Humans Are White: Difference between revisions

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|Proud Warrior Race Guys]], [[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]].

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam (Anime)|Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', had at least one (propably) Hispanol Character, Ryou. (He might also have been black to [[Black Dude Dies First|fit the trope]].) Apart from that most people looked a lot the same but were probably evenly distributed between Asians and white ones.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (Anime)|Zeta Gundam]]'' had [[Tagalong Kid]] Shinta.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (Anime)|Gundam ZZ]]'' features [[Scary Black Man|Rakan Dahkaran]], a ruthless and rather dangerous ace pilot that heavily contrasted with the recurrent goofy [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Bunny Ears Lawyers]] that preceded him. Other minor blackish characters also show during the course of the series, like Masai N'gava, a female Zeon's pilot looking to clean up the name of her dead mentor.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (Anime)|Victory Gundam]]'' featured at least one female, Afro American main cast member and a couple of other kids who were not white. (Also the origin of Shakti are up to debate)

** ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam (Anime)|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?

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Anime)|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 (Anime)|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.

* 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.

* 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 Whos Coming to Dinner (Film)|Guess Whos Coming to Dinner]]''." The prequels diversify the cast, perhaps most notably by revealing that [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] Boba Fett is a Maori.

* ''[[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).

* Lampshaded in ''[[The Ice Pirates (Film)|The Ice Pirates]]'', where the lone black character builds a black fighting robot. When asked why he made the robot black, he replies "I wanted him to be perfect".

* The ''Warworld'' series, set in the [[Co Dominium]] universe, has black white people; the descendants of extreme South African white supremacists who wound up on a planet with so much UV that they selected for dark brown skin. One of the latter-day inhabitants describes this as "ironic".

* 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.

* Somewhat averted in the ''[[Honorverse (Literature)|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.

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

* ''[[Star Trek the Original Series]]'' tried to avert this, at least at first -- when the salt monster from "Man Trap" approaches Uhura, for example, she sees a studly black crewman who talks to her in Swahili -- but eventually the casting department (or the agents supplying them) got lazy.

*** Originally, there were plans for Worf's human adoptive parents to be Jewish, but apparently it came off too much like [[Unfortunate Implications]] when the ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation|TNG]]'' writers tried that, so Worf's folks became Russians instead.

*** While there are virtually no ''religious'' Jewish people on Star Trek, three of [[Star Trek the Original Series|the original series']] regular cast members were ''ethnically'' Jewish, including two of the [[Power Trio|three main leads]]: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Walter Koenig. (Also worth noting: the famous Vulcan hand gesture was inspired by the way Kohenim, or Jewish priests, bless their congregations.) It's also notable that there aren't a lot of particularly devout members of ''any'' Human religion on [[Star Trek]], the sole exception being [[Star Trek Voyager|Chakotay]] who grew up in a colony explicitly centered around a Native American animist culture.

** Painfully applied in ''[[Star Trek Enterprise]]'', which has one African-American guy, one Japanese woman, one British person, and the rest of the crew is seemingly made up entirely of white Americans, except for a minor marine played by a pre-''[[Lost]]'' [[Retroactive Recognition|Daniel Dae Kim]].

** Though most of the ''aliens'' in ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' are white, the human cast is quite colorful, including two African-Americans, one half-North African and one white (Irish) man. In addition, several black guest stars appear throughout the show (though most of them are love interests for the African-descended regulars).

** ''[[Star Trek Voyager]]'' had a black Vulcan, an Asian, a Native American, and a half-Hispanic, half-Klingon. And a blue guy seen exactly ''twice''. And the only other Vulcan was white.

** Avoided a couple of times in ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]''; one first-season episode had [[Human Aliens]] ''all'' of whom actually seen onscreen were black. And a black female [[Rubber Forehead Alien]] was the [[Red Herring]] guest star of a later episode, although her only other story purpose was as a [[Girl of the Week]] for Geordi, who's black... [[Token Minority Couple|Which is a whole other race trope]]. A few of the [[Red Shirt|Red Shirts]] were black as well, but that's yet another [[Black Dude Dies First|trope]].

* ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]'' has a mixed record:

** The pilot included a Japanese woman with a substantial role in the "bridge" command crew, but she was [[Put On a Bus]] for the main series and replaced with Ivanova.

* In ''[[Firefly (TV)|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)|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."

* Briefly [[Discussed Trope|discussed]] in ''[[30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]'':

* [[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.

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

* The ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|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 ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]].'' Almost every human being is in a [[Ambiguously Brown|rather tanned range]] due to over a century of interbreeding (and ''both'' prominent human leaders are quite dark-skinned). ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'''s Jacob is one of few characters who ''don't'' look multiracial, and he's definitely black. The names are also all over the place: Donnel Udina is a man of African descent with an Irish first name (Donnel is derived from Domnhail, meaning, appropriately "world ruler") and Russian last name.

* In the world of ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]'', there are [[Talking Animal|lion-like people]], robots, robot cats, ancient beings... and only about four black guys.

** Similarly, ''[[Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]'' has only two black guys, Sazh and his son.

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' had as its only black character an easily-forgettable minor noble who only exists in one cutscene. If you don't count the [[Unfortunate Implications|slightly-darker-than-everyone-else generic thieves]].

* Averted in ''[[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]'': One party member, Fran, is part of an entire non-human race with very tan skin; a [[Guest Star Party Member]], Reddas, is not white (at least); and there are several NPCs who are clearly Indian, complete with accents, all of whom hail from a country modeled after Indian culture.

