Race and Ethnicity

Started by Foxrally December 10th, 2015 9:25 PM
  • 4224 views
  • 22 replies

Foxrally

ya boi
a Torterra's back
Seen 9 Hours Ago
Posted 3 Weeks Ago
2,783 posts
10.1 Years
Here's a more unconventional topic; what do you think is the most predominant race or ethnicity in RPs? I don't mean RP-specific nationalities, I mean real-world based ethnicities (for example you character may be from Sinnoh but looks like they're South American). Which races or ethnicities have your characters been?
Ex-mod of RPT - Pairs: Gligar & gimmepie
Friend Code
SW-5146-5893-7210
I make memes and other carcinogens

gimmepie

Age 27
Male
Australia
Seen 7 Hours Ago
Posted 16 Hours Ago
Caucasian characters are definitely the most prominent and I have to say that my list of characters reflects that for the most part. I don't do it for any reason, but most of my characters just happen to be white.
RPWLA&MVGGaming Journal

Sonata

Don't let me disappear

Age 27
Male
Indiana
Seen 7 Hours Ago
Posted March 25th, 2023
13,619 posts
10.2 Years
Majority of characters are Caucasian/white, and mine tend to be too simply because I am white and it's easiest for me to describe someone my own skin tone over another because it quickly becomes unrealistic and I end up romanticizing it. The same goes for body shape. When designing a character I find it easier to just have them be an average slim or slightly muscular type rather than going into detail about an overweight or chubby character because there's more to describe with it and it turns from being "x is slender with a six pack" to "x has thin heels, slender calves and plump thighs along with a size 22 waist, a roll that sits on top of their pants button and etc."

moon

they/them
Seen 11 Hours Ago
Posted 23 Hours Ago
37,443 posts
15.5 Years
Majority of characters are Caucasian/white, and mine tend to be too simply because I am white and it's easiest for me to describe someone my own skin tone over another because it quickly becomes unrealistic and I end up romanticizing it.
Exactly this.

The default setting for me when I make characters seems to be white, because I'm white. However, the char I'm making in Dust now is "dark skinned". I guess I did it mostly on purpose just to be different. I just hope I can make it believable.
paired with Ivysaur

gimmepie

Age 27
Male
Australia
Seen 7 Hours Ago
Posted 16 Hours Ago
Exactly this.

The default setting for me when I make characters seems to be white, because I'm white. However, the char I'm making in Dust now is "dark skinned". I guess I did it mostly on purpose just to be different. I just hope I can make it believable.
I mean... skin colour doesn't really have any effect on personality. So it shouldn't be that hard, should it?
RPWLA&MVGGaming Journal

Shak

Male
UK
Seen March 15th, 2023
Posted March 14th, 2023
944 posts
8.3 Years
There's two major reasons why my characters tend to be Caucasian more often than not.
1 - Unless the RP is specifically tailored to "the real world", I see ethnicity as a sort of blurred concept that doesn't really exist. Since most RPs don't really to talk about the topic, outside of simple setting consideration there's no way to judge the worlds ratio in terms of ethnicity. I don't really like when characters have a majority difference such as skin colour, but it's just overlooked by every other character and NPC.
2 - Have you tried finding a decent face claim for anime ethnic minority? It ain't easy.



Friends for Infinity
RPT | Pairs

"It's so calm."

art by the amazing Infinite

Junier

Fake Friends Forever (´・ω・`)

Female
Seen December 5th, 2019
Posted August 3rd, 2018
1,074 posts
7.9 Years
lol anime ethnic minority, das funny

Nothing to be nervous about when writing a character of a different ethnicity. Rosalina's Hispanic, just because I imagined her to be. I think the rest of my active human characters are white. Not for any specific reason, just because I never visualized them as any different. And I think that's how it should be.

I remember on this other site these writers were discussing how to write non-white characters "without sounding racist". It was hilarious. I think one person was afraid of describing a character as having "dark skin"... even though they had dark skin. People are too sensitive about not seeming ignorant these days, honestly. Just write 'em, and if you feel you have to, do some research.

moon

they/them
Seen 11 Hours Ago
Posted 23 Hours Ago
37,443 posts
15.5 Years
I mean... skin colour doesn't really have any effect on personality. So it shouldn't be that hard, should it?
Shouldn't, no, but I'm just saying how I'm usually thinking.
paired with Ivysaur

gimmepie

Age 27
Male
Australia
Seen 7 Hours Ago
Posted 16 Hours Ago
Shouldn't, no, but I'm just saying how I'm usually thinking.
Fair enough! Don't mind me I'm just sort of thinking "out loud".
RPWLA&MVGGaming Journal

Shak

Male
UK
Seen March 15th, 2023
Posted March 14th, 2023
944 posts
8.3 Years
lol anime ethnic minority, das funny

Nothing to be nervous about when writing a character of a different ethnicity. Rosalina's Hispanic, just because I imagined her to be. I think the rest of my active human characters are white. Not for any specific reason, just because I never visualized them as any different. And I think that's how it should be.

