How to address different skin tones when writting

Not_A_Symphony

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Hello everyone!
So I was writting and I came into a "small bump in the road."
In my novel, the majority of the population is "White/Caucasian" however, I do want to implement other types of characters from other countries who have different types of skin and characteristics. My problem is, I don't know which is the correct way to address them [I am scared that people might consider it racist].
These are what I've been doing so far: When someone is "white" I usually describe them as "pale". I also state that some people are "tanned" and "mullato".
With this I want to know how you reffer to the different skin characteristics when you write?
[I know this is a very sensitive topic, I truly don't wish to offend anyone. This is a genuine question that I am struggling and would appreciate the help!]
Stay safe! :blobtaco:
 

Not_A_Symphony

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Why not use neutral descriptors?
Things that reference something other than the race? especially if the names you are using might not be even present in that world.

Bronze/olive/sun-kissed/mediteranean/chocolate etc
I feel so dumb right now ahaha How didn't I think about it? That's a great option!
Thank you so much :blob_gift:
 

Biggest-Kusa-Out-There

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As a latin brown, I don't really see an issue with this, BUT:

You say you don't want to sound racist, yet use terms that were coined by the white empires of old to decribed the mixed races like Mullato, which is a way to call a person a mule (mix of donkey and horse). This term was used to communicate an ignorant belief that the people born of two races were infertile and animals lesser than human due to the shame that was to mix the purity of the white world with the native people of the americas. So yeah... you're already racist in a sense by calling brown skin that way.

Maybe use the terms the ethnicitiess themselves use instead of the ones the conolists came up with. In my fiction, I described a 'black person' as 'person of color', since that's the term people of color use. I didn't call them 'negros' even if that means 'black' in my native language, or 'black' since I'm writing in English.

You could use a wide variety of words like the post above states. Usually, a quick google search tells you if you're using a word that has racist connotations or not. It would be also good to use words in the language of people you're writing about.
 

Cipiteca396

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not be even present in that world.

'mediteranean'
Uh huh.

Well, it's fine to just describe the color of the skin without using ethnicities or any racial context. As long as you don't make skin color a factor in how your characters behave it's fine. So uh... Just don't be racist. That works like a charm.

If you need a list of colors that work as skin tones, just google 'skin tones'. I got a half a dozen good images that had names like 'Ivory, Porcelain, Almond, Golden Brown, Umber, Sand' and so on. Of course, if you want to add descriptors, you can mention the color of their veins, the smoothness of the skin, the type of body hair on the skin. Just don't do that if you aren't familiar with what goes naturally together, otherwise you might get an alien looking person. If you have non-humans, that may be a good reference though.
 

Not_A_Symphony

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You say you don't want to sound racist, yet use terms that were coined by the white empires of old to decribed the mixed races like Mullato
Well that's because in my country [Portugal] that's the term used ["Mulato"] and I never saw any problems with it whether it is online or even growing up [my schools had different students from several different places all around the world and everyone, no matter who hey were, said it]. The translation for the word in english is "Mulatto" so I thought it was alright to use it but I guess I was wrong. Thank you for letting me know!

I described a 'black person' as 'person of color'
I considered that option but I remember my friends telling me they hated to be refered to as "a person of color" so I immedeately cut that option out.

It would be also good to use words in the language of people you're writing about.
I would but it is a fantasy world so it is not exactly "earth" in itself you know?

And yes I am always scared because it is a very sensitive topic and offending anyone is by far my objective.
That is why education is important and I am thankful for you letting me know the real connotation behind that word and teaching me something I wasn't aware of.
Well, it's fine to just describe the color of the skin without using ethnicities or any racial context. As long as you don't make skin color a factor in how your characters behave it's fine.
Definetly not! I think there are unique people everywhere, just like there are good and bad people in each country so I won't give bad connotations to a specific group of people since it doesn't even make sense.

If you need a list of colors that work as skin tones, just google 'skin tones'. I got a half a dozen good images that had names like 'Ivory, Porcelain, Almond, Golden Brown, Umber, Sand' and so on.
Thank you very much! I will definetly use this!
 

