History Main / HumansAreWhite

* In the TV version of ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', it's Humans Are White and British, especially since Arthur and Trillian, the only two surviving humans, are white Brits.[[note]]Except for the American actress who played Trillian. People familiar with the original radio show and the novelisations pointed out Trilian should be as British as Arthur Dent.[[/note]]

In older live-action works, this occurs because [[MonochromeCasting the great majority of actors were white]], and UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode prohibited mixed-race romantic pairings of characters ''and'' the actors who played them.

* In UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' featured many aliens but no black human or {{Human Alien|s}} members. Eventually, in UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}}, Tyroc was added as the {{Angry Black Man|Stereotype}} that was a common sort of TokenMinority back in the day (very similar to the earliest portrayals of the John Stewart ComicBook/GreenLantern.) Supposedly, in the 30th century, the world is above caring about things like race, but the [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]], very much of that point in the 20th century, weren't quite up to having a black character as just another guy instead of The Black Guy.

Space has a lot of peoples in it. Way, way more peoples than science tells us there should be. There are [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation blue people, green people, orange people, purple people,]] [[ImAHumanitarian people that eat people]], {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s, ScaryDogmaticAliens, BigCreepyCrawlies, EnergyBeings, and even the odd SufficientlyAdvancedAlien with [[AncientAstronauts a very familiar name]]. And most of them even [[AliensSpeakingEnglish speak English]], but there is still probably [[TokenMinority just the one black guy]].[[note]][[AlwaysMale Seldom gal.]][[/note]] You'll have an even harder time finding East Asians[[note]]and if you do they are almost AlwaysFemale[[/note]] or Indians, even though East-, South-, and South-East Asia together contain slightly over half of Earth's current population.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' notably averts this trope. With the Asian-looking Xingese characters, the dark skinned, white haired, red eyed Ishvalans, and the (generally) white Amestrians, FMA is one of the few anime/manga to not only include a variety of ethnic backgrounds, but actually incorporate them into the character designs. Even among Amestrians, there are "black" supporting characters like Paninya and Jerso.

* ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'' averts this, especially in Part 2. The Cloud Village in particular seems to have a lot of black ninja, including its leader, the Raikage. The protagonists are also all Japanese unless specified otherwise.

* ''Anime/{{Starzinger}}'': Averted. The main characters appear to be of East Asian descent, though it's kind of hard to tell with their names, that are Japanese versions of the Chinese characters from ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''.

* ''Fanfic/RedFireRedPlanet'' by [[Tropers/StarSword the same author]] likewise averts. Of the two humans on the crew of a Starfleet listening post, one (Crewman Yasmin Sherazi) is stated to be Iranian in the narration (and once [[ForeignCussWord swears in Azerbaijani]]), while the other (Chief Operations Specialist Sally Blackhawk) is mentioned to be Shoshoni Indian in the [[WordOfGod author's notes]]. The C.O. of Starfleet Command is an Admiral Avaninder Singh, a Sikh from Liverpool.
* The only human character in the entire cast of "Fanfic/AenrhienVailiuri" is from Iran.

* {{Invoked}} in ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes''. There's only one black man, Dodge, in the [[Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968 original film]], and in the novelization, Zira says that the apes were intrigued by Dodge and stuffed him for display because they'd never seen a human with dark skin before. That said, there ''was'' a black man among the mutant society in the [[Film/BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes second film]]. In the unproduced Creator/ChrisColumbus script, there is [[TokenMinority only one black astronaut]] as well, but [[AuthorsSavingThrow the apes say]] that he has the look of "[[FantasyCounterpartCulture the southern tribes]]" right after meeting him.

* The caveman movie ''Film/QuestForFire'' averts this, with most of the Neanderthals played by fair-white white actors (although one of them is played by Iranian-American actor Nicholas Kadi), while the more advanced and modern Cro-Magnons are played by dark-haired actors of mixed race (and quite a few Inuit extras in the crowd scenes). The filmmakers specifically wanted to emphasize the race as we understand it hadn't really emerged yet when the film is set.

* Briefly [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] in ''Series/ThirtyRock'':
-->"How come there ain't no Puerto Ricans on'' Franchise/StarTrek''!? They got every race and life-form in the galaxy, except for Puerto Ricans! What's up with that?!
* Averted in the remake of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. In [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 the original show]], due to the time, almost the entire cast is white and the majority are male. In the remake, there are several people of other races and/or females.
** Though, strangely, the two prominent black characters from the original series, Tigh and Boomer, [[RaceLift become]] white and Asian respectively.

** Completely averted in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' where [[HumansByAnyOtherName Homs]] are a rather diverse race. Five of the seven playable characters are Homs and two of these (Sharla and Reyn) are AmbiguouslyBrown. Among secondary characters and especially {{Non Player Character}}s it's diversified even further with a rather wide range of skin tones throughout the race.

* Played straight in the ''VideoGame/GuildWars2''. Despite taking place in Kryta, whose populace was primarily brown-skinned in the past, the majority of humans are now white. This is especially odd as Kryta is supposed to be a melting pot of refugees from all the previously mentioned nations yet the only sign of their presence is the architecture.
** Averted with ''Path of Fire'' returning players to Elona, which is still populated by people with African and Middle Eastern appearances.