I remember on this other site these writers were discussing how to write non-white characters "without sounding racist". It was hilarious. I think one person was afraid of describing a character as having "dark skin"... even though they had dark skin. People are too sensitive about not seeming ignorant these days, honestly. Just write 'em, and if you feel you have to, do some research.
I loved this too much to not respond. Your point about fearing ignorance was pretty accurate. I think people begin to fear ignorance so much, that they become ignorant.
Not just where race is concerned either. I've been guilty of doing the same thing in my studies too.

People should RP whatever they want. Ethnicity is only what you make of it. RPing is just for fun and people shouldn't feel self conscious about the ethnic variety in their character portfolio. If this was mass media however, my opinion might differ slightly since we're talking about role models and things, there.



Friends for Infinity
RPT | Pairs

"It's so calm."

art by the amazing Infinite

Daydream

Boo.

Age 29
Male
That thar Kingdom. The United one.
Seen July 2nd, 2020
Posted June 27th, 2018
702 posts
13.7 Years
White/Caucasian characters seem to be predominant in roleplays. My own characters vary, really. I tend to develop a picture in my mind's eye of what a character looks like and they remain that way, for the most part. And because I prefer to play in fictional settings rather than real world settings, it's easier to assume that cultures and ethnic identities haven't developed in the same way they have in our world. In that sense there's less need to be concerned with ignorance/insultingly romanticising someone's race or ethnicity. It's more that the character I've created simply looks this way because that's who they are.

On a whole, I think one should visualise their characters as they appear. Roleplay is for fun, and we can safely assume no one is going to be intentionally insulting. If I ever do get a touch concerned with my portayal of something, a quick bit of research can help to reinforce or inform my writing of said character.
Noble Magic
Courtly intrigue; may contain lightning bolts and necromancy.

Ice

Seen October 16th, 2022
Posted February 3rd, 2020
3,448 posts
8.8 Years
I play Caucasians a lot. It's a bit of a default because of my own ethnicity, which is Northern European, but there's reasoning behind it too. My Titans character was an unaging WW2 spy from Britain, and with that history it seemed logical for him to be white. My Venice character was Venetian, and had added paleness from vampirism.

I've planned to play other races before, but every time the RP didn't work out, or I found out I didn't have the time
Yes.
Out Of My Mind
Seen August 18th, 2021
Posted February 2nd, 2021
399 posts
9.4 Years
I play Caucasians a lot. It's a bit of a default because of my own ethnicity, which is Northern European, but there's reasoning behind it too. My Titans character was an unaging WW2 spy from Britain, and with that history it seemed logical for him to be white. My Venice character was Venetian, and had added paleness from vampirism.

I've planned to play other races before, but every time the RP didn't work out, or I found out I didn't have the time
I think a lot of this comes into play when I do my own roleplays. Most of the time, it just doesn't make sense to throw another ethnicity in there. Whenever I dream up a character, something about them always makes more sense to have them being Caucasian than anything else. My character in Railways is an educated street performer, and it was really only the white class of people who were educated in America in the early-mid 1800s, which the roleplay is a fantasy mirror of.

A lot of it for me comes down to what kind of pictures I can get for the SU. I always like to have some form of a picture to work with, and the easiest pictures to find or work with are usually from anime or something like that. Its just generally easier to find Caucasian pictures than others.

Junier

Fake Friends Forever (´・ω・`)

Female
Seen December 5th, 2019
Posted August 3rd, 2018
1,074 posts
7.9 Years
I loved this too much to not respond. Your point about fearing ignorance was pretty accurate. I think people begin to fear ignorance so much, that they become ignorant.
Not just where race is concerned either. I've been guilty of doing the same thing in my studies too.

People should RP whatever they want. Ethnicity is only what you make of it. RPing is just for fun and people shouldn't feel self conscious about the ethnic variety in their character portfolio. If this was mass media however, my opinion might differ slightly since we're talking about role models and things, there.
:15:
Exactly! I think avoiding variety like the plague is more harmful than anything, anyway.

And I think this mostly applies to everything aside of roleplaying. (Who uses a fictional character, more often than not made with a specific agenda or purpose, as a role model?)

But setting does play a big part in determining a character's ethnicity, I agree with the past few mentions of that. I think I personally prefer playing non-white characters though because it just gives them that sense of individuality, and I find various culture worldwide very interesting to write and read about. Just as long as it fits.

Loki

x

Seen March 23rd, 2022
Posted June 14th, 2020
6,822 posts
17.8 Years
I think about 50% of my characters are caucasian, and the other 50% are asian. But I play characters of a handful of ethnicities and nationalities within those two denominations-- usually mixing the two in such a way that it's easier for me to play them based on what I know. A lot of the time I'll have a character who is descended from a country I know very little about-- but they'll have been born and raised in a country I know well enough to portray i.e. someone whose ancestry is entirely Indian but was born and raised in America.

