Humans Are White: Difference between revisions

[[File:starwars vintage 7914.jpg|link=Star Wars|frame|"Hey, it's not our fault if all the important humans in the galaxy just '''''happen''''' to be white."]]

 

 

Space has a lot of people in it. Way, way more people than science tells us there should be. There are [[Amazing Technicolor Population|blue people, green people, orange people, purple people,]] [[To Serve Man|people that eat people]], [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]s, [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]], [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]], [[Energy Beings]], and even the odd [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] with [[Ancient Astronauts|a very familiar name]]. And most of them even [[Aliens Speaking English|speak English]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* The [[Tower of God|Tower]] is full of weird creatures, but if they are humanoid, they are most likely white, except for Quant and Kurudan.

** ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam|G Gundam]]'' for all its internationality featured only one person who was clearly not white (two assuming Domon was supposed to be Asian) They had fighters from all over the world but none of them gets to be in the Shuffle Alliance?

** Uh, what? At least 3 of the Gundam Fighters we actually get to see are decidedly non-white: Neo Kenya is black, Neo Spain is Hispanic and Neo India is...green.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'' has at least two black secondary characters: Graham Aker's late wingman Daryl Dodge and the president of [[The Federation]]. There's also [[Ambiguously Brown]] Johan Trinity (who seems to be a different race than his siblings- they're [[Designer Babies]]). Despite his Japenese [[Code Name]], the main character Setsuna F. Seiei is Kurdish, along with his ex-mentor/arch-enemy Ali Al Saachez. Princess Marina Ismail and her right-hand Shirin Bakhtiar are Persian (Azadistan is of Persian etymology) Fellow gundameister Allelujah Haptism is Kazakh. And of course, there are all the other cast members with apparently multiracial origins, as shown through their names.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing|Gundam Wing]]'' had a large background cast of Arab characters, in the form of Quatre's private army. However, although also of Arabian descent, space-born Quatre was blonde-haired and blue-eyed.

== Comic Books ==

* In the [[Silver Age]], ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' featured many aliens but no black human or [[Human Aliens|Human Alien]] members. Eventually, in the [[Bronze Age]], Tyroc was added as the [[Angry Black Man]] that was a common sort of [[Token Minority]] back in the day (very similar to the earliest portrayals of the John Stewart [[Green Lantern]].) Supposedly, in the 30th century, the world is above caring about things like race, but the [[Executive Meddling|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.

** In the Legion's "threeboot" continuity, Star Boy is a black Human Alien from the planet Xanthu who's just one of the gang, though his previous incarnations in the older continuities were white. Atom Girl/Shrinking Violet, another human-looking alien from the planet Imsk, also has vaguely Asian features.

* In the [[Marvel Universe]], [[Proud Warrior Race|The Kree]] were all originally blue-skinned, but interbreeding with other alien races led to the appearance of a Caucasian subrace; the superhero [[Captain Mar-Vell]] was one of them. The Blue Kree are now a minority that rules their empire and mistreats the others.

* As part of a well-meaning but horribly misguided attempt to explain why all the Kryptonians in ''[[Superman]]'' were white, a writer in the '70s came up with the idea that there were indeed black Kryptonians, but they all lived in a state of self-exile in a place called Vathlo Island. This was ignored in the ''New Krypton'' event, where Kryptonians of various races were seen. ''[[Smallville]]'' also tried to subvert this idea by introducing several minor black Kryptonian characters.

 

== Film ==

* The original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy has only one human main character who is not white: Lando. George Lucas has said that at one point he considered making Han Solo a black character, but decided he "didn't feel like making ''[[Guess Who's Coming to Dinner]]''." The prequels diversify the cast, perhaps most notably by revealing that [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] Boba Fett is a Maori.

* All of the citizens of the city in ''[[Logan's Run]]'' are conspicuously white. That could be the result of the city's [[Designer Babies]]. Then again, the [[Killer Robot]] they fight was originally supposed to evoke a "tribal" African and was portrayed by a black actor. So....

