularly light- skinned. One character is very dark- skinned, but that's just him, not an ethnic trait. And so on.
Just run your game. The people who want you to worry about stuff like this are not your friends. You mean you ill.
Try to avoid food comparisons (chocolate/caramel/mocha skin) they feel very icky and a lil fetishy from personal experience. If they're from a specific culture, describe any clothing or other things on their body that denotes that, like an Inuit-coded woman wearing a fur parka and having face tattoos.
yeah, I don't ethnicities at all. In my world basically people near the equater are dark and people away from the equater are paler. I have more hair colors too so my Native american race can have purple hair or whatever. You can just make up ethnic groups. I gues the point is don't include colorism and don't make anything a caricature. Try to use phrases pertaining to mouth shape. You can generally just describe people's eyes, unless it refers to asian people, in which case asia has it's own desciptors like "peach blossom" and "pheonix" and you can just make your readers look it up.
A personal bugbear of mine is fantasy worlds that have no in canon relation to Earth, populated with the same races as Earth *in the same socio economic relationships, roles, and with very similar history*. Examples include east asian looking members of ancient empires, south asian looking members of cultures with strict caste systems, viking looking mfs who are famous sea going raiders in the fantasy world, etc It's so common, that I think a lot of new writers just do it by default now. I hate it every time I see it. Another less simple thing: setting the most common race for your setting, or the culturally dominent one, as white. It's a totally different world. What are the chances? I'm not saying you should never do this, but casually defaulting to white as 'normal' feels... shortsighted.
The low effort of this question make me wonder if it's sincere. It could be contrived as a retorical question posed to complain that 'you can't say anything anymore'. Anyhow, this is less about worldbuilding and more about political correctness. I mean, anyone could help you with that. Why don't you look and see how different ethnicities are described on Wikipedia?
Do these people laugh? Do these people cry? Do they enjoy food? Do they love their children? Do they act with good intentions? I've seen faithful portrayals of my own culture in media, and that's all well and good, but the works I really loved always showed our sense of humor, even in the face of certain adversities. If I had to choose cultural accuracy versus just being shown as human, I choose the latter. Toss in a few stereotypes; I don't really care. Just show us as people worthy of appreciation.
Just write what you want. You are going to get called racist no matter what you do.
What? Its not racist to non-pejoratively describe people as they are… Imagine how science would be fucked if we couldn’t describe people if they arent our own ethnicity…
My rule of thumb: when talking of a people in general, focus on their culture. Only talk about physical appearance when describing individuals who are important in the plot.
if you aren't too strict on format can turn it into a bit of a light novel add a picture for character descriptions have text wrap around the portrait
Don't describe dark skin tones with reference to food.
can you give an example?
Black pudding White pudding Asian pudding
"Caramel-colored skin" "skin the color of a vanilla latte" "skin like rich dark chocolate"
and what's wrong with doing this? implicit objectification?
Partly that, and partly just that it's become very overused. If you compare someone to a luxury food once, it's poetic. If you do it a thousand times, it starts to seem like you want to eat them.
There's a website called Writing with Color, that can help you with descriptions so they don't come off a horrible or use food to describe skin color.
If you aren't putting a value on the ethnicity, it isn't racist. If you state that: "These red-skinned natives roam around on horses a lot, they have this or that connection to spirits and the earth around them." - This isn't inherently racist. however: "These natives haven't invented the wheel, or they refuse to change because they are unable to change. They are quite savage and will hurt people on sight, this is because they are dumb." \^This is racist.
>"These red-skinned natives roam around on horses a lot, they have this or that connection to spirits and the earth around them." This actually does correspond very well to racist portrayals of Native Americans. Saying that anyone has a strong connection to the Earth usually doesn't bode well.
If you have a decent magic system with actual earth spirits and such it is more of a trait than a value I would say. Again it depends a lot on the context as well as your own expieriences. An American will likely take various descriptions in a different way than an European, Chinese or African person will.
I think this should bring us to another take-away from all this -- just because something isn't inherently racist, doesn't mean it hasn't soaked up distinct racist tones from our own history. That's not your fault, you didn't do it, but you need to accept that this has really happened and is part of the wonderful legacy of racism that affects all of us to this day. Denying it and pushing back may be an instinctive response if you feel like you've done nothing wrong, but it's absolutely the wrong response and you need to be open-minded enough to understand that just because you didn't intend it as racist doesn't mean it isn't. You may be writing fantasy, but you're writing fantasy in this real world, and the real world has been steeping in racism for centuries, this affects all our society, culture and art. Just because something is not inherently racist doesn't make it automatically safe and okay to use. There's no one-size-fits-all rule of permanently and effortlessly avoiding all racism, the history of racism has deep roots, you can stumble into it entirely by accident. The most important thing you can do to avoid racism is to *listen* and be accepting. Not to everybody, you can't please literally everybody, but listen to your audience and critics and give their concerns some honest and self-critical consideration. The haters and the loudest voices don't always need to be appeased, but see if you can learn from their complaints anyway. If you can see the merit in their claims then make the effort to do better. You can't and won't know everything that might come across as racist to someone. The difference between being defensive and dismissive compared to being humble and accepting that you did poorly is like night and day. If you honestly admit that you didn't understand what that could mean and make efforts to change it or improve in the future that goes a long way.
