So, writing advice is needed. How do I describe a black person? Saying directly, "He is an African-American" sounds clunky, and I've been told that describing someone's skin as "coco, "caramel, "hazelnut" etc. that I have seen in a lot of books (cough cough FanFictions) is apparently not good writing.
I've watched a million videos on what not to do but not a single one has told me what to do.
I want my writing not to suck. Please and thank you.
Edie: Thanks for helping me guys :D.
Black people
Also important for OP to note whether their character actually is African-American or not (and whether it's relevant to include nationality). Not every black or darker-skinned person comes from Africa or America. Plus, you can have pale-skinned Africans, which makes describing a black person as 'African-American' just inaccurate and a little racist in itself, in my opinion, due to the tone of defaulting to 'black = African'
It's not racist to simply describe a person with their skin colour, OP :). It's the exact same as calling a white person white... because they are
As someone from south africa, we use white, black and coloured to refer to skin colour generally. Brown is probably useable but it definitely not common.
Some people prefer to use "Bravo" as a designation for people with black skin.
Coloured here, in the context of South Africa, is notably distinct from its meaning in the USA, referring to a group of people generally of the san/khoi-san/khoi-khoi people, with a bit of everything else mixed in.
Oooh this is interesting because Tyla calls herself “coloured” and I thought it was because she was of East Indian decent.
The only South Africans I have met who referred to themselves as colored were of Indian origin.
My partner's family are native South African (Khoisan) and refer to themselves as coloured.
Well, there you go, I’m wrong about something! It’s very fascinating that they’re Khoisan people, I have always been interested in their unique language and culture.
Also “colored” in the US is something old (usually white) people say, and wafts racism… evoking not quite cross burning, but segregated drinking fountains.
Context is important here, I think.
Plus not all black African people are African-American.
Most of them aren't, nearly all in fact.
My friend is routinely told when he games online to call himself African American. He is neither (he's Asian/Caribbean blasian British). Drives him round the bend for obvious reasons.
Yeah like Elon Musk hilariously is also actually technically African American 😂
White people are mostly beige, really. Very few are even as light as ivory.
Some are pinkish beige, and some are a more neutral beige.
In my head "He is a black person" and "He is African American" is the same thing because the character I want to describe is both but I understand that doesn't apply to all black characters and looking back I should have kept that in mind when forming my question sorry about that.
Black in America is an ethnicity. I think we are moving away from African-American because the US has become more ethnically diverse since the 60s
Except white people’s skin colour isn’t white, it’s a pinkish beige.
Nor do most (any?) “black” people have skin that’s actually black. It’s some shade of brown.
So be aware, even just using these terms is a political/ideological statement.
I do find it interesting, and depressing, that some “black” people and their “allies” brand it racist for a “white” person to try to describe their skin colour in any vaguely objective way.
Black is the correct racial category (def not always African American). Brown-skinned, light brown skin, dark brown skin, etc are all fine as descriptors. I’ve never heard of any black people of allies who would be offended by those objective descriptions of our skin? I mean, we even refer to each other as dark, light, and brown skinned within our community. It’s when writers exclusively use food-themed descriptors for our skin like cocoa, caramel, hazelnut etc that it gets weird.
As a white person, I can imagine if every white character was described with “her vanilla ice cream skin” or “a creamy mozzarella complexion” or “soft peach yogurt” I’d find it pretty weird, so that makes sense!
Thank you! As a black person when you’re only compared to food in writing it just feels more like a fetish than actual care for the character being written
And that doesn’t mean you can’t use food ever but when it’s the only description it does feel weird.
To be fair, very white skin is very often described as milky white or creamy white.
I think food metaphors make some sense because most people can picture it well, so it does its job well of evoking an image.
Do you have other suggestions? I feel like comparisons to soil or rocks would not go over well.
Food descriptions like "caramel" are cringe, but I once heard my skin tone described as "café au lait" and thought it was lovely. Made me feel like a luxury brand paint chip.
I'd say look at editorial photos of Black people of all shades in different lighting. Some people have olive undertones, darker people look great in blue lighting, and some with more reddish tones could be described as "russet" or "mahogany" (avoid ebony at all costs, it's a porn category). Actually, you could even look at paint colors/descriptions or cosmetics if you want to get poetic with it.
The paint colors idea is great. I also love the cafe au lait example.
Also "soft peach yogurt" is straight fire as a skin-color description
Creamy white is different than someone referring to your skin as different variations of chocolate especially when chocolate is also a common term used by people who fetishize black people…
And like I said above using one to two food descriptions is fine but when you can only use food is when it’s weird. And white people aren’t often only described using food I don’t think it’s really a comparison that needs to be made because it’s not showing any sort of balance and white people often aren’t fetishized using food
Someone else in one of the top comments linked the tumblr page that goes very indpeth into how to describe darker skin tones I’ve read through that myself even as a black person it has good resources
A lot of people would recommend using wood tones.
You can use soil or rock but just be careful with how you do it first example
His skins like the richest soils after a long rain
As opposed to
His skin is like the dirt from the fields
Or
Jasper like skin with red hints peaking through when the summer sun lands on her
( a bit more imaginative but it should communicate that someone is brown skinned with a red undertone)
You could also tie it back into personality or other things
You wouldn’t expect a man of his prowess to be so laid back privately his lounging shirt closer in color to obsidian yet it almost matched his smooth skin and sharper intellect. Even in our casual interactions he was still reflective and waiting to easily cut through my words as if he was made from the rock itself…
These aren’t great I just came up with them but I think you get the idea I think the best way to go about it is to diversify how you describe the skintones but stay away from chocolate and try to stay away from ebony also you can just not describe skin and instead focus on other features.
For example something like
Springy coily hair (you can use this one at any length as well)
Hair that grows towards the sun but still close to the scalp
Their glasses sat on their cheekbones
The wand curls held their shape well in her straightened hair
Their nose gently spread across their face as they smiled etc.
Other hints that reflect more culturally without stereotype
All of their cooking uses something called the “holy trinity”
I could see the “loud” church hat her grandma wore hiding on the shelf in her closet
She took her coffee with fresh tea cakes
These are more specific to Aa culture though
I'm trying to decide how I feel about different earth shades being used as skin descriptions. I have heard variations of " deep tilled earth ' and " fertile earth ', and that makes me think of various brown shades.
Yet I have been looking at different tree colors for ideas of what a person could look like. ' Mahogany ' and ash are what I am looking at.
I have described an elvish character as having hair the color of young tree bark.
Mahogany I think is fine so are the other earthy tones
I would try not to use ash especially as there’s a term In the black community called ashy which means your skin is so dry it has a white overcast and it typically used to tease or insult
Hmm. A search for Jasper turns up stones that seem too red for human skin time.
Though i could see "dark skin with reddish, jasper-like undertones" or such.
