Being politically correct

Forums: Original Writing, Pc, Politically Correct
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Hi everybody. I am currently writing a fictional story that is set in a different world to ours.
One of my main characters is black. The question I wish to ask is, am I alright to refer to the person as being 'black'.
As Africa nor America exist in the world of my story, if that is not alright to say then what term am I meant to use?
Many thanks.

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@bendragonbrown,

Yes. Referring to black character as "black" is not at all offensive.

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@bendragonbrown,

bendragonbrown wrote:

Hi everybody. I am currently writing a fictional story that is set in a different world to ours.
One of my main characters is black. The question I wish to ask is, am I alright to refer to the person as being 'black'.
As Africa nor America exist in the world of my story, if that is not alright to say then what term am I meant to use?
Many thanks.

Why assume that this different world divides people up by races, based on skin color? And, why does it have to be black or white? In actuality, white people are transluscent (their skin burns in the sun), and black people are different degrees of opaque. Or, for black, one could be more scientific and use "melanin rich." Just my opinion, since you asked.

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@bendragonbrown,

In most Sci Fi that I read, characters are either described more fully than just using racial categories or skin color is not mentioned at all.

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@Foofie,

Xenoche hasn't told us anything about the story.

There are many stories, particularly those dealing with issues of race, where this detail would be important.

You would need to know a lot more before attempting a discussion of whether the inclusion on race was significant to the story or an unnecessary detail.

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@ebrown p,

ebrown p wrote:

Xenoche hasn't told us anything about the story.

There are many stories, particularly those dealing with issues of race, where this detail would be important.

You would need to know a lot more before attempting a discussion of whether the inclusion on race was significant to the story or an unnecessary detail.

Some authors like to paint a picture of characters, or other background, for the reader, like the first sentence of a Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

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@bendragonbrown,

Try being creative in your description. If I am reading a story about another world, I would want to hear it in a different way than what we hear in ours. You can say that he hails from the land of.... and he has skin as dark as ...... or something like that. You need to paint a picture with your words, and "black" as a defined race is just not intersting in a fantasy novel.

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Being politically correct

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