CupcakeNinja

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Hello everyone!
So I was writting and I came into a "small bump in the road."
In my novel, the majority of the population is "White/Caucasian" however, I do want to implement other types of characters from other countries who have different types of skin and characteristics. My problem is, I don't know which is the correct way to address them [I am scared that people might consider it racist].
These are what I've been doing so far: When someone is "white" I usually describe them as "pale". I also state that some people are "tanned" and "mullato".
With this I want to know how you reffer to the different skin characteristics when you write?
[I know this is a very sensitive topic, I truly don't wish to offend anyone. This is a genuine question that I am struggling and would appreciate the help!]
Stay safe! :blobtaco:
White as snow
Skin like coffee
A face the color of burnt pizza
The hue of cat shit
 

LoliGent

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In my opinion, the people who complain about you not describing a skin color "correctly" are the same crazy people who find the most mundane and even benign thing problematic in some micro capacity. But, I guess you're just trying to be extra careful. I would personally not really care, but I'm also dense when it comes to these types of criticism.

I would personally just write it as general as possible. A black person has dark skin. A brown person, such as myself, has brown or tan skin. White skin, pale or light skin. I feel these are the best ways to describe a skin color due to being very general and more matter of fact, but in the end of the day, someone is going to complain. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. The best you can do is just mitigate it to where you minimize it, but someone's going to complain.

That's my suggestion.
 

Biggest-Kusa-Out-There

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Well that's because in my country [Portugal] that's the term used ["Mulato"] and I never saw any problems with it whether it is online or even growing up [my schools had different students from several different places all around the world and everyone, no matter who hey were, said it]. The translation for the word in english is "Mulatto" so I thought it was alright to use it but I guess I was wrong. Thank you for letting me know!
Softly whispers: (Portugal colonized Brazil, the largest "mulato" country in the world, of course you won't have a problem if you use that in the country it originated from. If I use the word Negro, which means 'Black', I won't get any issue in my country because we speak Spanish. The story is different when talking to actual black people or people of color...)
It's good to discuss these things, and also shows our forward view in being more inclusive while being careful not to use words that alienate potential readers/reviewers.
 

_oinkchan

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Hello everyone!
So I was writting and I came into a "small bump in the road."
In my novel, the majority of the population is "White/Caucasian" however, I do want to implement other types of characters from other countries who have different types of skin and characteristics. My problem is, I don't know which is the correct way to address them [I am scared that people might consider it racist].
These are what I've been doing so far: When someone is "white" I usually describe them as "pale". I also state that some people are "tanned" and "mullato".
With this I want to know how you reffer to the different skin characteristics when you write?
[I know this is a very sensitive topic, I truly don't wish to offend anyone. This is a genuine question that I am struggling and would appreciate the help!]
Stay safe! :blobtaco:
Jade, dark, tanned, olive, caucasian
 

Not_A_Symphony

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Softly whispers: (Portugal colonized Brazil, the largest "mulato" country in the world, of course you won't have a problem if you use that in the country it originated from. If I use the word Negro, which means 'Black', I won't get any issue in my country because we speak Spanish. The story is different when talking to actual black people or people of color...)
Softly Whispers: *I know, portuguese & spanish as well are extremely dumb, thinking we own the world when we the size of small grape. And I'll tell you even more, the second canditate for our presidency this year is a guy that is a mini donald trump meets nazi. Scary to think that he almost won just to "purify the country" #disgusting*

It's good to discuss these things, and also shows our forward view in being more inclusive while being careful not to use words that alienate potential readers/reviewers.
Yeah, like I said it wasn't really my intention to insult anyone by saying that word. I only thought it was alright because everyone uses it (notice: my school was like only 30% snowman people so that might have been one of the reasons as well).

White as snow
Skin like coffee
Thank you for the suggestions!

In my opinion, the people who complain about you not describing a skin color "correctly" are the same crazy people who find the most mundane and even benign thing problematic in some micro capacity.
Well I didn't used to care but now, no matter what you say, even if you say it naively or purely because you are ignorant and lack knowledge, you will always end up being seen poorly just for speaking about these themes. I am just trying to understand what is alright and what isn't (yes I did search google but as fellow authors and readers, you might have your own opinions on the matter).

I would personally just write it as general as possible.
Thank you for your suggestion as well!

Jade, dark, tanned, olive, caucasian
Thank you very much for your input! This is the first time I see "jade" being used like this!
 

K5Rakitan

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BenJepheneT

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According to this article I read a while ago, that's a no-no:

no-no (see above)
I just feel like this is overcorrection, especially the food part. Unless you're consciously associating lighter skin tones with good things and vice versa, there's definitely no issue with describing skin colour with food. White as cocaine, dark as chocolate, peachy tone, light brown tinge; if anything the connotations are taken out by the readers themselves instead of just assuming the surface comparison.

If I have to be frank, this article just hinders authors more and will probably cause some awkward and cringey proses in an effort to avoid these "casually racist" things when using them presents no issue whatsoever.