A lot of jaspers are a darker reddish brown, and again it’s figurative not literal similar to how you could describe someone as a peach but peaches range in color from red,pinks, yellows and oranges most of which humans naturally aren’t.
It could also be used to describe a darker skinned non-human who may have a more natural red tint to their skin
It almost seems like they think they're being respectful by trying to compare the color to something appealing, but that still treats the black characters differently or suggests their skin color can't be a neutral fact about them.
So, if in one breath an author describes someone like this; "her milky white skin contrasted beautifully with the coco of her lover's skin, fascinating her...." is that okay because both were described via food, or is it still weird? Please be gentle, im realizing that my previous writing might have accidentally been racist and I want to improve that going forward.
Yeah I was like if it’s a romance you can do cocoa caramel skin but otherwise you need to do better. But if it’s a romance you can do fetish-y language. If not romance I would describe that the person is black and then describe light medium deep brown or onyx or something. Though the “onyx” is still a bit on the fetishization side. Although idk how important skin tone descriptions are. Are you describing how white the white people are too?
Though i will note, for a long time, "milky " and "creamy" were positive adjectives for describing a white woman, along with "ivory skin".
The Chinese phrase "jade beauty" derives from flawless white jade.
But using any of these had mostly fallen out of fashion for a number of reasons, though stories set in a Xianxia world (basically fantasy China) do often still refer to Jade Beauties.
Constant/ repeated delicious food comparisons feel like soft porn.
“Creamy skin with lips the colour of ripe berries”
“Dark chocolate skin with eyes of caramel”
Vs
“fair skin that looked even paler against her berry lipstick “
“very dark skin with surprisingly pale honey coloured eyes”
True. And I mean.... There are other words?
Ivory, alabaster, bronze, golden, mahogany, sienna, umber, tawny...
Look up "shades of x color". Go to the wiki page and be dazzled by the sheer number of shades and the very much not food related words
Though mozzarella complexion took me out lmao
This is true. I started looking at different natural colors for my D&D novel characters. Her eyes were taupe, her skin was the shade of almond, and her hair was so black it seemed to have a deep blue tinge in certain light... Description is where I am struggling
I wouldn't suggest taupe. Many people would have to look that up to know what color you meant.
creamy mozzarella complexion made me truly LOL. thank you for this post on an otherwise dreary day.
Used to call fair skin a peaches and cream complexion.
Genuinely curious why using food as a comparison is weird. White skin gets compared to dairy products or types of stone, because those are things everyone knows. Why is it different to use cocoa etc.?
Why is it weird to use food themed descriptors? Its not different than using wood themed descriptors, or oils, or leathers. A descriptor is a descriptor and if It gets the point across thats all that matters
In the writing sub and you can't read. Lmaoo They said "when you're only compared to food".
And getting the point across is not all that matters.
And white people aren't actually white. It's not about the colour, it's the term of the ethnicity
Mostly I've found Black people don't like getting compared to food, especially food that was gathered or processed by slaves. It's not "any description is bad" it's "bad and lazy and slavery related descriptions are bad"
This is the answer. 🤣
OP, racism isn't something so overt. Real racism is between the lines. The subconscious depiction.
Don't worry so much about the words.
I am dying imagining my dude writing a fantasy novel or something set not in our world and trying to describe black people as caramel colored African Americans
Maybe read Black authors who write about Black folks for some research
This. But even still, they'll downvote your comment when a black author tries to help them.
It's a good thing I'm not here for the votes then <3
Aww 🥰
I mean, I think the appropriate answer is much longer and more involved and requires us to recognize that if you don't really know how Black people talk about themselves or if you don't have a lot of experience spending time with actual Black folks and reading Black authors, etc., then probably you need to be very wary of writing Black characters and maybe the more fundamental issue is that you should only write about characters that feel personal to you specifically as an author. Suggesting research seemed like a more neutral entry point. I see the comment section is already rife with contention, and I didn't want to feel like I was piling things on the OP
The problem with this is that it perpetuates erasure. It gives white authors permission to exclude characters of any other race unless they've studied the culture (which our culture socializes them not to do).
Which is why I suggested research
I agree with you. They should read black authors. I just think most white authors will use
As a "reason" (read: excuse) not to do this.
I think keeping the prescription simple (as you did in your first comment) works best. Don't give them any room to wriggle off the hook (cause they always will).
I see your point that most people will take the easy way and just avoid doing the work
Paraphrasing by saying I agree, before I go on my own ramble.
I think part of the issue is authors feeling they not only need to include a character of whatever demographic, but that they must have being that demographic intensely relevant and addressed.
This not only overwhelms people, but ends up, I think, being where people mess up and make asses of themselves unintentionally.
How much research into that group you have to do depends entirely on how relevant that is to the character, your story, and your own skill level. You need to know where you fall in all of that.
For example, if you're writing a picture book for children about a class of kids from New York meeting a unicorn on the playground, you don't need to study racial tensions to include a child that is black. If you make all the kids white, that's a red flag, and if you try to say "I don't know black people really very well", it's going to be a bigger red flag; how is that relevant?
Race doesn't have anything to do with the story, the children should just be diverse so that whatever child reading this feels included, especially since it's set in a very diverse city. If they're all from Helsinki, y'know what, they can all be white if you want I guess.
On the far other end of the extreme, I'll see writers introduce a character they clearly didn't research well, who is often a well-intentioned caricature. I know we are talking race here, but I see this a lot with trans characters, too. Usually this isn't THE main character, thank God, but sometimes it is.
The story is serious, grounded in a reality with rules, race (or whatever else) is established as mattering and having impact. The author feels the need to make a point, but they aren't terribly educated in it. Their character becomes the mouthpiece for this and fumbles it. It looks horrible.
I would historically say that perhaps the most famous, most fumbled character like this might be Uncle Tom. 🤣
I think it's important to be inclusive, I think it's important to research or write what you know. Some people need to realize they can have a black/trans/female/whatever character without that character having to be a political opinion if they don't know how to write that.
You can have a character that's black and just living their life, he doesn't have to be a victim of inner-city gang violence or a political figure advocating for change, he can literally just be some dude.
I think the primary reason that whatever makes someone of a certain demographic is treated as relevant and needing to be addressed is to evade the accusation that that person is X-demographic in name only, even though it seems like just plain having people of different demographics existing should be a good enough reason to have diversity in your cast of characters. I have in the past seen authors accused of tokenism if they make a character XYZ without addressing it to give some good reason for why that character is XYZ, as if that being reflective of the real world isn’t a good reason. About 15 years ago I used to write romantasy, and when there was no need for a character to have to be any specific race, I would literally draw out of an actual hat what their race or nationality would be because I didn’t see any reason not to. People of all skin tones and nationalities coexist and it’s not a big deal. It’s just society. I did have some people tell me that if there wasn’t a good reason for someone to be black or Indian (to specify I’m referring to people from India, not Native Americans, which shouldn’t need to be said, but this is 2025 and here we are) or anything else, then it was making a prop out of people who aren’t white. But yet that was also a time when white authors were not supposed to write main characters that were a marginalized demographic not their own. So… if I can’t write a main character who isn’t white, but it is also racist to include other character characters who aren’t white and less there was unacceptably good reason… what are you supposed to do? Sad as it is, I have found that you are less likely to be called out if you have an entirely white cast, than you are if you have a cast with a main character of your own race and then friends and neighbors who include people who aren’t white.
