Experiences Whats making you angry today? Rp pet peeves

[timshel]

^ absolutely not playing the blame game whatsoever, thanks tiff. overall i think neon reverie 's point is extremely valid and likely covers the majority of opinions that surround broadly speaking ethnic/black/brown roleplays. truthfully, i hadn't even considered that; it's hard to see past your own viewpoint sometimes, and i want to give people the benefit of the doubt and trust that their hearts are in the right place.
that being said, everyone's entitled to their own preferences, but critical thought and stepping back to view the optics of groups you're a part of is important in making sure you're not perpetuating something you don't necessarily mean to. yes a lot of it is unintentional, and after reading this discussion, i'm feeling really encouraged and grateful that a lot of people are thinking about these kinds of issues. this was really productive and i hope this introspection results in change.

 

[Phantom Phoenix]

as someone who is active in krp community, i can definitely see your point here and will fully admit that there is a lack in portrayal of p.o.c characters in general. though i would also like to lay out my personal thought that the lack might be due to people being hesitant in representing a race that has a certain weight behind it. i, myself, admit to being hesitant about roleplaying black characters simply because i am not familiar at all with the racial struggles they deal with and i don’t want to cause accidental harm in my portrayal of them. i understand that this is also a point of research and that it should not stop me or anyone from creating roleplays that are centered around p.o.c characters but i feel like this might be a factor nonetheless.

that being said, it is definitely a concern worth bringing awareness to and something we as a roleplay community on its own can improve on!

I'm not trying to start anything here, you are very much within your right to play whatever character you want but Koreans have racial struggles just as much as black people as well as any other minority group so what's the difference between playing a Korean character opposed to a black character?

What possible accidental harm can you do from writing a black character in a school or fantasy or any other setting? It seems that mostly everywhere I've been when there is the mention of writing for a black character, the character has to be written a certain way and historical accuracy must follow suit. Racism, slavery, etc. I've never seen people just want to write the character just for being a character. Actually, the color of the person's skin becomes the character moreso than the person that they need to be. Writing is supposed to be where you get away from all of that stuff. I don't understand why people want to bring everything of the real world into it.

Sometimes I feel some people need to call it for what it is, they don't want to play black characters. There's nothing wrong with that, hell, I'm a black woman myself and if I don't see the character I'm trying to create as black they won't be black but I know whatever the color of their skin is does not define who they are.

 

[weldherwings]

for me, personally, I will only write about what I know about. I’m currently studying Korean and Korean culture and have been for around six years now. So I feel like I have a good grasp and understanding having studied it for so long and visited the country also. And I have been trying to expand my horizons - some of you guys may not have noticed, but I created an indigenous aboriginal character recently which I’ve been wanting to do for Y E A R S but didn’t feel educated enough. I’ve started a couple of courses at University which focuses on the diversity and cultural aspects of our First People of Australia. I still have more learning to do and continuing to study, but I didn’t want to release my character until I had an understanding and knew it wouldn’t bring offence to others.

 

[neon reverie]

I'm not trying to start anything here, you are very much within your right to play whatever character you want but Koreans have racial struggles just as much as black people as well as any other minority group so what's the difference between playing a Korean character opposed to a black character?

What possible accidental harm can you do from writing a black character in a school or fantasy or any other setting? It seems that mostly everywhere I've been when there is the mention of writing for a black character, the character has to be written a certain way and historical accuracy must follow suit. Racism, slavery, etc. I've never seen people just want to write the character just for being a character. Actually, the color of the person's skin becomes the character moreso than the person that they need to be. Writing is supposed to be where you get away from all of that stuff. I don't understand why people want to bring everything of the real world into it.

Sometimes I feel some people need to call it for what it is, they don't want to play black characters. There's nothing wrong with that, hell, I'm a black woman myself and if I don't see the character I'm trying to create as black they won't be black but I know whatever the color of their skin is does not define who they are.

you make an extremely good point and you are well in the right that the colour of the character’s skin shouldn’t define who they are nor should people shy away from creating poc characters due to the history behind them. i can only speak from personal experience that, as an asian myself, i am more knowledgeable on the discrimination a korean or asian person in general might face than a black person - therefore i feel more comfortable in portraying korean characters than i do black.

on the same note, and i welcome you to educate me on it should you think otherwise, i personally see a difference between roleplaying a character of a minority like koreans/asians and roleplaying a character whose racial background can be linked to years of slavery and current constitutional racism. again, i completely agree that this should not have to be such a big factor in deciding whether or not to roleplay a character of a certain ethnicity nor should someone’s racial history define who they are as a person but for me, it still is something i consider.

in the same way when you speak about portraying characters in particular settings, i can’t help but to feel like - no matter the setting - i am still somewhat putting out a representation of a culture and feel more hesitant towards putting out characters of a culture i am not that familiar with. this, in the end, remains a personal struggle for me and one, thanks to your insight, i now realize i should work on more.

