If White Characters Were Described Like POC in Literature (Buzzfeed article)

"Marzipan shoulder" killed me. I resemble that remark.

LOL. I never understood racial stereotypes.

Also, this:

"I get really tired of seeing African-descended characters described in terms of the goods that drove, and still drive, the slave trade — coffee, chocolate, brown sugar. There’s some weird psychosocial baggage attached to that." N.K. Jemisin

That was *glorious*.

I once read a blurb which described the heroine's "mocha-colored legs" wrapped around the hero's "cream-colored hips".

I said, "They made a frappucino-colored baby" and went in search of better blurbs.

This list is hilarious. And horrible.

However, writers should never be shamed for blatantly saying their character is of another race (or female). Sadly, white [male] with brown hair is the default in most reader's minds. Personally, if I write this amazing, complex black heroine, I want the reader to know she's black, and not whitewash her in their minds. I wouldn't even want to hint at race, like mention she's got an Afro or cornrows, or what have you; some readers (like myself) are dense, and will still not get it ... they'll see a white person with an Afro or cornrows. Best just to blatantly say they're black. Or Asian. Or whatever.

Case in point, I remember how some Harry Potter readers made a fuss when the movies came out, and Cho was Asian.

"Her eyes were radiant and her skin glowed with mozzarella undertones."
"...his fine, tall-person, handsome features, and his crust of a Shepherd's pie complexion."
"...on her mayonnaise legs."

Mayonnaise legs. No shade, there. Haha!

I've had cover artists totally misrepresent the race/look of my character even when I flat out tell them in all caps: NOT WHITE! NOT WHITE! And still, they slap a white girl on my book cover. Or they completely cut off her body and just show her legs...in stockings.

To say I hate the book industry (as a POC who writes POC MCs) is a gross understatement. Jesus.

I know I have some embarrassing descriptions of white characters from my high school writing. Will have to see if I can find some tomorrow.

8. His body had the color and shape of raw ground beef.

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So, he's a bumpy, uneven heap of blood red, mottled through with grey and white.

Dude, see a doctor. STAT.

I rather like the crust of a shepherd's pie complexion. I want to work with that one.

I did once describe a white character as having a face the color of boiled ham. What's amazing is how many commenters are bending over backwards to justify or minimize the issue of exoticizing food descriptions. I guess there are still a dozen or so people out there who haven't gotten the memo that PoC find this tedious at best, offensive at worst, so they're tossing an occasional "peaches and cream" complexion out there as an example of how everyone is really treated the same.

Oh, and the obligatory, "Most people in western countries are white, so of course white is the default" guy showed up too.

The hardest thing about writing in a secondary world where there's no Asia, Africa etc., when I'm not shooting for a fantasy counterpart culture approach to my world building, is also not falling into the "ambiguously brown or olive skin" trope. I have one character who looks like he's from east Asia (if he were from our world), one who looks like she's from India, or possibly the middle East, and one who is of mixed ancestry, one parent from the same country as the previous character and one from an area where people look more European. All three have dark brown hair and eyes and skin that falls on the olive to light brown spectrum, yet they're not the same racially or culturally.

Aside from introducing their countries of origin and their different cultural norms as early as possible, and differentiating skin tone a bit (amber/tawny, light brown, and olive), I don't really know how to describe their features so the reader gets a clear image of their racial features aside from the "ambiguously brown" trope. I mentioned long eyes for one of the characters, but I don't even know if most readers will know what that means. One thing about the old "almond eyes" descriptor, inaccurate and cliched as it was, it immediately told readers that the character in question looked like he or she came from Asia.

Roxxsmom said:

The hardest thing about writing in a secondary world where there's no Asia, Africa etc., when I'm not shooting for a fantasy counterpart culture approach to my world building, is also not falling into the "ambiguously brown or olive skin" trope. I have one character who looks like he's from east Asia (if he were from our world), one who looks like she's from India, or possibly the middle East, and one who is of mixed ancestry, one parent from the same country as the previous character and one from an area where people look more European. All three have dark brown hair and eyes and skin that falls on the olive to light brown spectrum, yet they're not the same racially or culturally.