I think this is at least part of why authors, feel some sort of need to address why somebody is not a straight white able-bodied character, and it’s really sad. It feels like anyone who is even slightly marginalized needs to be an afterschool special to be justified in existing.
Authors can include anyone of any race... I bet I could name over 20 mainstream books written by black authors that don't include any significant white characters, that's okay, it's also okay the other way around.
OP obviously wants to include a black character, therefore research is a great idea, but this shouldn't be taken as some sort of moral grandstanding - let authors include what characters and races fit their stories
Agreed. I guess my point was more that if you don't really know Black folks or read fiction by Black authors, why is it so important to have a Black character? Like, is there a reason why you need this character to have skin of a certain color, and if so, why? I don't see this as grandstanding but a way to encourage responsibly researched writing that is authentic to an individual author
I used to write books with more diverse casts of characters. I’m from a county in Central California that is about 60% Hispanic or Latino, about 20% white, and 10% black, with the remaining being primarily Asian. I used to write books that were in areas that were not white-dominant. It feels so disgustingly wrong to have a book set in an area that is incredibly diverse and then to have everybody be white. As a kid I literally did not have a white friend until I was 13. And that was normal. There were two white girls in my neighborhood. Most of my cousins have a parent who is Hispanic or Latino, and have kids parented by obviously themselves and another parent who is Hispanic or Latino. Among my own genetic relations, most don’t check the white box because they are majority not and don’t identify as white. This is my blood relations. It was not a big deal. Are you saying that you don’t see, reflecting the reality of a given location as being a reason to have characters who aren’t white?
Fun fact: my husband‘s stepdad‘s parents were the first interracial couple to be married in Santa Barbara County. They had to fight a whole bunch of bullshit laws and dealt with a fuck ton of discrimination. Gus was born in Mexico and Jeanette was a white woman born in England. My side is more from Merced through Fresno counties.
If you take an area like Portland, Oregon , which is absolutely white bread central, and is close to where I live now, you’re definitely not going to be seeing a whole lot of people who aren’t white because there is a disgusting amount of segregation that is still quietly forced and even encouraged here. It’s disgusting, and I get pissed off at how often Portlanders try to hand, wave it away as the past despite the effects that it still has on black communities in Portland right now.
I think it really depends on where a book is set for how much of a reason there needs to be to have diverse characters. They are definitely areas of just the US. where having only white characters is the thing that would need to be explained. But there are other areas where all the reason there needs to be is that that’s reflective of actual reality.
I think a lot of authors, especially white ones, do feel pressured to include characters outside their own race so they're not seen as being racist. The way I see it, though, is that if you're writing fiction, especially fiction not set in the real world, then you should include whichever types of characters you feel like including. For me personally, I will stay away from groups I don't know enough about and am not willing to spend the time to research. I'll stick to what I know or have taken the time to research. Unfortunately that means I don't include trans or non-binary characters at all, but that's okay. There's plenty of authors more knowledgeable in that subject area and can do it justice. The one time I tried to write a trans character she was just one massive caricature and stereotype so was quickly scrapped. Her being trans wasn't really relevant to the story anyway so it was fine to remove the aspect of her being trans.
Yeah, nobody should be striving for tokenism
I completely understand your point with regards to race/ethnicity/demographics, but on a more general level I’m not sure this is the answer. Isn’t it one of the wonderful things about literature that it allows us to explore the psyche of characters that are not ourselves, tell stories beyond just autobiography? Of course writing a character well requires a certain understanding, but I don’t think eg Humbert Humbert “[felt] personal to [Nabokov] specifically as an author”, and yet it’s one of the greatest novels ever written
Off topic, of course. I don’t mean to disagree with your point in the specific context of this thread.
Writing allows us to explore new worlds, but we write best the worlds we know, which is why I suggested research instead of total avoidance <3
I mean, I get your point if they're truly a character in the story.. but what about a passer by? A classmate? A stranger? I feel like OP is just asking for some descriptors. Also, your version of Black people is probably the American version, what if someone isn't writing about that, or science fiction?
Writers should research for their characters in proportion to the character’s centrality to the story. And not just characters — issues, ideas, regions, skills, and all kinds of other things. I agree that we should normalize research as part of being a writer, but in good measure. There’s a big difference between saying “this character is an engineer” or “this character is Black” and writing a story that focuses on the career of an engineer or the life of a Black person as a main character.
There are terms members of a group can use to talk about themselves that people outside of that group should not use. Books written by Black authors intended for a Black audience may use words that they can use among themselves. I’ll go for the obvious example. A Black author can have a Black character referring to his group of Black friends as “my n*****s,” and that’s fine. Would you want a white author to use that word? Even though it’s acceptable for a Black author to use it for their own Black character when discussing black friends? God, no. If I talk about my group of friends, I can talk about my bitches. If you were to call my friends “bitches”? We’re gonna have a problem.
While reading books by Black authors to see how they discussed themselves sounds like a good idea in theory, in practice, it opens up a whole lot of problems.
I think you intentions are good here, but they ultimately would lead to either white people using term terms we absolutely should not, or, if abiding by your suggestion to just plain not write, characters who aren’t white, results in a completely whitewashed world, where everyone in it has to be white. That’s not good either.
Seconding this! The best way to learn how to respect Black culture is through listening to Black people!
Being black doesn't make your description of black people any better than anyone else. If you wanna describe the color of someone's skin just say the color that closely resembles the shad your imagining. Its not disrespectful or weird to to say someone has coco or Carmel colored skin if they do indeed have skin that looks most like those colors.
If you want to write a Black character, then being Black really does make one's description more legitimate in terms of reflecting real world experience and knowledge, so if you want to research how to write about characters who happen to be Black, then it seems like reading Black authors who write about Black folks is a good place to start. I'm assuming that if OP wants to know how to write about folks with darker skin, then that means they want to have at least one Black character.
Literally just use the words “black”, “brown”, and the descriptor the shade. Tbh, “He is an African-American” is also not clunky.
Here’s a really NICE and easy option though:
Go online, Google famous black actors/actresses or influencers or historical figures, etc.
Pick three or four key features from them that isn’t necessarily just their skin color.
Put that into written words.
Boom. You’ve described your person of color.
Also, a big thing is if you’re going to describe skin colors, make sure you don’t only describe your darker skin colors so that you don’t end up with a “white is the default” situation.