* ''VideoGame/ExitFate'' averts this one with the black [[AdventurerArchaeologist Nomad]] and [[IceQueen Marian]], several darker-skinned [=NPCs=] and the Ambiguously Middle Eastern mountain people.

* It happens to the player's own species in ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}''. Your species never seems to have any other sub-races or ethnicies other than the one you control.
** Subverted when you encounter a wild version of your creature. But even that's not common.
* ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' averts this--humans can be white, brown, or black, as well as male or female. This is purely cosmetic, and can be selected in the case of starting crew. It will be randomly selected for any humans you might come across in the game.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series, of ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'', ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'' and ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'' tends to avert this. Of the various notable characters, Roland and the Hammerlock siblings are black, and Mordecai is said to be Truxican, which is treated as the setting's equivalent of Mexican. Marcus and Nurse Nina's accents imply them to be Slavic of some extraction. Sheriff Nisha is seemingly of Indian descent, while Captain Scarlett, Piston, and Motor Mamma in their various DLC are AmbiguouslyBrown. Salvador is a Pandora native, portrayed as Hispanic. Professor Nakayama has a Japanese surname, though there's not much indication otherwise that he actually is Japanese. There's also Katagawa Jr, who clearly looks Asian and has a fantastical, but Japanese-sounding name. No one knows what [=Zer0=] is ([[AmbiguouslyHuman or if he's even human]]), while Claptrap is generally agreed upon to be [[TheFriendNobodyLikes a pain in the ass]]. The various NPC characters that run around the central towns are randomly generated, with a reasonable distribution of skin tones and the occasional overt accent.
* ''{{VideoGame/Stellaris}}'' averts this -- aside from humans being the most physically diverse of all the playable races, the 'generic' [[http://www.stellariswiki.com/images/6/6e/Human.png human portrait]] that represents the species as a whole is distinctly Asian or Pacific Islander, and a woman at that. Naturally, this led to complaints, and the release of at least one GameMod meant to "fix" the portrait[[note]]which was removed after its maker started getting overtly racist about his intentions[[/note]].

* Played as straight as possible in ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' because there are three human races, but two of them go by other names. The gods originally created the Barbarians, whom the game developers modeled after Celtic influences. Living in Everfrost Peaks required the race to be rugged, burly, and strong. Over time, Barbarians moved down into the lowland plains of Karana, where they adapted to the more temperate environments, and gained more intelligence as they no longer had to devote so much time to survival. The Human race that resulted are all white and represent medieval European cultures and societies. As more Humans began to spread out, a group of them who dedicated their lives to learning knowledge and practicing magic split off and moved to the tropical continent of Odus, eventually adapting further into the Erudites, who have the highest intelligence stat and are among the best magic users among every playable race, and are all dark-skinned.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' averts this with Hermes and his family (black Jamaican) and Amy and her family (ethnically Chinese, born on Mars), as well as several incidental characters (most notably Hermes' rival Barbados Slim).

* 1984's ''Film/{{Dune|1984}}'' has a mostly white cast, even for the Fremen (desert-dwellers of Arabic descent) and the Atreides (of Greek descent, and explicitly described in the source novel as "dark"). The [[Film/Dune2021 2021]]-[[Film/DunePartTwo 2023]] adaptation mostly averts this.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The original trilogy has only one human main character who is not white: Lando. There aren't even many background nonwhite humans. George Lucas has said that at one point he considered making Han Solo a black character, but decided he "didn't feel like making ''Film/GuessWhosComingToDinner''." [[note]]Keep in mind he also originally planned for Obi-Wan Kenobi to be Asian.[[/note]] Creator/CarlSagan famously pointed out the fact in his critique of ''A New Hope'' when interviewed by Creator/JohnnyCarson in 1978 on ''Series/TheTonightShow''. The prequels and sequels diversify the cast.

* {{Invoked}} in ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes''. There's only one black man, Dodge, in the [[Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968 original film]]. Zira says in the [[Film/EscapeFromThePlanetOfTheApes third film]] that the apes were intrigued by Dodge and stuffed him for display because they'd never seen a human with dark skin before. That said, there ''was'' a black man among the mutant society in the [[Film/BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes second film]]. In the unproduced Creator/ChrisColumbus script, there is [[TokenMinority only one black astronaut]] as well, but [[AuthorsSavingThrow the apes say]] that he has the look of "[[FantasyCounterpartCulture the southern tribes]]" right after meeting him.

** The pilot included second-in-command Lt. Commander Laurel Takashima, a Japanese woman with a substantial role in the "bridge" command crew, but she was PutOnABus for the main series because her actress Creator/TamlynTomita wanted to focus on film work, and replaced with Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova (a Russian Jew). Although Commander Jeffrey Sinclair's love interest Carolyn Sykes, a white woman, was also PutOnABus and replaced with Catherine Sakai, a Japanese woman, for the main series.

** Chief medical officer Doctor Stephen Franklin (and his father, General Richard Franklin, who appears in one episode) are apparently African Americans.