 

[tiny grass is dreaming]

Like you hit it on the head it’s a minority experience, so obviously it’s not going to be as popular.

Like I get it, I hate that all fantasy settings seem to default to pseudo white European. Like for duck sakes peoples lets expand our horizons. But if I made a fantasy roleplay based on a lesser known time period or ethnicity I am not gonna be like - y’all low key racist for not doing this.

Im gonna be like...welp people like to stick to their comfort zone. It is what it is.

Now if I make let’s say a generic superhero roleplay and every single person is white heterosexual I’m gonna be salty as hell. Cuz there’s no excuse for that.

Hell even in the pseudo medieval fantasy settings their better be queer people of color. It’s ducking make believe, don’t come at me with realism.

i don't understand what "so obviously its not going to be as popular" means when there is a whole Section of this site where there are rps of solely asian characters that white people are Not Afraid In The Slightest to write and play.

"lesser known ethnicity" i think everyone knows that black and poc ethnicities exist... and at least should get a gist of what we've got to go through. with that being said, writers should feel even more inclined to write poc characters if the setting takes place in a universe where these real world prejudices don't exist, yet poc characters are rare at best especially in those types of rps.
a lesser known time period is not the same as a minority race. in fact, the rp in question is actually not a lesser known time period but one that is well known and often subject to a lot of romanticization. but bringing black ppl into it suddenly makes it uncomfortable as it must bring to light all of the ugly parts of that era (and i dont blame ppl for being uncomfortable as rping is a method of escapism. as some have stated above, no one is blaming others.)

anyway the main problem is that these non-asian, poc-centered rps are in fact out of so many people's comfort zones when others aren't, thats what we're addressing here. that is the underlying issue that many non black people find hard to see. the problem isn't even the amount of research that has to be done either, as all across the rp community you see people spend long hours researching historical eras and the like for the settings and characters for their rps (even if it isn't fantasy!). heck, people will even do research on the korean idol industry (which isnt exactly pretty) if they actually care to make it more accurate. writers just aren't comfortable researching if its for black or poc characters. that is something we want people to realize and think about for themselves. why aren't they engaging? no really, why?
sometimes things are easy to miss if you're not the one being subjected to them.

also it should not matter if the rp is fantasy or not to determine if there should be more poc characters or queer characters in any given setting, because Both exist in abundance in the real world. if there aren't any it's a problem, regardless of the setting or rp.

 

[Phantom Phoenix]

you make an extremely good point and you are well in the right that the colour of the character’s skin shouldn’t define who they are nor should people shy away from creating poc characters due to the history behind them. i can only speak from personal experience that, as an asian myself, i am more knowledgeable on the discrimination a korean or asian person in general might face than a black person - therefore i feel more comfortable in portraying korean characters than i do black.

on the same note, and i welcome you to educate me on it should you think otherwise, i personally see a difference between roleplaying a character of a minority like koreans/asians and roleplaying a character whose racial background can be linked to years of slavery and current constitutional racism. again, i completely agree that this should not have to be such a big factor in deciding whether or not to roleplay a character of a certain ethnicity nor should someone’s racial history define who they are as a person but for me, it still is something i consider.

in the same way when you speak about portraying characters in particular settings, i can’t help but to feel like - no matter the setting - i am still somewhat putting out a representation of a culture and feel more hesitant towards putting out characters of a culture i am not that familiar with. this, in the end, remains a personal struggle for me and one, thanks to your insight, i now realize i should work on more.

Personal experiences are the best sources to write from so if you're comfortable writing how you're writing there's nothing wrong with that. It's okay to stay in your comfort zone. What you said shows that you have respect for other cultures but the weight of portraying them correctly shouldn't carry over into writing. Writing should be about fun. It shouldn't be about racism, social injustices, etc at least that's how I feel. I also want to thank you for your response.