This is what I used as a guide when I had the same question and will point you in a direction if you wanna figure out how to be more flowery: https://www.tumblr.com/writingwithcolor/96830966357/words-for-skin-tone-how-to-describe-skin-color
To be fair "African-American" is pretty clunky in a setting with neither Africa nor America.
That’s true, but that’s where the other stuff comes in.
Saving this thank you!
Elon Musk is an African American. He is not black.
He doesn't even consider himself african american, because people know what they mean when they say that
Thanks for the website ! It's really great
https://creatingblackcharacters.tumblr.com/
I think this has been put in other comments but, really, it cannot be listed too often.
Writing With Color — Words for Skin Tone | How to Describe Skin Color
Bookmark it. Refer to it.
Saving this, thank you!
Wow this is honestly great
Hey, I came here to post that website. Great resource and should always be posted.
Thank you.
It depends. Are you writing first or third person? Is your narrator racist? What time period are you writing? What's the ethnicity of the person voicing the description? Context is everything, and descriptions should have a purpose - like giving the reader insight into your characters, narrator or world.
Think of it this way: how do you describe white people? Maybe you'd talk about them having porcelain, almost translucent skin to emphasise they're sickly or indoorsy. Or maybe they have cracked, tanned leathery skin to help convey they've lived a hard life under the sun.
Think like that, but, you know, for black people.
Yeah, if you're in close POV, you describe them as your character would.
Is this a person your narrator is just meeting? In that case they are more likely to describe them physically.
"A tall Black man in a striking white tux rounded the corner."
Is this a person your narrator knows well? They are less likely to describe them physically unless some aspect of their appearance has changed.
"Jamal rounded the corner, dressed in a striking white tux, his dreads pulled back into a ponytail tied with a white velvet scrunchie."
In the first example, we are told directly that Jamal is Black. In the second, we can infer it from his name and the fact that he has dreads, although you don't have to be so obvious about it right away.
Love the way you wrote both examples. But Jamal can be a name for any race, I hate the whole "X race can't have X name" thing. There's even a funny joke on American Dad where Roger meets a guy at a coffee shop and asks his name, and when the guy says "Jamal" Roger says, "But, you're white!" and Jamal replies, "So?" and Roger is like, "I can't be the first person to ever say this to you." or something like that. I'd have to pull up the episode to check lol.
But yeah, names don't automatically make me infer a race, dreads may, but there are other races who wear them too. Jason Mamoa used to have dreads, and he's not Black. I think more fitting would be,
"Jamal rounded the corner, dressed in a striking white tux that contrasted with his dark brown skin and made his face pop, drawing you to his dark brown eyes and sharp cheekbones. All the more accented because he had his dreads pulled back from his face in a ponytail."
This could be written the same way but changing things to be a white man or another race using color and descriptors. A favorite hand of mine has an Albino lead singer who has dreads, Gemini Syndrome (check them out if you like rock music, they're pretty good!).
You're right that none of the details in my first example necessarily determine race or skin colour. But it's also rare that we need to be 100% certain of a character's skin colour. It all comes down to how much description we like to use. Your example works well if it's in a story where white characters are also described to a similar level of detail, but might seem out of place and ham-fisted if Jamal is the only character whose skin colour is mentioned (gives the impression the author thinks white = default).
So true! The author I mentioned (or was it in another post?), Nnedi Okorafor writes Afro-Futurism and describes the skin tones of all of her characters. Another good example is Octavia E. Butler. Both are African/African American women authors, I do believe one of the only white authors I know who writes in a way that race doesn't really matter, but also includes people of color in his books, is Charles de Lint.
That's the issue I see often. Only people of color are described using skin shade. Other people are described using other things. They might tall about the shape of face or eyes, height, the way they walk, style, maybe something about their mannerisms... but the black people are all described as having cocoa/mahogany/ etc skin.
It tends to come across as less vaguely-racist if the comparisons aren’t food. Food comparisons make the descriptions sound like you’re exoticizing their skin, like they’re a consumable product rather than a person. So maybe think of some things that are the same color but aren’t foods? (Or just say they’re Black, but that won’t work if it’s a fantasy world or a setting where that description wouldn’t make sense historically)
Currently writing a black character that's been transplanted from one universe to another for a roleplay. I simply described him as "very dark skinned". Even that only came in passing (another character's thoughts on him relevant to the universe). It doesn't need to be super complicated.
I am agreeing with you, to make clear. I think a lot of times people go so out of their way to describe non-white characters in ways they wouldn't describe a white character.
I wouldn't describe a white character as "she was the color of skim milk, like unblemished mozzarella cheese, not a hue darker than clean hospital linens, also her hair was straight, blonde like gold and got greasy easy, y'know, like white people hair does", I'd probably just say "her complexion was extremely pale and her hair blonde" or something.
Obviously some people just write like that! If you'd describe your white girl as "she was as white as pale moonlight filtering through the clouds" or something then you're just like that and it doesn't stand out. But if you only do that for your black characters...
Cracking up at "unblemished mozzarella".
Me too lol
I might buy a book just for that description of a white girl. My daughter used to be that freakishly pale. Like, foundation didn’t come light enough and she looked like a corpse. Only wavy blonde hair that gets dry easy.
If someone uses your description, I want to know.
"It tends to come across as less vaguely-racist if the comparisons aren’t food. Food comparisons make the descriptions sound like you’re exoticizing their skin, like they’re a consumable product rather than a person"
Peaches and cream complexion? Milky white? Olive skinned?
English isn't my first language, we frequently use " wheat" to describe skin colour
Food frequently used around the world in most cultures and languages to describe skin colours, food literally keeping humans alive,no need to look down at it, being offended over it.
You’re arguing semantics against a highly deep rooted issue that is seeded in culture and history of slavery, constant oppression, and other ugly, ugly things to the point that it’s not as simple as “this is offensive” and more along the lines of “don’t perpetuate a mindset empowered by words.”
Like, it’s less about people being “”offended”” by it as much as the underlying problem of writing a book where you don’t describe white skin tones or when you do it’a stuff like “moonlight” or “ivory” but then everyone else is “chocolate”, “coffee” etc then as the quote said, you’re ingraining a mind set that anyone not white is an “exotic and food” to readers.
Couple this with the possibility of your book getting into the hands of little Bo Jimmy who lives on a farm in a tiny middle of nowhere town of only whites people, then that the on way Little Jimmy knows to think about them.
Which you can see the problem there hopefully.
“dark skin” works fine for me, no need to overcomplicate it unless it’s necessary for your prose style.
That’s not how you would describe Terrence Howard, for example, who is Black. Every Black person doesn’t have dark skin.
You could describe his hair texture, and he still has brown skin. I think if you said he has tightly curled hair and brown skin you'd still be able to know he's black even if he's not particularly dark
Just say "Jamal reminded me of Terrence Howard, especially his beautiful eyes." Done.
Lol but is the person a dark skinned black person he wants to describe. They are many shades of African Americans with all the rape that went on during slavery and then consenting interracial relationships that occurred since slavery.