* ''[[Wing Commander (film)|Wing Commander]]'': Unlike in the earlier games on which the film was based (see below), this trope is played straight. There are only two non-caucasian actors in the main cast, and one of them is barely present (Mr. Obutu is part of the Claw's bridge personnel, and often somewhat in the background).

* Invoked in ''[[Planet of the Apes]]''-There's only one black man, Dodge, in the original film. Zira says in the 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 second film.

 

== Literature ==

* Earth in the ''[[Known Space]]'' universe has had such thorough mixing through the convenience of the [[Transporters and Teleporters|transit booth]], which eliminated distance and borders. The Belters are also evenly mixed, for the opposite reason—there are only a few asteroids with life support, so everyone meets and mingles with everyone. The extraterrestrial colonies are less varied, either due to [[Hollywood Evolution|adapting to extreme conditions]], patterns of settlement, or low starting population; the [[Heavyworlders|Jinxians]] all have very dark skin regardless of ethnicity, due to the intense sunlight of their world. The Crashlanders are 40% albinos. And it's specifically mentioned that nearly everyone uses medication to darken their skins as a protection against sunburn.

* In L. Sprague deCamp's Planet Krishna stories, one alien monarch simply refused to believe that African-descended Earthmen and European-decended Earthmen could ''possibly'' be of the same species. So he tried to test this "scientifically" by imprisoning two people (black man and white woman) together to see if they could breed. Needless to say, they didn't find it very romantic.

** Averted in many ways by [[The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress]]. The main character's (Manuel Garcia O'Kelly Davis, a bit of a multicultural mashup in itself) race isn't really described, but is described as multi-racial with an ancestor deported from Chad. His romantic entanglement in the novel is also described as being unusual in that her ethnic background is reasonably easy to see, something that usually doesn't persist more than a couple of generations in the decidedly heterogenous Lunar cities.

** Many of Heinlein's novels included non-white characters, including his Juveniles. In fact, many of his protagonists are multi-racial, despite how they're portrayed on [[Covers Always Lie|the covers]].

* Ursula Le Guin's ''Hainish Cycle''. When a fair-skinned, Caucasian-looking character crops up in the short story "Dancing to Ganam", most other people find his appearance downright bizarre. [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] likes to play around with this trope in most of her works, largely in opposition to the [[Unfortunate Implications|racial undertones]] of many fantasy novels.

* Justified in ''Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy'', in which virtually anyone with black African ancestry has been wiped out {{spoiler|by a racist nanite plague. Two of the main characters, a father and daughter, are black ''with green eyes'', this being a trait the virus was programmed to read as "not black".}} Period movies featuring black characters have to cast Australian aborigines in those roles, and there's a [[Show Within a Show|TV show]] with an all-aboriginal cast who play black space colonists who'd survived the plague by being on Mars at the time.

* Averted in [[Vernor Vinge]] 's ''A Fire Upon The Deep'' universe. All human settlements in The Beyond come from one common ancestor—Nyjora, a [[Lost Colony]] already several generations removed from Old Earth—and are described as having a common phenotype: dark skin and black hair. Pham Nuwen's red hair and asian features are so unusual as to be almost alien.

* Played With in ''[[Septimus Heap]]'', since while all main characters and most of the side characters are white, Hotep-Ra is depicted as being black.

 

 

* In ''[[Firefly]]'', though the cast is hardly monochrome, people of Chinese descent are rarely if ever seen, and the only ones given any lines play ''[[Asian Hooker Stereotype|prostitutes]]!'' This is in a world that is ''supposed'' to be an American/Chinese fusion, with Chinese language common enough to be scattered through the English-speaking characters' conversation. The DVD commentary on the episode "Shindig," points out that there are a few characters with "Chinese" surnames, like Tam and Wing, which could suggest that there's been a bit of mingling.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the 2007 ''[[Flash Gordon (TV series)|Flash Gordon]]''; when Nick asks Baylin whether there are any "people of color" on Mongo, she replies "I know many people of color - yellow, red, even blue. I am [[Fantastic Racism|not so fond of the blue ones]], though."