** And averted in ''[[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X]]'' with the [[Ambiguously Brown]] party member [[The Lancer|Wakka]].

* Averted in ''[[Golden Sun (Video Game)|Golden Sun]]'''s sequel, ''The Lost Age''. The geography of Weyard is based off of the real world thousands of years ago, and as such, when travelling around in the game's parallels to India and Africa (and to a lesser degree China and Japan), even very minor NPCs are quite a bit darker.

** And in ''[[Golden Sun Dark Dawn (Video Game)|Dark Dawn]]'', most of the action takes place on the Eastern Sea and Asian-continent-counterpart, so your ''player'' characters include members of the Vietnam-equivalent, Siam-equivalent, and Japan-equivalent nations, along with Karis who may be Turkish-equivalent by upbringing (Kalay being based on Turkey) or by blood (depending on [[Missing Mom|who Ivan married]]), and of course a whole host of non-player characters of various Asian-counterpart ethnicities. And token furry Sveta has been argued as Russian and/or ''Mongolian'', so even she is not immune. Then there are the [[Wild Mass Guessing]] theories about who all the [[Missing Mom|unknown]] [[Disappeared Dad|parents]] are-- and if I tried to recall them ''all'', we'd be here all night.

* Most of the people we see in ''[[Halo]]'' are white, despite the fact that all the locations visited on Earth are in Africa. Nevertheless, one of the main supporting characters is African-American Sergeant Johnson; other black characters include Marcus Banks in the 2nd and 3rd games and a female marine in ''Halo3''. As far as Hispanics go, there's Manuel Mendoza in''[[Halo Combat Evolved]]'' and a female marine voiced by Michelle Rodriguez in ''Halo2''.

** ''[[Halo ODST]]'' introduces ODST sniper Kojo "Romeo" Agu and New Mombasa natives Sadie, Dr. Endesha, Jonas, and Commissioner Kinsler, all of whom are black (with the latter four being native African).

** ''[[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.

* Averted in ''[[Mount and Blade (Video Game)|Mount and 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 ''[[War Craft]]'' 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.

* The Wild-West game ''[[Wild Arms 3 (Video Game)|Wild Arms 3]]'' has Gallows, a "Baskar", a race obviously inspired by Native Americans, as one of the characters in your party. He's not really [[Flanderization|Flanderized]], either. So far he's the only playable Baskar (Aside from Tim Rhymeless from ''[[Wild Arms 2 (Video Game)|Wild Arms 2]]'', who is as white as the moon but since he wears a poncho he's totally Indian okay?!)

* ''[[Capcom vs. SNK 2 Mark of the Millennium (Video Game)|Capcom vs. SNK 2]]''. The roster is made up of mostly East Asian and white characters. 4 Eurasians (Ken, Ryo, Yuri, and Benimaru) are also on the roster, along with Balrog (black American), Blanka (originally white, but now takes the appearance of a wild man with green skin), Dhalsim (Indian), Morrigan (a succubus hailing from Scotland), and Sagat (Thai). M. Bison's ethnicity isn't clear, though.

* ''[[Wing Commander (Video Game)|Wing Commander]]'': Averted in the first game. Although a majority of your crewmates on the Tiger's Claw are white, it's not by a large margin. Among the main characters, besides the white ones, are a black man, a Japanese woman, and a Taiwanese man. [[And Zoidberg|And Maniac]].

* Averted in [[Fallout 3]] and [[Fallout New Vegas]], but true in-universe. While the population and cast is pretty diverse and well-represented, advertisements and media that have survived from before the nuclear war seem to be filled with white people only, suggesting that racial equality in the Fallout-verse only seemed to arrive sometime after nuclear armageddon.

* Averted with ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'', based off D&D ver. 3.5, which has a Black protagonist and a large number of Black, Asian and Middle-Eastern NPCs and minor characters.

* The titular characters of [[Freakangels]] are all pale, even though KK is a pacific islander and Caz is black. They also have purple eyes and were born at the exact same time in the same small English village.

* The ''[[Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Web Video)|Dr. Horrible]]'' musical commentary, [[Commentary the Musical|"Commentary, the Musical"]], includes the song, ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNmzegQUtFA Nobody's Asian in the Movies].''

* The ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' cartoon had one black character - Diana the Acrobat.

* ''[[Silverhawks (Animation)|Silverhawks]]'' (which was basically ''[[Thundercats (Animation)|Thundercats]]'' [[Recycled in Space|in Space!]]) started with a bunch of white people and their pet. They later added 1 black guy and 1 vaguely Hispanic guy (from the future!) to the team. They were the only minorities I ever recall seeing in the entire show. On top of that, having recently watched some of the old episodes online, it was hilariously unfair to them, via ''[[Scooby Doo]]''-style scenarios. The white Silver Hawks have to go talk to a king in his palace. The black guy and the latino get to explore the strange signals coming from the Black Hole of Death in the Terror Galaxy. Every episode.

* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]:'' [[Badass Normal|Elisa]], the main human character, is a [[Twofer Token Minority|half-black and half-Native American]] New York cop. For an added bonus, the main character, Goliath, was black (or at least [[Ambiguously Brown]]) when he was temporarily turned into a human. Note than none of the other Gargoyles seen turned into humans were black, but that's Justified given they're from a Scottish Gargoyle clan. Goliath was presumably made an exception ([[Ink Suit Actor|to match his voice actor]], [[Keith David]]).

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'''s parody of ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''.

* In ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|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.

* In [[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]], Humans Are Asian (or, in the case of [[Making a Splash|the Water Tribe]], [[Eskimo Land|Inuit]].