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I’ve noticed as well, and as others have said women that look like us are considered to be supposedly “undesirable”. My story that I have out currently has a dark skinned MC and. her love interest is a non-poc
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You know already how much I agree with you on this.
Like you’re saying here, there are aspects of it heavily tied to the politics of light and dark - the closer to white, the closer to purity - and what’s sad is that most people don’t even realize they’re doing it.
I’ve actually seen the reverse (black female MC with white male LI) a decent amount of times and there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but sometimes the dynamic written along with that will be iffy to me. The LI will have this… really dominating personality? Often sexual, but not always. I don’t know how to describe it, but there’s a very “do this, do that, come please me” vibe to the relationship that makes me uncomfortable.
All that being said, interracial relationships can make me feel quite soft, but it’s important for everyone as writers to keep in mind that interracial relationships and mixed children will never be the end of racism. Just write them as people (ones in love if it’s that kind of story) and do a little work to see if the dynamic you’re writing is adding to the continuation of problematic tropes.
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There’s War Dogs by Kayla S. The female MC is dark skin while the male MC is tanned
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What’s your story title name (for my own reference 
)
in my story “Shadow Hunter: World On Fire” the male MC is olive toned (gold in LL) and the female is mocha toned. The female (Bianca) is absolutely stunning and extremely crucial to the story - which is why she’s always featured on the story cover,
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You’re right, especially the racially ambigious love interest. Extremely tanned skin with light brown straight hair. 60% of LL love interests.
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I’m glad you think Bad Medicine is representation done right, as the story isn’t #OwnVoices I do my best to be respectful (and not a damn creep) about it. To contribute to the conversation: I’ve also seen that interracial couples where one lead is white is FAR more accepted than say, for example my mc Frankie’s parents, a Black woman and an Asian man. When people think of/create a “mixed” child they always presume one of the parents is white. Because then the white parent makes the character more palatable so they have enough ~exoticness~ to make them “interesting” but not enough to make white readers uncomfortable. Which I’ve also taken into account while writing. Like you said there’s nothing wrong with a white lead but the behaviors and bias that surround them can be harmful.
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Oh my god I HATEEEEEEEE it when a character has dark skin but still thin straight hair
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It’s called Some Sort of Drama
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Yes! i absolutely hate that too. As someone who grew up hating my hair texture, I start to feel insecure FOR the mc when they have thin straight hair through the entire story.
I mean, nothing is wrong with a black girl with straight hair. As long as they show somewhere that natural hair is beauty, then it wont perpectuate the stereotype that afro-hair is ugly.
I’ve also read a story where the author gave the “ugly-nerdy” white mc afro hair and glasses like…???
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Big yikes on the afro hair, on a white character… Big Yikes.
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Also something this discussion has made me think of: I’ve seen like… A LOT of stories with black albinos in them (usually as background characters). You know the character with pale skin/hair but afrostyled hair and nose.
I’ve literally never seen a story feature an albino person of any other race, and never seen anyone address the health concerns or day-to-day struggles an albino person faces. But albinism is pretty uncommon, like 1 in 20,000, so why have I seen it in so many stories?
These guys- selling coffee, hanging out in the background, taking notes in class, they’re everywhere. Tell me it’s not just me noticing it
I think this is the same colorism rearing its head- you get to use cool assets while keeping your characters lighter skinned and blonde