 

[tiny grass is dreaming]

on the same note, and i welcome you to educate me on it should you think otherwise, i personally see a difference between roleplaying a character of a minority like koreans/asians and roleplaying a character whose racial background can be linked to years of slavery and current constitutional racism. again, i completely agree that this should not have to be such a big factor in deciding whether or not to roleplay a character of a certain ethnicity nor should someone’s racial history define who they are as a person but for me, it still is something i consider.

i agree with you on the part where it shouldn't matter. once it's time to write a black person, so many non-black writers see black people solely as our struggles and disadvantages. this is a problem. yes we are the way we are because of what we experience growing up, but if racial prejudice is not a focal point of the rp or story, it should not matter. as you said, asians face struggles based on race too. just because it's not to the same extent, doesn't mean you can't imagine what it's like, especially if you've heard a black person talk about what they've had to go through (with social media today I doubt that's very hard to come across). there is never an implied expectation for a writer to be completely historically accurate, as every single black person's experience with racism varies.

but that's beside the point. i just wanted to point out how dehumanizing it is as a black person to constantly hear non-black writers use the excuse of "what black people go through is a sensitive topic and i'm afraid to portray it wrong" when 90% of the time what we go through isn't even the point! we are not just our oppression! i don't go around every day complaining about how my people and i are oppressed, i just live my life to the best of my ability despite it.

rps that focus on racial inequality are a special case in this topic, but what i'm mainly talking about here is that even in non racially focused rps, everyone seems too afraid to write a black character. i write characters from all kinds of ethnicities, i'm not afraid or uncomfortable to because i know it's easy to just do the research. however, most of the time a character's race doesn't even come into play with who the character is as a person unless I really want it to, even if they are a minority in their country!

 

[allure]

I have to agree with you on being too afraid. I personally believe that most writers are afraid of writing black characters because of the backlash they will receive from others. I think the wildest thing is that they would probably receive more backlash from white people than poc. I've been told this year that I have no right as a white woman to discuss the BLM or racism by a Hispanic person. Even though I am white, I'm Irish and live in Australia. Growing up, I used to get bullied for my accent and quite often people would say things like "oh potatoes" or "oh, i'm Irish too - my great grandmother is from Ireland". Yet because I'm white, I've been told that I can't claim that I've been a victim of racism. Anyways, moving along from that lol, I do believe that the fear of others stops us from achieving remarkable things. Not just in our writing but in life in general.


Okay, I forgot what my point was. Thank you for witnessing Steph's mind going awol and shutting down the end.

steph, i know you mean well but that's a really inappropriate thing to say given the current topic. i'm not trying to invalidate your negative experiences in the past but there's really NO valid comparison between getting teased for being irish and the literal centuries of systemic oppression forced upon black people. and in my personal opinion, you should be using your privilege to promote the poc voices here, not getting hung up on a singular, irrelevant interaction with an unrelated party. this is not the time to victimize yourself.

 

[low fidelity]

I have to agree with you on being too afraid. I personally believe that most writers are afraid of writing black characters because of the backlash they will receive from others. I think the wildest thing is that they would probably receive more backlash from white people than poc. I've been told this year that I have no right as a white woman to discuss the BLM or racism by a Hispanic person. Even though I am white, I'm Irish and live in Australia. Growing up, I used to get bullied for my accent and quite often people would say things like "oh potatoes" or "oh, i'm Irish too - my great grandmother is from Ireland". Yet because I'm white, I've been told that I can't claim that I've been a victim of racism. Anyways, moving along from that lol, I do believe that the fear of others stops us from achieving remarkable things. Not just in our writing but in life in general.


Okay, I forgot what my point was. Thank you for witnessing Steph's mind going awol and shutting down the end.

hi, i am another hispanic now telling you that you don't really have any right to discuss racism or chime in with your extremely irrelevant replies to this thread. while yes, xenophobia exists against irish folks, you have not been systematically oppressed and discriminated against in every aspect because of the color of your skin and your culture. especially to the magnitude of black americans both in the past and present. i understand a lot of the discussion here is very american centric, and so it might not be a topic that people outside of the U.S. would be as familiar with, but you adding in a reply such as this is with such little thought is a really bad look. i know you likely mean well, but please think critically about this.