Pretty much
My siblings and I all came from the same two parents. But two of them can definitely be described as "high yellow" while us other two are dark skin.
I think this also works best in fantasy settings. I have a mixed main character (white father, black mother) and dont have the same irl history in my world that would lead to them being called black or white. There is some racism in my setting, but it is based more on territory than appearance/skin color. In the story her mother is dead, but she has memories of her when she was alive and ill, comparing the grayish skin she remembers with the healthy dark brown in her mother's portraits. I dont think I've even mentioned my main character's skin tone honestly, just leaving it up to the reader to decide (although I see her as a light-skinned black woman).
I'm Black, and I write Black people in the exact same way I write white people. I describe their skin color, hair type, maybe some other features about them. Here's something I came up with in a couple seconds:
"He had pale skin and straight red hair that hung in a shaggy cut down to his shoulders."
"He had bronze-colored skin and tight, curly black hair that grew upwards and out in a cloud-like shape."
I love how simple this is, vs some white people in replies going like "Alright, first you need to research black authors. Research black culture. Study." etc etc.
He looked handsome, in a Billy Dee Williams kind of way. His voice sounded wise and world-weary like Morgan Freeman, but still had a sexy timbre like Denzel Washington. His muscles bulged like Ronnie Coleman, but his body was nimble like a young Michael Jordan.
switching this to first person and putting it in my tinder bio
I always appreciate the circle jerk out in the wild.
Excellent work.
Thank you. I took the template of "Her boobs boobed boobily" and applied it to the most superlative Black men I could think of.
Say "black."
I personally hate "African-American."
(I am a black American person myself lol).
Not every Black person is African-American.
r/writingcirclejerk is two doors down next to r/HFY
r/writingcirclejerk
They are going to eat this shit UPPPP
Call them Black. Black Americans have a very specific experience that people from Africa don’t automatically share, so African Americans doesn’t really describe a person born and raised in the United States with parents and grandparents also born and raised in the United States. They’re Black.
posts like these genuinely annoy the fuck out of me because it implies that Black people have one monolithic look, but I’m still going to answer this because I’m going to assume that was just ignorance on your part and that you’re asking this in good faith.
If you are going to write a black character, you need to decide on how this person looks. Are they a lighter skinned black person or are they a brown skinned black person? Are they a darker skin black person? Black people have different skin tones although the media might have you think differently and that is probably gonna be important for deciphering how you write about the person. But simply asking, how do you describe Black people as if we are one monolithic character — you definitely are not ready to write about Black people lmao.
The title is definitely straightforward but I don’t think the post is implying anything. OP is asking how to describe multiple shades in non-food ways. We’re definitely not a monolith but we are a group of people that has been very underrepresented in pop lit until like, maybe 5-10 years ago? So this is genuinely a new area of writing for some people who weren’t exposed to any black lit.
I would recommend OP look at classic black authors and seeing how they describe their own characters. Toni Morrison is great for that, also Mama Angelou and her writings and poetry. Zora Neale Hurston is also up there for her way of transcribing black speech. I love Octavia Butler for her multicultural worlds where skin color is almost a historical detail in the larger scheme of human survival, and either social collapse, magic, or aliens force characters to overcome bias.
Edit: I meant Maya Angelou but that’s mama to me so I just be calling her that sorry
Idk why this question gets asked so often. I've never seen the reverse (Black authors asking reddit how to describe white people). It's strange. They know perfectly fine how to describe their white characters. Skin tone is rarely mentioned and even when it is they use inoffensive words. Just use the same damn logic. If you don't even describe the specific skin tone of white characters then do the same for Black characters. I legit just call my characters brown. Their level of melanin is the least interesting thing about their appearance.
You've given me an idea, I'm just gonna create a post here and say "how do you describe white people?" And see what happens.
Please link lol I wanna see how the experiment goes.
Use words like cream and porcelain, and make sure to emphasize the round eyes and straight styleless hair.
Totally. I think some white authors are just terrified of committing an accidental faux pas, so they overthink it. No one wants to be the star of "5 reasons this book is secretly racist" down the road.
Personally, I just make sure I'm not exoticizing, whitewashing, or pretending that I can navigate a black haircare routine. And then I move on from appearances and focus on the character.
Bro look at the original commenter. This question is asked so often cause people are terrified of being cancelled for not using the “proper terms” even when they want to sound poetic. You can describe white skin in any way u want, milky, porcelain, marble or whatever and no one will ever get offended because there’s no links to anything or any racism. When it comes to black skin people know they have to be careful to not be seen as racist and they’re scared. So it’s extremely obvious why this question gets asked so often, they want to use something other than black or African American to sound more creative but don’t want to be cancelled and offend people and they don’t know what’s offensive or not. This is literally the only reason
That's YOUR perspective. Black characters have been historically described in racist ways by white authors. Meanwhile, white characters are described normal because white people consider white characters normal/human. If you're worried about sounding racist just focus on describing a human who happens to be Black. How come it's not hard for Black authors to do that? I'm Black. I've written characters from other races. Not once have I posted on reddit. Why? Because I genuinely interact with people from other races. When I write them I'm not doing something out of the ordinary. It feels quite normal to me. They feel like regular people. If there's anything I personally don't know I do my research. Asking reddit, which is really just asking those minorities to do the work for you, does not come to mind.
I completely agree with you, but why is someone who wants to write about black people, and I’m going to assume here, not already doing this. They’re coming to Reddit to be told how to write instead of reading black authors to begin with.
Even outside of this topic this is what pisses me off about this sub. Someone asked why peoplr get mad when people ask questions in this sub. This is a prime example.
I mean I guess people have to start somewhere. I wouldn’t necessarily expect the average joe writing a black side character to crack open Beloved or Their Eyes Were Watching God. I read habitually my whole life and didn’t pick up a book centered on black people for adults till I made a concerted effort in college. I had to study my own people because I realized I was exposed so little. The bubble is so huge you don’t know you’re in it till you start stepping out.
Also I don’t want to discourage people from including black characters just because they don’t know how to approach it.
To be fair, black authors are pretty underrepresented in most people’s literary education. When they are, it’s often limited to poetry and works that focus specifically on civil rights and black peoples’ struggles rather than any kind of abstract, fantasy, or daily-life writings.
They should probably do a google search or at least a search of this subreddit before asking a redundant question though.
To add to this, people of different ethnicity have different face and body features. For instance, hair. If I was OP, I would simply describe these features and let the reader interpret the character. If the skin colour of the character is of importance to the story then it should be mentioned, but it needn't be mentioned otherwise.
Yes. I almost never describe how a character looks in any of my fictional writing because of this exact reasoning.
"You're not ready to write about black people"??? Are you kidding me? How can you say "we're not a monolith" but then give them a certain criteria to meet in order to write about black people? Stop gatekeeping how people are allowed to write. Don't judge OP because of their curiosity. You are the reason black people are barely represented in media because people are too afraid to do it and become judged for it. Stop.