Aside from 1, 3, 5, and 6, the others are complete non-issues.
 

Snusmumriken

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According to this article I read a while ago, that's a no-no:

no-no (see above)
Umm. you can describe white skin with food colours too? creamy and milky quickly come to mind.
And honestly, the article feels like it tries to overcorrect too much. Even rule 1, - yes if you are writing about NY setting I would expect variable races. But if you are writing about a completely fictional world why should you be including all earth races as well? What if that world has dragons and only black people? what if the sun in that world is too harsh and all people with pale skin never appeared at all? It all sounds like forcible diversity.
 

Redemit

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When everything thing is racist nothing will be I say don't worry about it people need to get over skin color already
 

longer

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Perhaps I'm a bit stupid, but I find Caucasian to be a very poor term to describe "white." This is because the people living in the Caucuses are not necessarily white in terms of skin tone. While there are certainly people like that, there are also plenty of people from that region who possess more tanned complexions. Additionally, people from western Asia, Arabs and Persians, also vary greatly in skin color. In fact, I never knew that one of my favorite streamers was Persian until he started talking about it. Initially, I had just thought he was a funny looking central European.

On a side note, plenty of central Asian people and East Asians fall well into the pale milky category, I myself having only escaped due to being blasted by the sun for 15 years of my life.
 

Not_A_Symphony

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Perhaps I'm a bit stupid, but I find Caucasian to be a very poor term to describe "white."
Well, as I was writting this post I literally went to search on Google and according to it you have 5 different types [if I remember correctly]. The reason why I placed "White/Caucasian" was because of that :ROFLMAO:
 

LoliGent

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Well I didn't used to care but now, no matter what you say, even if you say it naively or purely because you are ignorant and lack knowledge, you will always end up being seen poorly just for speaking about these themes. I am just trying to understand what is alright and what isn't (yes I did search google but as fellow authors and readers, you might have your own opinions on the matter).

I don't know if you are insulting me or not, considering that you liked my post, but I want to clarify something about what I said.

It is not that I am lacking knowledge or am ignorant on the subject of sensitivity of any kind. Skin color, sexual identity, gender, I was careful about not writing anything that could offend anyone precisely for the same reasons you are. But then, a collective of around 500 people on Discord decided to abandoned me, call me disgusting, disregard all my efforts and contributions, because they found out I was a lolicon. Only two people came to comfort me while everyone else disregarded my emotions and feelings after investing so much into that group. And still, stereotypes continue abound, even here on Scribble Hub, where I am compared to a child molester, even though I have never touched a child in my entire life.

So please understand, it is not that I am ignorant as to why we have to be respectful to people. It's just that my observations about sensitivity and respecting people for who they are are now skewed because of this incident. Again, I don't know if you were being insulting but I did felt offense to those words, but I figured sharing my story would clarify a few conceptions you may have.

EDIT:
Okay, I think I may have read your reply wrong. I don't think you were specifically saying those things to me directly, and I might be reading it wrong. I won't delete my message, but I figure in case you did find my dense reply to be problematic, that's my reason as to why I said it that way. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with this whole sensitivity thing, so I hope I didn't come off as too strong, it's just that I have to have a thick skin. I am happy that you are being considerate, but what I was trying to say is that, no matter what you do, you can't escape the criticism from those who take things too far. That's my real gripe, these crusaders who attack anyone over any little thing you say. They will not care how sensitive you are, they are just going to attack you for mysterious reasons that only they know of. In other words, you can't be too careful, because it's impossible.
 
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Not_A_Symphony

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I don't know if you are insulting me or not, considering that you liked my post, but I want to clarify something about what I said.
No no! Not insulting at all! I'm sorry if it came out like that :ROFLMAO: Sometimes I am not the greatest person at expressing my thoughts.
What I was saying is that when I was young I didn't really care because I didn't see anything wrong with the words themselves but, as I got older and understood their meanings, my thought process changed. But, even with all the care in the world and all the good intentions, now people will come at you for whatever small mistake you make (so if you are ignorant or naive and don't know the meaning behind certain words and so on, they will still attack you for it). And the reason I made this post was just to understand what other authors thought about it, not just google itself!
Hope that clarified it! I swear I wasn't insulting you at all since I do agree with you!

And don't worry, no need to erase your reply or anything. I should've explained it better [since the "you" was not "you you" but a "general you"] :blob_sweat:

interesting topic to be reviewed someday...
I guess you can call this a review already :blob_melt:
 
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