 

[tiny grass is dreaming]

I have to agree with you on being too afraid. I personally believe that most writers are afraid of writing black characters because of the backlash they will receive from others. I think the wildest thing is that they would probably receive more backlash from white people than poc. I've been told this year that I have no right as a white woman to discuss the BLM or racism by a Hispanic person. Even though I am white, I'm Irish and live in Australia. Growing up, I used to get bullied for my accent and quite often people would say things like "oh potatoes" or "oh, i'm Irish too - my great grandmother is from Ireland". Yet because I'm white, I've been told that I can't claim that I've been a victim of racism. Anyways, moving along from that lol, I do believe that the fear of others stops us from achieving remarkable things. Not just in our writing but in life in general.

1) people do not know what race you are when you write. it is impossible to know if a writer of a black character is actually black or not unless you either dig for that information or know them personally. when I write a black character, people do not know I am black unless they know me. i have never received backlash from another black writer for writing a black character. the only time i can imagine a writer receiving backlash for writing a black character is if they dehumanize this black character to the point where their only character trait is their blackness. i, as a black writer, would receive backlash for such a thing as well, despite being black myself.

2) a google search of the definition of racism is only two clicks away.

 

[weldherwings]

steph, i know you mean well but that's a really inappropriate thing to say given the current topic. i'm not trying to invalidate your negative experiences in the past but there's really NO valid comparison between getting teased for being irish and the literal centuries of systemic oppression forced upon black people. and in my personal opinion, you should be using your privilege to promote the poc voices here, not getting hung up on a singular, irrelevant interaction with an unrelated party. this is not the time to victimize yourself.

hi, i am another hispanic now telling you that you don't really have any right to discuss racism or chime in with your extremely irrelevant replies to this thread. while yes, xenophobia exists against irish folks, you have not been systematically oppressed and discriminated against in every aspect because of the color of your skin and your culture. especially to the magnitude of black americans both in the past and present. i understand a lot of the discussion here is very american centric, and so it might not be a topic that people outside of the U.S. would be as familiar with, but you adding in a reply such as this is with such little thought is a really bad look. i know you likely mean well, but please think critically about this.

I didn't mean for it to come out that way at all. I'm sorry if it came across as offensive at all. What my brain is trying to say just didn't seem to come out correctly I'm sorry.



edit: it has come to my attention that some people have been referring back to this post I made to 'provide evidence' that i'm apparently racist. I did send out an apology via direct messages to those who I had hurt as I took time away to reflect on what I had said and have since been extensively researching to better myself. I've attached my apology which I had sent out on Oct 13, 2020.

Spoiler

Hi everyone,
I owe you all an apology. Yesterday during the unpopular opinions thread, I made a comment which has caused hurt. At the time, I was not thinking clearly and was reacting right in the moment without critically thinking or reflecting on the situation. I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours reflecting on my words and actions, and I realise that what I said was offensive.

It was never my intention to cause any distress, hurt, offence or to sound tone-deaf. Looking back, however, I can see that I really did not think things through before writing what I did. I was completely out of line and should have never posted to begin with. I am always trying to educate myself as there is a huge difference in culture compared to Australia, and often anything that does not involve Australia gets pushed into the shadows. So, I am always actively searching and trying to educate myself; and honestly, there is a lot of stuff I still do not understand or cannot wrap my head around. Hence why I should have never commented to begin with. I understand that now, and I sincerely apologise.

I hope you will forgive me for making you upset or uncomfortable. If you want to discuss things further, my PMs and discord messages are always open.

All the best,
Stephanie

 

[Pith]

Having one's standard reply length being TOO long. It's hard to reply to too much prose every time, more words doesn't make you a better writer.

 

[Sara Sidereal]

There's no real way to know for certain why any particular roleplay does or doesn't generate interest - of the people who read it and don't respond, you'll never know why they didn't respond. The sheer number of variables that affect interest may not be knowable even in theory. And we don't really know the relative percentages of roleplays that generate interest versus those that don't - there are (according to the site's stats) seventy thousand interest checks, and nine hundred forty thousand roleplay threads, arbitrarily ignoring archives and hosted projects. Does anyone here feel confident even ballparking how many of those threads got off the ground (2+ pages) and how many died, and for what reasons?

If I were forced to guess, I would say that it's more likely for a thread to die than to attract the interest of players. Making an interest check is easy; figuring out what people like is hard. This is actually even harder for genres like academy, specifically because they are the majority - a cyberpunk thread might be competing with one other thread, or even zero, but a school roleplay is competing with the maximum possible number of other threads. Therefore, it is even more likely that any given school thread selected at random will not have many, or any, responses - there are just too many others to pick from if even the slightest detail is not to a player's preference.

Basically, apathy is more common than malice.