Did you even read what I said? I didn’t give them a criteria - I told them to imagine how the black person they want to write about looks because there is quite literally not an answer to ‘how do you describe black people’ if you don’t even know how the black person/people you’re writing about looks.
But as far as me, one person and individual, being the reason for a lack of black representation ….. you’re right. I’m the sole reason black people arent represented in the media (even though we are, it’s just usually negative).
Which by the way I’d rather have a lack of representation than bad representation but I can tell you are not ready for that conversation.
No, you are. You had a black person telling you how it should be done or could be done, and you're too busy swinging for defense instead of demonstrating that you heard anything. And then people go "why do black people have BET or black this and that." I want you to remember this moment, because this is the reason.
If you come back swinging at me because you're all "gatekeeping" instead of reading what I wrote, don't bother. I'm just gonna block you. But I thought you should know.
Personally, im black and i describe my characters with caramel, light skin, dark skin, and chocolate bc thats my personal experience of how me and my friends (also black) call out black people. It's not "not good writing" its actual things we do and how to describe darker skin tones with adjectives. I would say only do that if you have a lot of black people in your story otherwise dark skin, black people, or African Americans are fine bc thats just what we're called
Thank you! It's not negative using food to describe black people! Whoever said it's "exoticising" needs to deflate their ego, it's not that serious. Adjectives and similes are used as descriptive reference---you're not literally calling them a food. Peach, apricot, cream---all foodstuffs yet no one cares about that.
What is this apricot descriptor? Aren't they orange?!
Glances at the news on TV, then back to reddit
Yeah, what kind of human would be that color?
I’m black, authors tend to over complicate this when writing black people.
It’s not rocket science, where is he from? His skin tone? Hair? That’s it.
If it’s black American then research from which city and what slang they use. What’s the economic of his household because it will also affect how he/she portrays his/her image.
Brown skin. Just like you’d say a white person has white skin. You can also describe what hair style your character’s hair is in. It only need to be one to three lines of description and then you don’t have to continually remind your readers, they’re not dumb
I’m a Black person and a fiction writer. I found a great piece of advice from a fellow writer years ago. Don’t use comparisons to food, wood shades, rocks/stones, or natural substances to describe Black physical features. People know what dark skin/light skin, coiled natural hair/locs/braids/straight/wavy/weaves look like. If I told you I’m a short, heavy 64-year-old Black woman with light skin, round eyes, an androgynous gender presentation, and straightened dyed-black shoulder-length hair, you can imagine that, right? I’ve found the advice useful for all ethnicities. BTW most of us are fine with being called Black, unless African-American fits better in the context of your story.
You can just use color names. And indeed you can just say they were black or African American. It’s really not that hard. I’ve read many contemporary novels where they hit say, Tim was a black man around 60. You don’t need a metaphor. We’re not some mystical creatures.
Brown and dark skin are both acceptable
Black
WritingWithColor https://share.google/UxWak9EWmggZ3sHDB
A great resource, created by people of color to help provide a lexicon writers can use to describe skin tones of all shades.
I frankly think this resource should be pinned in this group, so many people can benefit from it and I've personally linked it in this sub at least three or four times.
Go follow ProseWithoutThorns on Instagram!!
The owner, Denise Leora Madra, is a Black woman who talks about writing POC. Her videos include describing appearances like skin color, hair, etc but also go way beyond that. She’s also a sensitivity reader. Her videos are concise and to the point, but she also explains the why, not just the how.
I think context is important.
Also, remember not to tokenize characters (don’t include a Black character for the sake of checking a box). I believe she has a video on that as well as one on if non-POC should be writing POC in the first place. Btw- her answer to that is more complex than you’d think!!
Say they have brown skin and leave it that. "I could see his brown face poking out from behind the wall."
African-American specifically describes Black people born in the United States. It isn’t a term for all Black people. My question is what exactly are you trying to say with your description? If you’re just trying to get across that someone is Black, then you can just say dark-skinned. You’re right that using foods as descriptors sounds fetish-y or like you’re writing smut, so just be as clinical as possible. You don’t need to say “dark as night” or some other cliche either especially if you yourself are not Black.
That said, if you’re just trying to describe a character, I don’t think it’s often necessary to specifically mention their skin tone. Realistically, you can describe any race of character the same way you’d describe a white character lol, and white characters don’t often have their Whiteness specifically pointed out unless they’re pale.
There are a lot of answers in here that are focused on black/african-american/etc. But it sounds like this isn’t about background so much as skin tone?
In which case, take your cue from what your main character knows about.
Do they spend time in the woods? Or the sea? Do they spend time repotting plants? What would their reference point for that shade of brown be? What feelings should this new character evoke? You have a chance here to establish how your narrator and reader experience this character for the first time.
Is their skin the rich loam of a beloved building? Or the resonant warmth of a favourite violin?
I mean, personally, I like this style for describing anyone’s skin tone regardless of race. It gives you a chance to add characterful insights for both them and the narrative pov.
Alternatively, just use things like tan, dark tan, brown, black. Not as descriptive, but also not uncomfortable.
From my understanding, the food references are problematic because they imply a sort of fetishistic consumption and reduce agency. The important thing is to make sure your characters are all treated as full people who matter and are not made to be alluring and edible. (Unless your character is a sexy cupcake- then I got nothing for you.)
Her hazelnut globes breasted boobily when she walked down the stairs
Black guys are Black guys, light-skinned Black girls are light-skinned Black girls.
I think (and this is coming from a White guy, so take it with a grain of salt) that, right now, most White people trying to describe different shades of Black skin try to sound 'too positive', for a lack of a better word; they end up sounding like they're fetishizing Black skin (or looks, for that matter), which makes it sound awkward, weird, and pandering for everyone involved.
EDIT: on another note, I also try to remember referring to, say, a White woman as a White woman. Anything else just makes 'Black' sound like something abnormal that needs to be explicitely pointed out, which it shouldn't.
I think in one place I mentioned that a certain nationality/area were known to be dark-skinned, but there's not been a lot of black people in the series (yet....there will be traveling, and one of the MCs is black. Maybe two. I haven't decided what my shield and bash things guy looks like.) Of course, I've also been dealing with a very rural area and a small town, and when we move to the college and the port town we will naturally see people who look different.
I just say that their skin is dark, and mention other features as it comes up in my writing, much as I do for the white characters.
Dark skin? Ebon-skin? Brown?
I’d also think that some context and the perspective is integral to how a description is done.
Like, say, a world where a certain character comes from a place where the people are mostly pale or not what we consider black.
It isn’t problematic for this character to comment on or describe the appearance of someone that is dark-skinned through comparison to concepts/objects—that is literally just character writing and interaction.
However, a tip for descriptions is to let the features roll out as you write. Drop traits here and there (if you’d like), whilst saving something more in-depth until it becomes important to the scene.