I think in my written RPs the tendency to favor caucasian characters is more prevalent because I can only see the character in my head-- but I feel like it's a little harder to justify it to myself when I draw my characters out and literally only use one skin color palette.

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer

She/Her
Take a left, turn right at the next stop, bear left for a few mil
Seen March 4th, 2023
Posted April 26th, 2022
10,505 posts
15.1 Years
I make a lot of ambiguously brown characters of different shades, as well as a few Asian characters and some white. I'd say the only one that is specifically African-American is Godot from the SAO RPs, but that's only because he's based off of me. But generally I don't think in race, more in colors and shades. This much comes from me being a gamer, because more often than not color is a purely aesthetic option and can often be independent of race.

Not that I have any sort of problem with approaching race or even it being an actual functional factor, it's just that color's a state of mind for me and, unless the race is actually going to play a part in the RP somehow, it's generally not going to come up.

Sweet Dreams

are made of these~

a store near YOU!
Seen January 23rd, 2018
Posted January 3rd, 2018
703 posts
15.3 Years
*revives oldish thread because discussions about race are interesting*

While it is obviously a personal choice, I feel that RPs themselves somewhat encourage Caucasian characters. Part of it is probably because most RP settings, especially historical ones, are based on Western settings. Race is never addressed either way in an OP because the (accurate) assumption is that most people will play a White character. So in some RPs it sometimes is just too annoying to try and figure out race politics; especially the ones that are based heavily on the real world.

Interestingly, while most Caucasian RPers I know say they play White characters because "it's what they know", most people of other ethnicities on PC (including myself) also play mostly White characters. And I've never heard any of them say that they're scared of playing a Caucasian character "convincingly" lol.

Another thing I find funny is people saying that they can't find any good "face claims" other than Caucasian ones, and they're referring to anime... which means they're actually pictures of Japanese characters lol. (I could go on a separate tangent here but I'll refrain xD)

I myself have played one South Asian and one African-American, plus a couple ambiguously brown characters, I think.



Friends for Infinity
art (right) by the amazing Kitty


Geras

Roleplayer

Age 27
Male
Everything's bigger here, apparently.
Seen 2 Weeks Ago
Posted March 28th, 2023
957 posts
12.2 Years
What do you think is the most predominant race or ethnicity in RPs?
Race? White, from what I've seen. Ethnicity? Not really sure. I've seen a lot of Americans and western Europeans, I guess.

Which races or ethnicities have your characters been?
/me pulls up character list
Russian-American, Guamanian-American, Mexican-American, American, Russian-English, French (Kalosian), Canadian, Salvadoran, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and a number of characters from fictional regions with no major similarities to real-world ethnicities.

As far as race goes, I think that most of my characters end up white.
I'll put something cool here eventually.

jombii

Crobat is ProBat

Male
Philippines
Seen June 28th, 2019
Posted April 13th, 2019
3,412 posts
8.9 Years
Green-skinned people are predominant

Kidding aside, I think race is of minor concern when making my characters. I'm brown-skinned but I find myself playing Caucasian characters more simply because they are easier to describe. Also, it depends on the RP itself. I wouldn't want to play a Caucasian in an RP set in the desert, shall I?

It all boils down to personal preference and what the RP is asking for really. Since there are abundance of Pokemon RPs and the majority of people in the games are Caucasians, it's really not hard to see why the majority of characters being played are also white.

FireSnow

Show me that Fighting Spirit

Age 27
Male
Ambrette Town, Kalos
Seen August 20th, 2021
Posted October 3rd, 2020
2,644 posts
7.7 Years
I definitely think that Caucasians are the predominant race/ethnicity in the RPs. I find myself habitually picturing my character as white, just like me, simply because it is easier to relate then. More specifically, i typically think of them as American and born somewhere in the Midwest. I don't necessarily try to do that, just happens instinctively, without much thought about it.

Minun172

Still waiting for a new Mega Man game.

Male
in my parents basement
Seen November 15th, 2017
Posted November 14th, 2017
517 posts
7.6 Years
85% of my RP characters are Pokemon.
Only once have I RPed as a human looking character. I was Mega Man. But other times I RP as anthropromorphic or feral characters.
Smash Bros Lawl 1ON1: The King VS Weird Al. Make it happen, Chin.

I'd like to introduce LATIAS in my top 3 favorite Pokemon. Sorry, Emolga.

All time Favorite pokemon: Minun
Other favorites: Pachirisu, Emolga, Charmander, Squirtle, Jigglypuff, RIolu, Minccino, Cinccino, Torchic, Meloetta, Victini, Latias, Latios, Oshawott, Snivy, ETC

Ozymandias

i'm going on a journey

under your bed
Seen March 10th, 2021
Posted February 24th, 2021
1,069 posts
10 Years
Mm most of my characters turn out to be White even though i'm asian myself... not sure why that is

I did play as a Native American styled character a while back. Even though he was actually a pokemon gijinka the design for the character was definitely NA styled
how happy is the blameless vessel's lot
the world forgetting by the world forgot
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
each prayer accepted and each wish resigned