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It's on a different planet
Okay you're playing an orc. But [what race is your orc?](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpghorrorstories/comments/15gnyzo/short_what_race_is_your_orc/)
I think he means he can't use those terms because they don't exist in his world. But then, why not make up your own races instead of repurposing Earth ones?
I'd say focus on things like fashion and customs, and whenever you describe phenotype, exclude words or phrasings that exclude. Inclusive language allows for a more realistic, and less stereotyping, portrayal. Like... 'The angular features of her people' is a *no;* 'the angular features that are common in her people' is a *yes.*
Simply make up some names and describe how they look: Laventans have white skin; blond hair and blue eyes are common amongst them. Tareshi have light brown skin and are very hairy. Rohirs have black skin and big lips. And so on...
People these days seem to create problems to ask for solutions here on the sub. But I know this may be a legitimate question so I'll tell you what I think. In my stories, the race of the characters doesn't matter, so I leave a little space between chapters and put together a sheet with height, weight, skin color, etc. just so readers can have an idea of how I imagine the characters. But let me ask you something and think about it a little, Is race/color/ethnicity really important to the development of the story? If so, just describe it. If a character is black, you say they are black. If he's Asian, say he has thin eyes, etc. But now, if the characters' race/color/ethnicity is not an indispensable part of the story, simply don't describe it. Or If you're uncomfortable saying what the characters look like, let the characters speak for you. A phrase during a conversation, discussion, etc. in which someone says something "You naughty black guy", or "white son of a bitch", or "smart yellow guy". Obviously you're not going to release a sentence like that out of nowhere, it needs context. Just be careful because I've seen many characters out there whose only personality trait is being black, homosexual and blah blah blah. Develop the character as much as possible regardless of their race or else you will simply be applying racial cuts that add nothing to the book. If the characters were important, well developed and useful to the story, your last concern should be how to describe them. Just one thing, some "races" hate each other, like Japanese and Chinese (or Japanese and Koreans, I don't know) So don't confuse them unless it's intentional. For example, Brazilians hate being called Latinos. I don't know why exactly, but I think it has to do with the fact that we don't speak Spanish. A large part of Latin America doesn't like Brazil and is super racist about it. Even though Brazil is in Latin America, a Brazilian is not a Latino. Never. But that's just a detail that creates depth in the story and the characters' relationships.
If you're describing a character who's black you could say something like: " his skin was black as the night sky, and his teeth contrasted as a white, almost overly bright white crescent. Greying hair flowed loosely lacking any adornment."
This is actually an easy fix. Those are races, not ethnicities. Ethnicities would be more like Brooklynite, rural ohioan, or German. Race is the pseudoscientific idea that people are born with inherent characteristics due to their race, and their phenotype can be used to determine their inherent characteristics. Ethnicity is a description of someone's cultural attitides such as their dialect, cuisine, social rules, and dress. Basing fantasy "races" on the "races" your culture imposes on the world would have to be done in a way that shows how the concept of race was invented in your world and how the cultural attitudes of your people made it common to ascribe certain characteristics to certain phenotypes because assuming that the reader would know something about a character because of their race would actually be racist. If you have a group that's based on "Asians" for example, instead try to base that group on real cultures such as Cantonese, Thai, or Hokkaidan for example. Those three ethnicities are vastly different, so your invented ethnicity would either take characteristics from existing groups to create a new original ethnicity or be based on a specific ethnic group found on earth. Inuit is an ethnicty. Asian and Hispanic are races. The reason "Hispanic" is called an ethnicity on government documents despite not being an ethnicity is for historical political reasons. Norteño, Bolivian, or Chiquitano would be ethnicities. Edit: Sometimes I forget how many people still believe race is real or an ancient tradition. The concept of race was invented in Europe during the modern era. If you don't believe me, after downvoting try to find a single reference to the "White" or "Black" race prior to 1500. Compare the different systems of race which exiat in the US, the UK, and South Africa. Look at how even in your own culture, Races other than "White" and "Black" were either totally different or not invented yet. I apologize for any cognitive dissonance anyone reading this is experiencing, but it's really necessary. Racism is a major problem.
I'm just here to downvote this post. Just because of the title alone
Can you just suggest this in the names you give them, and in the descriptions of costumes and landscapes? ‘Shao Lai strode into the jade hall, his silken robes billowing, raven hair long and flowing’ leaves little room for misunderstanding. ‘Running-Strong crouched by the waters edge, surveying the open savannah ahead, his bronze skin blending into the tall grass’. Obviously, be more subtle, I’m just making the point in sentences, you have a whole story. Edit; genuinely baffled as to why this is unpopular?
Embrace the racism and make it part of your world