Humans Are White: Difference between revisions

* ''Out of This World'' by [[Lawrence Watt-Evans]] applies this to a universe based on science-fiction principles, but not to a fantasy universe or Earth itself. It also lampshades the whitewashed astronauts in such a manner as to give [[Inferred Holocaust]] a new meaning.

* Inverted, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. ''Parafaith War'''s hero is blond and white-skinned... and therefore regarded with a lot of suspicion by everyone as straight "anglos" are rare in the Eco-Tech Coalition. They are more often associated with their adversaries, the fanatical Revenants of the Prophets. Most Eco-Tech citizens are Asian (predominantly south-east asian with a strong component of Japanese.) Because of that he is ultimately sent into enemy territory as a spy.

* Somewhat averted in the ''[[Honor Harrington|Honorverse]]''. While many characters seem to be Caucasian, the ruling family of Manticore are explicitly dark skinned, and Honor Harrington herself shows signs of her Asian ancestry. The prevalent skin colour on most worlds is dictated by how much UV they receive from their sun. In addition, cosmopolitan names such as Alfredo Yu seem to be the norm.

* Averted with a vengeance in the ''[[Inheritance Trilogy]]'', where almost all the major human civilizations are varying shades of dark, with only the Amn being explicitly white (and they- or at least, their tyrannical leaders- are mostly bad guys).

* Averted in the remake of ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]''. In [[Battlestar Galactica Classic|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.

* 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.

** ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' features three squad members that aren't simply of European ethnicity, although Emile, who has a black voice actor and is depicted as such in concept art, never removes his helmet.

** 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 ''[[Starcraft]]'' with Samir Duran, an Arab {{spoiler|(or at least pretends to be one)}}. A better aversion would be General Warfield and Gabriel Tosh, who are both black.

* 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.

== Web Original ==

* The blog [http://www.starshipnivan.com/blog/ ''Astrogator's Logs''] addresses this trope [http://www.starshipnivan.com/blog/?p=2645 here] (note that the author is Greek).

* ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' was pretty bad about this as well; the only non-white non-alien recurring character was Raoul, a Hispanic-ish street punk... ''whose skin tone [[But Not Too Black|switched to a lighter color]] in his second (and final) appearance''.

** They probably figured that Jazz was enough.

** ''Animated'' itself did a pretty good job. The main recurring human is not white {{spoiler|or a human}}, Detective Fanzone in second place is white, but Issac Sumdac is indian, the mayor of Detroit and his aide are black, as is [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Porter C. Powell, and backround humans come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Almost all the recurring human bad guys are white, but that's probably to avoid other implications if a [[Media Watchdog]] only sees one episode. On another note, during an short story arc in Animated, the five main Autobots turn human. Four out of the 5 are white, to match their voice actors.

*** Don't forget the third-season episode of the original cartoon, "Only Human." The four lead Autobots have their minds transferred into Synthoid bodies, which become conveniently Caucasian (the episode is also noted for being a crossover with the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' cartoon).