Aside from introducing their countries of origin and their different cultural norms as early as possible, and differentiating skin tone a bit (amber/tawny, light brown, and olive), I don't really know how to describe their features so the reader gets a clear image of their racial features aside from the "ambiguously brown" trope. I mentioned long eyes for one of the characters, but I don't even know if most readers will know what that means. One thing about the old "almond eyes" descriptor, inaccurate and cliched as it was, it immediately told readers that the character in question looked like he or she came from Asia.

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I don't think you have to give the reader a comparison with real-world races, since it's a fantasy setting, but if you want to you should focus on the features where that difference is more pronounced. Instead of saying they all have brown hair, focus on the texture of the hair, for example. Some features like eyebrows, eyelids, eye size, cheek bones and jaws should differ greatly between the first two characters. The third one may be a bit more tricky, but I guess it would make more sense for him to have lighter skin and/or eyes, just for the sake of differentiation.
It would be nice if you can give us a feel of entirely made-up races. I'm sure that however you choose to do it, it's gonna be great!

I prefer to characterize myself as "white as the driven snow, an albino in the making, a Frosty without the accompanying cold".

**No albinos were harmed in the writing of this.

slhuang said:

That's exactly what I think when I see some of those descriptions of POC, lolol.

Tbf, it's also what I think when people are described as "ivory" and "poreless" . . . (GOOD GOD YOU NEED PORES TO LIVE QUICK SOMEONE HELP THIS PERSON)

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Whenever I read of someone's "pale beauty" I think "anaemia". Characters in bad writing seem to suffer from iron deficiency a lot.

I myself am the colour of supermarket brand white "chocolate" that somehow despite being labeled as such does not actually list cocoa as an ingredient.

In Guyana, a common description of skin colour is "sapodilla brown", sapodilla being a delicious brown fruit. It's a compliment, and we certainly won't stop using it!

Heh, this is so awesome. I remember reading something years back when someone pointed out all the food descriptions of PoC and then proceeded to describe a white character as having skin the shade of a week-old button mushroom. I laughed so hard I almost peed a little.

So, "peaches and cream complexion" is right out?

Sophia said:

This isn't anything except a personal comment: Speaking only for myself, I like the food comparisons for my skin colour a lot, because it was only ever described in terms of excrement when I was growing up (in the late '70s/early '80s, UK). I remember in my early teenage years in school reading a book where someone used the term "tan-coloured" for a non-white character's skin, and being surprised and pleased that there were alternatives out there. Caramel, chocolate etc. sound so nice, to me. I find them flattering. But I think there are people who would strongly disagree with me on that. Everyone's different; describe the colour as the POV character would, I think.

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That's an interesting perspective.

Growing up in Singapore, I didn't mind having our eyes described as almond-shaped, although I never really understood it cause to me our eyes didn't necessarily look almond-shaped. I almost poked out my best friend's eye holding an almond right up to it to compare. But there are definitely some descriptions that give me the "ick" feel more so than others. Ones that, to me, sound like they sexualize the character, for example, like "skin the color of warm caramel" or "skin the color of hot chocolate"...blergh. I dunno why, but I mind those more than I mind "almond-shaped eyes".

Putputt said:

But there are definitely some descriptions that give me the "ick" feel more so than others. Ones that, to me, sound like they sexualize the character, for example, like "skin the color of warm caramel" or "skin the color of hot chocolate"...blergh. I dunno why, but I mind those more than I mind "almond-shaped eyes".

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Probably because when you tell me anything is like caramel or chocolate, my first impulse is to lick it. It does sound like there's something sexual implied in the description. You know, luxurious foods are things you indulge in. Decadent foods are often described as sinful. So I get why that bothers people. But I promise I won't lick your almond eyeballs.

Twick said:

So, "peaches and cream complexion" is right out?

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I was wondering. What about olive? Or milky? or... my MC is pasty with blue cheese veins.