Skin color- how much does it matter?

Maybe Dewshine and Scouter just couldn't get tanned and got sunburned instead. We know it happened to several of the Wolfriders when they first crossed the desert.
Which makes me wonder... but off-topic but do the elves have any kind of sun-blocker?

I like your Elfricans concept, Trollbabe. Their way of life is intriguing and good for many short stories ... or longer ones.
I'd love to see Elfricans ... still true to EQ style but with clearly different facial characteristics (and varied build).

Fun fact, a bulky figure and a tendency to go fat stems from the Neanderthal ancestors of modern humans. The whiter the type, the more mixed DNA. Google it. 'pure' Homo sapiens sapiens are actually black, like really black.
I quote the Smithonian as my source, I think that should be reliable

That's true, Miss G! The only people who are full homo sapiens are from sub saharan Africa.

I've seen something on the Internet about some people being more Neanderthal, which can be used to argue that some of us are less evolved than others. Darwinism has been misused to promote racism, so I suspect racists will try to read something into it.

We tend to make too much of the differences in people that we can see clearly: hair color and texture, facial features, skin color and height. The important genetic differences are not so obvious, such as a family trait that leads to disease, or the metalworking passion that my brother inherited from our maternal grandfather, even though he looks like our father's side of the family.

I don't watch TV much, but I saw a commercial for a DNA test in which a white woman is thrilled to find she is part American Indian (Yes, I still use that term. "In Dios" means "people of God." In Columbus' time, India was Hindustan.)

So what? Is she suddenly going to read up on native history and spiritualism? Will she stand up for the rights of indigenous communities? What was stopping her before?

I'm proud of my family's history, and I am grateful to the distant relative who traced us back to Cheshire County, England. (Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood and his Merry Men, THAT Cheshire County, woo hoo!) But I consider my cousin's adopted children part of that same heritage. Besides, how many of us can honestly say that no one in our lineage was born as a result of rape, adultery, or a handmaid arrangement, or got swapped at birth for some reason?

Just my ramblings. Husband just dozed off, which tells me he is no longer hurting. Here is a man whose unselfish love has kept me around for 37 years, yet who has the health of a man twenty years his elder....

Well, when light-skinned people (Caucasians especially) take the assumed purity of their ethnicity as their source for pride..., then that's funny, since their skincolour stems from the exact opposite: racial impurity.

Of course, I'm not from the US, but I guess people are kinda trying to "absolve" themselves from being White. 'Maybe Europeans, white Americans are to blame for everything that's wrong in this world (colonialism, modern slavery, world wars, imperialism etc.), but I'm part Native American so I'm one the innocent good guys as well'. Another factor might be, that is not longer socially acceptable to be proud of one's European heritage* (imagine, someone being proud to be white), by claiming some Native American heritage, one gives him- or herself a reason to be proud. To me, this appears to be some kind of cultural appropriation.


I personally think that nuture is stronger than nature. The culture you grew up is the thing that you are. That's why some African Americans critised Obama. His skin colour might be black, but his upbringing is not. And I think they are right.

@Trollbabe: I really hope there is some silver lining coming for you and your husband!


*An article, I read, cited this as one reason for Trump's election; the implicit promise to be allowed to be proud of what one is

Miss Gillespie wrote:

@Trollbabe: I really hope there is some silver lining coming for you and your husband!

*echoes Miss Gillespie*

Your love for each other shines in you posts, Trollbabe. So touching.

PCoquelin wrote:

"Skin colour - how much does it matter ?"

It doesn't matter at all, to me.


After all...

" Under the sky, under the Heavens..
..we are but one family! "
( Bruce Lee )

You and I are on the same sheet of music

PCoquelin wrote:

Been reading and re-reading all the posts here and I still don't get what it's all about.

HOWEVER, it made me think of a few things :

. THE scene that I find absolutely SHOCKING in Elfquest, is the one with the totally brutish "primitive humans" able only of violence against the beautiful elfin firstcomers. I know it's an "old tale" imagery, and yet.. everything I know about paleontology and anthropology had me totally revulsed at the stupidity of such a scenery, from the very first time I read it. And I still am.