{{quote|"How come they're ain't no Puerto Ricans on'' [[Star Trek]]''!? They got every race and life-form in the galaxy, except for Puerto Ricans! What's up with that?!}}

* The original version of ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'' had a black actress in their regular cast, who was once forced to sit out their visit to a [[Human Alien]] planet because there weren't any black people on that world. A native asked her if she was from the same planet as the other Tomorrow People, then commented that there must be "an interesting variety of skin color" on Earth when she said yes.

* [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] was quite unhappy about the Caucasian cast of ''A Wizard of Earthsea''. In the novels, the protagonist is red-skinned and his best friend black, and the nation of white folk in ''The Tombs of Atuan'' are rather imperialistic and warmongering compared to the other inhabitants of the world. This was not reflected in the animated version, which didn't even have the risible excuse of lacking suitable actors.

* In ''Space Rangers'' all human characters (apart from one recurring extra) are white. Asian actors are cast as aliens.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** The Salamanders [[Space Marine]] chapter, who are all black-skinned due to [[Unfortunate Implications|gene corruption]]. Note that this black as in the color black, jet black, (like obsidian), not what we call black skin in real life. Whether the unmodified humans of their world are black or white keeps getting retconned back and forth.

** In ''[[Dark Heresy]]'' you can roll for your skin tone—aside from the void-born (whose skin-tones range from "porcelain" to "ivory" and eyes may be violet), all origins can have a variety of skin tones and eye colors. Later ''[[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]]'' series don't bother with generating character looks (if you really care about details, you can look up a specific world).

* Cheerily averted in ''[[BattleTech]]''. Black samurai and Asian Scotsmen abound.

* The ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' sourcebooks for [[The Big Easy|New Orleans]], [[Atlanta]], and [[Milwaukee]] feature next to no black characters, even though all three cities have a black majority.

* Averted in ''[[Traveller]]''. Humans of Terran orgin are as likely to have non-occidental names as occidental ones.

 

** The [[Expanded Universe]] contains way more characters of non-European ethnicity than the games do; Fhajad-084, Li-008, Jilan al-Cygni, Zheng Cho, Akio Watanabe, Zhou Heng Lopez, Ngoc Benti, Kopano N'Singile, Raj Singh, Maria Esquival, etc.

* Averted in ''[[Mount & Blade]]'': although the setting is based on medieval Europe, it includes both a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Central Asian-inspired culture]] and, in the [[Mission Pack Sequel|Mount & Blade Warband]], an Arabic/Moorish-inspired culture, each with characters of the appropriate ethnicity. Two black recruitable NPCs also appear, the backstory of each establishing them as from a different continent. The character creator allows a similar range of ethnicities and skin tones to be represented.

* Every important human characters in the ''[[Warcraft]]'' games are white. ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' makes a token effort at sprinkling dark-skinned human NPCs around (albeit as unimportant quest givers or random extras). There is some kind of an explanation for this in-universe {{spoiler|humans descend from the very scandinavian Vrykul}}, but still.

* Averted in ''[[Fable|Fable 3]]'', where there are white, black, oriental, and even vaguely Roma characters sprinkled throughout the world in equal proportion.

** Played straight in the first two games, where the only black characters are Thunder and Whisper in the first game and Garth in the second. Of course, Garth is from another country, so it's not unreasonable that Thunder and Whisper are as well (the game strongly supports this via dress and accents).

** Then when he shows up on screen, he's played by Mort (the only Jewish character) with his skin tone altered, [[Hypocritical Humor|because the ''only black guy'' from the regular cast]] was already playing R2-D2.

* In ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]'', [[Techno Wizard]] hero Doc Hartford is black. So are two one-shot villains. They seem to be the only non-white humans in the galaxy.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]

[[Category:Race Tropes]]