I always found this argument stupid because it completely ignores the reality that authors have to write about colors that not only sound nice, but are also colors that the average person has actually heard of or seen.
Ebony, onyx, coffee, and caramel for example, those are popular words used to describe varying shades of brown/black skin because they are colors that everyone has heard of or seen. It quickly paints a mental picture that the average reader will understand and continue reading. Most people aren't college liberal arts majors; If the author said something like "His skin was as dark as rosewood", that would interrupt the flow of the story because most people are going to be trying to figure out what color that actually is.
And note that people who make this argument never explain what would be good examples to use instead.
As someone that used to have creative pursuits in writing, this post perfectly encapsulates why I don't anymore. It is incredibly difficult to describe someone in terms that won't offend anyone anymore. In fact, I would consider it a fool's errand now!
For shit's and giggles, I'm going to try and post some examples I've racked my brain over for years. Wood- can't use that because wood can be blonde or so dark you can make nothing out. Not very descriptive. Dirt- shouldn't have to state why that's offensive. A "burned" color- kinda also a bit offensive. Imagine describing someone as looking "burned," your mind goes to Deadpool for one, and two, that implies that a white person was burned to make a black person. Space- most people see this color as being almost vantablack, even though it's closer to well...
cosmic latte. Also it leans into the "cosmically wise black man" trope. I've also thought of oil. Again, carries its own problems. The only "unoffensive" terms I could even think of are night and shadow, but I'm sure someone out there would lose their fucking mind if I described someone with skin as dark as midnight. Do you describe them as having skin as mid toned as twilight when you need to describe someone not really dark?
So you have forced inclusivity in your art, then you're told the terms you use suck. People tell you to write a story reflective of the real world, but they want every character to be on the LGBT spectrum and be POC. Then they expect you to somehow write a story that has these characters express these traits in a non-offensive way even though most characters in your story could be any skin color because it is probably irrelevant to the plot. In a SFW story, why does what someone want to fuck come up? It distracted me too much from wanting to write the story I wanted to write, even though the root topic had nothing to do with social issues it just was a fun sci-fi romp. I wasn't even writing something totally offensive. I had people seek greater meaning in every word I wrote as if I did anything more than say aloud, "well I need to describe this thing, I think this will work." When you spend more time trying to not offend some sperg on the internet than writing your story, then you find it hard to continue. Then, to really spit on you when you're down, they
celebrate you giving up because you're a horrible waisis who clearly couldn't think of better words from your own biases.
For the record, I'm pretty sure flour has been used to describe a really pale person's skin before. Historically, Europe used to be really big on wearing flour to make themselves appear paler. They also used to be really big on licking metal or ingesting things that were toxic.
I'm sorry this post is so long, but this is kinda a personal topic for me. A lot of this stuff transpired a decade ago and I'm still not really over it. It doesn't help that I see so much grave-dancing on artists just trying to express themselves and ending up being told that they're offensive with no solutions on how they can do better.
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Tariq was right, most blacks these days are bitch-ass niggas!