For example, in ASOIAF, there are very few in-depth descriptions of armor or appearance(though to be honest with you, this is likely the case for most literary works).
The one’s we do get are context dependent and are often tied to a character’s in-world perception. Like the description of Tywin Lannister’s armor, which serves to emphasize aspects of Tywin’s character and the measure of him in the world.
Think of the story you tell as a sketch that people imagine in their heads with the details you give being used to anchor them in that sketch
My advice would be to focus on the character. As long as you write someone as a well-rounded, realistic 3-dimensional person, with believable motivations and some depth to them, physical description becomes almost optional.
I think the tricky part for white writers creating black characters is more in describing cultural variations. Growing up black in the USA is very different than growing up white for many people (not all of course). There are unique challenges and obstacles to navigate, and while us white folks can intellectually understand those challenges, it's really hard to understand them on an intuitive "lived" level.
The safest thing you can do is write your character as respectfully and realistically as you can, and then ask a black friend to read through it and point out places you might be venturing into accidentally offensive territory.
Try to pick an African American actor as a stand in and get help describing that particular person. For example, Keith David as a professor with a gray goatee.
Did op ever respond to anyone?
Probably saw their phone explode with comments and hid it under the couch.
I never thought the protagonist from Singer from the Sea was black until reading it a few times and catching the smaller cues. It's a fantasy world, and so I thought the oppression wasn't due to her skin color but her family status in general and simply being female - it was complex and nuanced enough, where her skin color wasn't a real factor, and it was more about her heritage/lineage that only came into play at the end.
Sheri Tepper did a brilliant job in writing about a human character, who was female and that dictated the story, while the inevitable ending was due to her heritage, where skin color just happened to be a characteristic of that heritage.
It's a fantasy book, so had a different historical weight around the protagonists race/skin color - but the writing is a great example of how you can write in subtle cues without making it about the immutable physical characteristics but more about their immediate circumstances and how personal history created those circumstances, and how the individual reacts to the situations, which is what's more interesting than how they deal with immutable factors.
Instead of focusing on being 'African american' - recognize the relevance of that to the story. Is he actually African American, or is he Caribbean American - the accents, even generationally passed down, are different, the turn of phrases, the cultural nuances. And this goes for any race. You can't just imply 'she's Native american' and 'he's Chinese american' by saying 'tan yellow skin and almond shaped eyes'.
Does their skin color and eye shape actually matter? No, not really. Unless you have a racist character that actually does care only about the skin color without even bothering to find out their actual heritage - like mixing up Koreans with Japanese. Or assuming a white South African is has British Colonial heritage, when they are actually Russian.
The only other time skin, hair, eye color matter is when the person whose perspective your writing is in intimate situations and is feeling appreciative of the human being in front of them - usually that's when characters are in love. People in real life don't fall in love with physical characteristics unless they have a kink - they fall in love with the other person and then notice the physical attributes and associate those as positives with that person. So unless the character is either racist or loves the other character for more than their looks, don't outright call out their skin color.
It's more about how the individual reacts to situations based on their lived experiences and narratives during their upbringing. Using the example of a white south african actually having grandparents from the soviet union rather than colonial british - even if they speak with south african intonations, and are immersed in sa pop culture, they're still going to have vastly different personalities just based on their grandparents culture. 'white skin' doesn't inform the story in any way at all, unless you're writing about how indigenous south africans treat white-skinned people. The same goes for writing any person of color.
Hi, you don't have to approach it differently than a character of another race. What would be the point anyway? You don't have to specify everything. I have characters of different races, religions, and political beliefs, but it's reflected in the character's behavior. I would never address it directly; it's up to the reader to imagine it.
Say "He is black."
They are dark-skinned with curly hair or braids. Don't overcomplicate it.
No dessert inspired adjectives, I feel like lately I’m finding those a bit cringe.
It's best to just say black or brown or light brown or warm brown or something like that. The absolute worst thing to do is use food or drinks as comparison
I’m sure this goes without saying, but try to avoid dessert words, unless you’re trying to set a sexual tone. “Chocolate”, “mocha”, “cocoa”, “Caramel”, etc all come off like a sexual fetish. Cinnamon, coffee, ginger, etc are less fetishy. You can use words like “deep” or “soft” to describe the level of brown. Try to avoid cliché words like “onyx” and “ebony”. There are a lot of words for brown. Just try to be graceful and intentional with your description.
You might have a better chance of naturally portraying, a black person by describing features instead of lingering on our skin tone. Do they have almond shaped eyes or big round eyes? Do they have pouty lips or bow lips? Do they have tight coiling hair or big waves to their elbows?
If you take an art class, there’s this thing called visual analysis where you have to describe something by seven elements : line shape form color volume value and texture. You have many options of description outside of color.
Jerking aside, I usually bring it up as naturally as I can. I won't necessarily reveal their exact appearance up front and I don't "assign a race" to everyone--people can fill in the blanks on their own.
Couple of examples of how I described some of my chars with distinct appearances.
Older black guy with a darker complexion is saying farewell to an adopted daughter character: "Homura nodded at Kingsley. She was going to miss that face. Dark, wrinkled skin tanned even darker by the harsh Zyrdian summer. A mess of black tangled hair and a bushy beard that would tickle her when she would ride on his shoulders as a child. Those brown eyes had so much kindness in them. So much violence for those who would hurt his loved ones."
Younger woman with a light brown complexion got a glow-up: "Aliya recalled the chance she had to look at herself in a mirror when visiting the emperor. She suspected she hadn’t looked in a proper mirror in over five years. She hardly recognized herself, well-groomed as she was. Her light brown skin was a shade darker from the bronzer they had applied..." (Proceed to describe her other features.)
Scythe did a nice job with this one, while Schusterman never explicitly said this character was Black, he said that she had primarily Afric heritage while writing from her perspective.
Question... When does the person's color become important?
In my case I have a mixed race woman MC... Her small town southern upbringing informs her drive, her demand for authenticity and respect for her (and others) agency. She is one of those people who worked their ass off to escape the constraints of their home town but who not only maintained but developed their belief in humanity during her journey.
She references her upbringing & color (why are you still in this role? Cute, check. Clever, check. Responsible, check. Promotion material... Crickets. Lots of "thanks hon" and no "upgrade the role". Etc. also learning to not hold onto grudges otherwise she'd be angry forever, etc)
I think she only actually mentions color twice in 250k words (I'm way through book 3 right now, so...)
i recommend the book Wahala by Nikki May. she is a black author who writes about black characters specifically, and while i can’t tell you how she wrote off the top of my head, it was really well done. (:
“Black” isn’t a dirty word lol, in fact it’s the correct word. I will mention that it’s more appropriate to say “Locs” instead of dreads if you for some reason end up mentioning hair 🤣
I bookmarked a tumblr page a while back that might be helpful. https://writingwithcolor.com/post/96830966357/words-for-skin-tone-how-to-describe-skin-color
“He had dark skin”
There you go
Read some books written by black people featuring black people. That should help answer your question.