 

[Reid]

For me, right now, is when I suddenly feel like I can't easily slip into the shoes of the character I'm playing. Like, I'm sure yall have those days... Where the words just don't come out right to you and ya feel like yelling into a pillow because of it? Yeah, well... Today was my day for that lol.

 

[heartstringss]

as someone who is active in krp community, i can definitely see your point here and will fully admit that there is a lack in portrayal of p.o.c characters in general. though i would also like to lay out my personal thought that the lack might be due to people being hesitant in representing a race that has a certain weight behind it. i, myself, admit to being hesitant about roleplaying black characters simply because i am not familiar at all with the racial struggles they deal with and i don’t want to cause accidental harm in my portrayal of them. i understand that this is also a point of research and that it should not stop me or anyone from creating roleplays that are centered around p.o.c characters but i feel like this might be a factor nonetheless.

that being said, it is definitely a concern worth bringing awareness to and something we as a roleplay community on its own can improve on!

seconding this. i think most people just don't want to play it inaccurately, you know? like, even trying to do your research beforehand, sometimes the internet isn't always reliable, and it's hard to know what information is still current, what is old, what is accurate, and what is inaccurate if those are not your own experiences that YOU'VE lived through. everyone's experiences are all so different, and there's so much misinformation out there, and god, it's so overwhelming and so fucking scary to try to take on something that huge, not knowing if you're going to do it right or wrong; to possibly risk hurting a culture more, just because you tried and failed. ...no one wants to fail, you know? especially when POC have been misrepresented so, so many times before, i think it's just that a lot of people are scared of only adding to that more, and so a lot of us don't take it on because we're all just stuck in our comfort zones (which isn't necessarily a bad thing! comfort zones are there for a reason, obviously).

for the people who are white that don't RP very many POC, for starters, one thing to remember is that yes, we are white, so our experiences as white people are all we know intimately enough to tell those stories and know that we can tell them accurately -- it's our default for a reason, just the same as how a lot of straight people might similarly default to playing only straight charas, or gay people to only gay charas, etc etc... but i don't mean that as in you shouldn't at least TRY to branch out and make those other stories a little more the default in your writing too, because of course as white people we should definitely still TRY to step out of our comfort zones and make the space more inclusive, but what i always worry about for myself when i think about wanting to play more POCs (that aren't just mixed with white, of course) is that, of course i can empathize with POC and their experiences and the racism they face, but if i haven't lived through it, just the same as how vee has said that it's not our right as white people to discuss the racism POC face, how is it any more our right to tell their stories, then, either?

 

[SP3CT3R]

steph, i know you mean well but that's a really inappropriate thing to say given the current topic. i'm not trying to invalidate your negative experiences in the past but there's really NO valid comparison between getting teased for being irish and the literal centuries of systemic oppression forced upon black people. and in my personal opinion, you should be using your privilege to promote the poc voices here, not getting hung up on a singular, irrelevant interaction with an unrelated party. this is not the time to victimize yourself.

hi, i am another hispanic now telling you that you don't really have any right to discuss racism or chime in with your extremely irrelevant replies to this thread. while yes, xenophobia exists against irish folks, you have not been systematically oppressed and discriminated against in every aspect because of the color of your skin and your culture. especially to the magnitude of black americans both in the past and present. i understand a lot of the discussion here is very american centric, and so it might not be a topic that people outside of the U.S. would be as familiar with, but you adding in a reply such as this is with such little thought is a really bad look. i know you likely mean well, but please think critically about this.

You need to stop. The Irish were, in fact, treated pretty much the same as African slaves during the colonial era, and while anti-Irish sentiment is not as strong in present-day America than other places and time periods, racism isn't a fucking contest, and you have no right to invalidate someone's experiences because other people have it worse.

 

[oxytocin]

You need to stop. The Irish were, in fact, treated pretty much the same as African slaves during the colonial era, and while anti-Irish sentiment is not as strong in present-day America than other places and time periods, racism isn't a fucking contest, and you have no right to invalidate someone's experiences because other people have it worse.

they were not trying to invalidate her experience—simply stating that in this particular instance the comparison was invalid. your hostility is unwarranted considering everyone has conducted themselves politely and has made sure they established that they understood. please tread carefully when discussing such matters, as you seem to be very impassioned (which i wholeheartedly understand, considering the touchiness of this subject), and i would hate for this to turn ugly. if you would like to discuss this (civilly!) i am more than happy to dm you. hope this response finds you well, and i bear you no ill will. please do not take this response as hostile.

