Difficulty introducing a character's race.

And before you ask fantasy or realistic race, the answer is both. So the question is two fold. Let me start with fantasy first.

I have a short story in which the characters are magical elves. They go to a school that teaches magic, and one is about to fail. I find it very difficult how to get across that they're elves without being too tell-y. And it does become a minor plot point about halfway through when a side character bullies the failure (as elves are few and far between, so one failure makes them all look bad). But this isn't till halfway through, and up until then they seem like regular wizards.

Another issue is regular race. This story is just humans. I wanted a black guy to diversify the setting, but how do I call him black without being "so this is Mike. He's black."

I'm going to assume you're not writing from an omniscient viewpoint. Why not have other characters point their race out? In the second case, does the protagonist meet the black character for the first time?

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

In the second case, no. He's been a long time friend of the MC.

What perspective are you writing in?

Really, it's no more complicated than adding those details into general description.

"Mike walked into the room, closing the door behind him. He was a tall, lanky man with dark brown skin and a shaved head. The bounce in his step betrayed his energetic nature as he crossed the floor."

"El'fria took no obvious note of his entrance. The elf was too focused on his book to care."

edited 8th Jul '14 3:01:46 PM by Bloodsquirrel

Well, this is my viewpoint on handling people of color in fiction- their color should not be treated as a big deal, nor should it have any meaning attached to it because no real-life person of color was 'made' that way for any significant reason whatsoever. Assuming you have enough pagetime in the black character's story, it will probably come up naturally at some point. I reiterate my previous point: let someone else point it out.

Or, alternatively:

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

On the other hand, with regards to human race, if no natural place for it to be mentioned is coming up, and the races of the other characters aren't being mentioned, is it important?

Put it this way: are you describing the other characters as being white (or whatever race they are)? If so, then describe the black person in the same way. If not, then readers are free to imagine them as whatever race they fancy. If race is already mentioned for a handful of characters, but not all (if, for example, someone comments on another's fair skin), then again readers are free to imagine the other characters as they please, whether black, white or other.

In short, sometimes race just doesn't come up.

As to the elven character, you mention that elves are few in the school; in that case, it seems likely that someone is going to point them out. If no-one does, perhaps show the character's perspective—or at least mention it: perhaps they worry about how they'll be treated or seen, or remind themselves that they're likely to be seen as representative of all elvenkind, or perhaps a teacher calls them in to warn them about anti-elf sentiment in the school, etc.

My Games & Writing

I suppose the problem with this is that most readers will assume a character is white (or whatever the majority race is in the author's country) unless otherwise noted. However, I feel that this is equally as bad as shoehorning something into the story specifically to mention the character's race, whether a physical description where it would be inappropriate (such as the case of the viewpoint being the POC's close friend), or an entire scene that wouldn't work if the character wasn't a POC (such as one where the character is hassled explicitly due to his race), in a work that isn't about race.

If your work is longer than a short story, there's a good chance it will come up naturally at some point.

I thought of another way that could work- Mike could be meta-aware enough to lampshade Black Dude Dies First, if this is the kind of story where people's lives are in danger for whatever reason.

edited 8th Jul '14 8:13:44 PM by CrystalGlacia

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

But that's a matter of the reader's envisioning; is it important for the author to essentially say "No! You must imagine this character as black"? And if the story is read by a reader who envisages everyone as black (as might be the case in a country in which the majority is black), does suddenly saying "so-and-so is black" not essentially suggest that they recolour the rest of the cast?

Note that I'm not saying that lack of representation is unimportant; rather, I'm questioning whether it's important that a work include and point out a token minority when human race is otherwise neither mentioned nor relevant to the story.

(If the work in question does actually mention the race of its other characters, then that's a different matter, I feel.)

I do agree that in a longer work a natural place for observation of a character's colour will likely arise, however.

My Games & Writing

The real question is: how much physical description are you giving your characters in the first place? Depending on the writing style, not giving the character's races might work perfectly well. There is something to be said, though, of using physical descriptions to paint a vivid picture in the reader's mind (part of which is to keep it brief and memorable).

Agreed on both points, I believe. ^_^

My Games & Writing

Mentioning race can be so quick and casual some people don't even notice like how people were surprised that Rue in The Hunger Games movie was black even though the book said, "She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that, she's very like Prim in size and demeanor." The first Animorphs book says, "Cassie's sort of the opposite [of tall blonde Rachel]... She's black and wears her hair very short most of the time."

What I'd say you should do is just describe him with more than saying he's black.

The problem with that is that the story is from the POV of the black character's close friend, so having that character make note of their appearance would be out-of-place.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

Just because it's from the POV of someone who knows him doesn't mean that you can't describe him. It's either written from first person (in which case the narrator can consciously choose to describe him for the audience) or it's third person limited, in which case you aren't strictly limited to just what's going through the character's head. You just can't get into other character's heads.

edited 9th Jul '14 1:46:26 PM by Bloodsquirrel

I was going to mention that names are often a very good way to get across ethnicity/race, but depending on your setting it might not be applicable. Most blacks in the Western world have assimilated and therefore have white/European names.

I'd say find a way to mention his skin color and be done with it (akin to the Hunger Games example). Sometimes just being direct is best.

People might not know the name origins, either. Buthelezi is Zulu, but the number of people who could correctly identify its continent of origin is probably a little low.

Nous restons ici.

Thanks for the input. On a different note, now that I have good examples of how to describe black people, how do I describe whites?

Blonde, bruentte or redhead? Most people in the US are white. Same with Europe. Someone is going to be assumed to be white unless said or implied otherwise. You can imply it by saying that they live in a neighborhood where mostly one race lives.

I agree with Bloodsquirrel. A character's close friend can describe him to the audience. That's the case in Animorphs.

One trigger for physical descriptions is if someone's appearance has changed, so Bob notices when Alice gets a tan or Mike shaves his head or Grafnak dons some new piercings, and as long as he's noticing that, you can slip in other details.

Alternatively, certain narrators may be unusually preoccupied with other people's appearance—say they're a cosmetician or fashion designer—and they will always describe the person they're looking at to the reader.

edited 13th Jul '14 6:47:20 AM by SKJAM