Read black authors. We describe ourselves very well.
I've never met a black person who was offended by being called black.
Go about it the same way you would for any other person.
For instance, you wouldn't describe a white person's skin as "vanilla," "creme brûlée," or "white chocolate," because the food-y descriptions sound weird and fetishistic. Same rules apply to black people's skin.
Because people often view whiteness as the default, lots of authors might not explicitly describe a white character as white - however, it is perfectly reasonable and appropriate to do so for characters of any race. You can simply just say the character is black.
"She strode blackly into the room"
Let the reader know in other ways, you don't have to mention skin, mention culture, haircare, context. Describe everything that makes the character and it'll come through without physical appearance ever having to be mentioned
As a black writer who has a lot of black characters describing skin color rarely comes up. Unless is important to the plot, you can just say he or she is black and keep it moving.
This is one of those men writing women questions. Like it’s rare that a woman’s breast size or shape is relevant to a plot yet so many male authors find it necessary to do.
I pose a question back. How do you describe white people? Use the same method.
Are you highlighting the skin color of the non-Black characters?
If not, maybe you shouldn't be doing it for the Black characters. It's very possible that there's no reason to even discuss race at all.
Read black literature?
He was a jive talkin' Soul Brotha
Aww these comments aren't as funny as the other thread
How do you describe white people?
Pick a color. Whoever dismissed describing a black person's skin by comparing it to something of the same color is a clown.
This is standard practice because there are thousands of shades of skin tones. Telling us someone's "black" or "politically derived racial identifier" is a meaningless descriptor.
How do you tell us your other characters are white? Do you say "she was Caucasian."
What kind of Caucasian? Mediterranean? Slavic? German? Frank? Celtic? Norse? They're all "Caucasian"/"white" but there's hundreds of shades of white within that group.
Unless there's narrative importance for the reader to know a character's color, just don't bother telling us. If you're writing a fictional story set in a fictional world, don't use real world political identifiers to describe ANY character. If there is a narrative importance for the reader to know how a character appears (because they face prejudice in their community for their heritage, or are traveling in a foreign land where their appearance makes them stand out) describe the features that make them stand out in a scene where they're feeling judged.
Only three characters in my books (which has over 70 characters across >500,000 words) have defined skin tones. A dozen or so others can be inferred by secondary descriptors. (Most of which can only be assumed by applying observations MC makes of how the people of certain kingdoms differ from those of his home kingdom.)
Don't.
I'm a Black man. I don't like reading stuff that describes me as chocolate, or dark or whatever. I'd rather be defined as a person first and my features second.
It's your job to find a way to indicate to the reader that him being Black is secondary to whatever else you're writing about. Capisce?
This mentality doesn't actually help any of us(I'm black too). Treating the acknowledgement of simple characteristics as taboo is a net negative in terms of social progress.
out of curiosity, since you are not very comfortable with Black people or have much experienced in spending time with Black people, what is your intention for the Black characters in your story?
Very glad you want your writing not to suck
I keep seeing random comments about food comparisons. Full Stop.
People in general don't want to be compared to objects, and for us blacks, it can be inferred as vague racism especially since African Americans have a long history steeped in racism and being considered less than animals. And food has also been used as a racist tool aganist African Americans, especially foods such as watermelon and fried chicken that has been used in racist advertising. And let me not get started on animals such as monkeys.
I can tell you that no one wants to be randomly compared to food, rocks, trees, or what have you. The English dictionary is full of thousands of words that can be used to describe a person outside of objects if that said object is not being used as a form of insult. And skin color shouldn't be a focal point when describing a person. If I can pick up a random book and infer that the main character is white without a single mention of their skin tone, the same can be done with any character of color.
How integral is their being black to the story? I have some characters that in my mind are black but it really doesn't matter. You might infer it from their names, but equally you might not—their names could just as easily belong to a white person. One of them I have described as having black springy hair wrestled into a tight ponytail, but that's more around the fact that she's a no-nonsense professional. The other doesn't get described at all.
People like me and you.
Start with emotion and perspective. If pov is a racist, you'll describe someone differently than if they're Black. But if you are going for more of a detached narration style, just, I beg you, describe their hair and maybe features and make sure you do the same for White people and others.
It's really jarring when I'm a third of the way into the book and suddenly someone is described as Black because then I'm like "wait, all those other people are White??"
Using food names is not appropriate if you're not also Black. There are countless other color descriptors you can use.
this has been such an unhelpful comment section, wow. anyway, here's a link I find helpful:
https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/95-FE-Write-Race-Ethnicity-in-Fiction.html
I also used to have one that suggested using other words, including spice words, but only conditionally. unfortunately, when I tried the link it no longer works.
reading more racialized authors can help, as long as they use skin tone terms. I am still hunting for more resources on this that do what you're describing: telling you what TO do, not what NOT to do.
edit: I saw a couple other helpful links like this, I hope you find them!
Omg thank you for saying that because I am DISGUSTED with how some people are treating this post! Some of these comments are so fucking pretentious OMG
Malcom was, oddly, the only of the old school-gang who gut pulled over in traffic checks regularily.
Mr. Han was kind of miffed each time he was walking along the beach promenade. It was like everyone but him got offered free sunscreen samplers.
She was hating the stares. Bus. Stares. Shop. Stares. Security. STARES. Those people in Iceland were nice enough, but their stares...
Why exactly do you need to describe the color of the skin of a character? If you feel insecure about writing the racial description (which I guess is okay, as you are likely not writing up a pedigree certificate for breeding your character) then don't.
Well I write fantasy, and in that world the term black people doesn't mean "black people" with all the connotations and history and associations that come with that phrase in this world. So I never use it. There is no racism in that fantasy world. I simply state their skin-tone. I state it once, and after that, unless there's some pressing plot-relevant reason to mention it, the colour of their skin never comes up again. If the reader cares what colour the characters are, then it's up to the reader to remember what I said the one time I said it. All characters, regardless of their hue, get the same treatment.
You could read novels of white authors who describe black characters featured. I would read Moon Lake by Joe Lansdale because the white mmc lives with a black family temporarily and falls for the daughter. If its not obvious, im black. I thought lansdale writing of us was pretty good.
People or a person?
You should think about how your narrator sees the world and how they would phrase it. This can obviously get problematic for racist narrators like Huck Finn, even when Twain was trying to argue for the opposite, so you have to use your best judgement.
Do not just blanketed write whatever PC term because that can sound performative (and even more absent minded/racist).
I mean how do you describe a white person? To me skin color is irrelevant when you say someone is white, Asian or black. I’d rather know other features such as hair, eyes, distinct features etc. same with Asian people. Just say they’re Asian but with long wavy brown hair. Just say he is black with cropped hair and thick beard - that tells me what I need to know. Or a light-skin black clean shaven man with dimples. It’s all you need.