POC in Fantasy

B. Obonyo

So here’s the thing- there aren’t that many people of colour (POC) in fantasy. On the rare occasion that they do appear in our favourite novels, they are hardly ever the main character, or even close to it. They are often thought of as The Black Guy or The Black Girl, and that’s mostly because that is how they are described in the book.

Not only are there fewer POC characters in fantasy, even the way in which the characters are introduced in often problematic. Caucasian characters are rarely introduced as white. They are described by their height, their eyes, the shape of their nose, their quizzical brow, or their aura, but rarely is their race explicitly stated. If the character is a prominent one, the colour of their skin may be described, but only as a way to enhance the image of the character already created- olive toned or ghostly pale. White characters are very rarely specifically mentioned as being white.

However, if one were to revisit all their favourite fantasy novels and find the ones that actually contain non-white characters (you can go ahead and skip over any of the Tolkien novels), you might notice a trend. The characters are always specifically introduced as black (Dean Thomas in the American version of the Harry Potter novels), or Asian, or Arab etc. It seems as if Caucasian is the default, the normal, and because of this, it becomes necessary to specifically state to the reader that the non- white character is other, making it nessasary to group all non- whites as POC in the first place. Rarely is any description beyond their race included – if they are lucky their height may be included, of their braided hair, or their athletic physique- usually traits that are associated with people of that race.

One has to look no further than Susan Collins’ The Hunger Games series for an example of what happens in many readers minds when they read a novel. Rue and Thresh- two important characters in the popular series, were very clearly described as being black, but it was not explicitly stated by the author that they were black. Because the author didn’t go out of her way to say, "Rue and thresh are black", many readers imagined them both as white. When the movie based on the books came out, many people took to the web to complain about the fact that the characters were played by black people. The characters were white until proven black.

Now, two arguments could be made as to why there are fewer POC characters in fantasy- fantasy is not necessarily a popular genre outside of Europe and the USA. Most fantasy writers live in countries where the population is mostly white, and because of this, there are less POC readers to complain, and less POC writers to create their own stories and characters.

But fantasy- and especially high fantasy, allows one to create a new world, one with its own rules, history, and indeed, its own population. It seems a terrible shame that more authors don’t take the opportunity to reform their world, make its populations more representative of all races. 

So what now? Importantly, both white readers and writers of fantasy need to be more aware of racial dynamics in the stories we all enjoy, be more aware of the effects describing a character as black, or Asian or Arab and nothing more could have on the way we perceive that character, and the effect that perception has on the way we view real people in the real world. But far more importantly, we need more POC writers creating enjoyable works in which POC characters are more than just their race, where all characters are more than just the colour of their skin, in which there is more representation. A world in which we no longer need terms like People Of Colour.