 

[Whisker]

I hate to be that guy, but this is exactly the reason why writing for other races beyond your own is extremely unpopular. The simple answer is that it is not easy to do because everyone has their subjective opinion on how exactly to accomplish this. I'm a white straight dude. I was not born in the US, but I have basically lived here for as long as I can remember as an immigrant.

In an ideal situation, anyone on RPN would be able to come on and RP any type of character they wish without fear of backlash, judgement, or comments from the well-meaning peanut gallery. However, the reality of the situation is that this is a time period where people are extremely sensitive about things like stereotyping, cultural appropriation, racism, xenophobia, prejudice, and so on and so on. And rightfully so in a lot of cases.

The bottom line is that this also carries over to RPN. While the absence of POC is extremely concerning, my belief is that it is as much a symptom of our times as it is people just wanting to RP idealized versions of themselves in a lot of cases. People are extremely self-conscious of being accused of racism, stereotyping, and so on when they write these characters. For example, are we going to get lambasted by a well-meaning bystander if we dare to write a POC who likes soul food? Rap? African culture? Or write them as having an accent? How varied do we have to make them in order not to be accused of racism but rather uplifting? And by whose standards is that even determined?

I'm not saying this necessarily excuses the lack of variety on that front (as if anybody needs to feel justified to explain what type of characters they write or play). It's just that there are some reasons beyond just racism, prejudice, and malice that some simply just don't make the attempt.

Characters that are close to identifying similar to yourself just FEEL the safest to write about as a general rule. And given some of the behavior I've seen about it on this site as well as other RP sites doesn't exactly inspire any confidence that this about to change in the near future.

Heck, there are already arguments popping off on here about it.

 

[Chordling]

The conversation regarding writers writing as different races other than their own needs to move away from this thread. Thank you.

 

[low fidelity]

You need to stop. The Irish were, in fact, treated pretty much the same as African slaves during the colonial era, and while anti-Irish sentiment is not as strong in present-day America than other places and time periods, racism isn't a fucking contest, and you have no right to invalidate someone's experiences because other people have it worse.

my point was definitely not to invalidate her experience, but to point out how abysmally unnecessary it was to the conversation at hand. i've never said racism and oppression are contests, but simply put: the experience of being told "oh potatoes" is vastly different to the day to day experiences with racism that black americans face, such as being stereotyped as aggressive or poor, racially profiled, assaulted and even murdered for simply existing while black. it was a comment posted with little thought and regard for others, and i don't appreciate the flat out hostility.

 

[heartstringss]

The conversation regarding writers writing as different races other than their own needs to move away from this thread. Thank you.

aye aye captain!! in that case, if anyone has a response to the comment that i made, please feel absolutely free to DM me. i am always open to discussions, and though i sincerely hope none of it was taken as an offense, in the event it was... my inbox is always open.

 

[Chordling]

For me, right now, is when I suddenly feel like I can't easily slip into the shoes of the character I'm playing. Like, I'm sure yall have those days... Where the words just don't come out right to you and ya feel like yelling into a pillow because of it? Yeah, well... Today was my day for that lol.

I have these days far too often. =.= I wish you the best of luck moving past this form of writers' block.

 

[Phantom Phoenix]

but if i haven't lived through it, just the same as how vee has said that it's not our right as white people to discuss the racism POC face, how is it any more our right to tell their stories, then, either?

I ask, what story are you trying to tell? I only know my own struggles and experiences I have gone through but that does not mean I cannot and will not write for any other character I so desire. I think the issue is as I pointed out earlier, no one calls it for what it is. You just don't want to play that character. The color becomes much more of a focus on anything where there's the need to have to portray the character in a certain way and any real writer knows the color of a character's skin is not the focus of the story.
This isn't a movie, this is a roleplay. You're telling your character's story, why does it matter how you tell their story.

Well, that's all I'm going to say on that.

Edit: I guess in between my writing there were other comments but I'm done.

 

[Reid]

I have these days far too often. =.= I wish you the best of luck moving past this form of writers' block.

The character I'm currently playing is like a freaking onion. So many layers, and your eyes start stinging and watering as you cut through them. Most days I'm feeling it, but today was like woah what's going onnnnn

thank you for the well wishes though ;_;;;

 

[Chordling]

Most days I'm feeling it, but today was like woah what's going onnnnn

I always pretend that this is just my character's way of telling me to leave them alone. XD They're just not in the mood to talk.