. The Sun Folk ADAPTED themselves for many generations to having a high melanin rate, and probably from... initially VERY PALE SKINNED elves ( Savah mentioned that her family came from wooden lands ). Which has been happening to some human populations on our world, all along human history (and from dark to pale skin, as well).

As for the "race" discussion, just be aware that science has demonstrated that there exists only ONE human race on our world,
since Homo Neanderthalensis and some more recent varieties went extinct :

Homo Sapiens Sapiens...

...with now more than seven billions representatives of that human race living or surviving on our one-mooned world.

Footprints of mother and kid
~ 3.8 millions years old

And another thing that should make 'racists' think :

Our genetic variability is a big part of what makes our race strong and prone to survive even the worst events.

So much sense brother, that these people here in the States wont listen to. Too wound up and angry because theyre sucked into either the left wing reality tunnel or the right wing one.

One of my youngest co-workers is a first-generation Arab American with very classic features. Looks as though he stepped out of an ancient bas-relief. I sometimes see him around the neighborhood with his little brother, who might be around twelve.

I told him yesterday, look out for your brother when you are out in public. When times are bad, people tend to take it out on minorities. I was surprised that he had not heard of this.

Thats something that very much has me scared.

One question remains though.

One of my many traits that should get me sued by the Pinis is tanning heavily to the point where people address me in Spanish here in LA.

Is this brownface?

LOL - No, but you can avoid an annoying non-Hispanic person by pretending to no habla Ingles.

LOL, may not work in LA.

Van Halen took a full course in Spanish just being stablehands in Pasadena long ago.

Trollbabe, my hand at an "Elfrican". Hope this is okay. I thought that tattoos might be common, either as a spiritual ritual, or simply as a means of adornment.

Lovely.

Thorn, I LOVE your Elfrican!

That's what I imagined - they put their hands to braiding hair, tattooing and working soft metals into jewelry.  They have enough members and enough resources that they can specialize.

I, too, don't know if the tattoos are purely decorative, or if the whole or parts of the tattoos have a generally accepted meaning.  I like the garment as well.

Aside from the fine fabric shown here, I've wondered if Elfricans would wear furs from lions, leopards or zebras, or use ivory.

Historically, native Africans have worn lion and leopard skins to indicate status.  The fur industry plundered Africa's wildlife for patterned skins, and elephants were slaughtered for ivory.

In the WoTM, Elves kill primarily for food, then reserve pelts to make fur or leather.  (Exceptions might be Dewshine's slain wolf-friend, or the lion Redmark killed to save Bearclaw.)  I couldn't picture Elves killing members of the cat or the horse family for food, nor could I see them killing an entire animal just for its pelt or tusks.  They could collect ivory from existing carcasses, though.  So no fancy skins, and limited ivory, for the Elfricans, I wonder?

Getting back to skin color, humans are numerous and short-lived.  Countless generations of countless humans have resulted in our diversity of skin, hair and facial features.

Since the WoTM is so similar to our own, the Firstcomer High Ones must have known that by the Medieval time in which they planned to arrive, the human population of the WoTM would have included large family groups with the visible characteristics that we call race.

Instead of being prepared to meet a diverse population, the Firstcomers chose to look like tall, slender Caucasians.  Even Rayek's obvious ancestor has fair skin.  http://elfquest.com/firstcomers/

They also dressed like nobility and made their spaceship look like a palace, suggesting that they didn't intend to appeal to the masses.  (Arrogance, as Great Uncle Bandylegs recalls.)

I never completely understood the blend of genetics and magic that gave the firstborn of the High Ones their resemblance to the form their parents chose, but I will give the Firstcomers the benefit of the doubt and assume they didn't choose their kids' looks.

Trollbabe,even tho Cutter and Skywise tamed 2 horses (no-humps) for part of their travel,they did eat the first one and had no problem with eating zwoots(horse-camel like hybrids). And in Blood of Ten Chiefs novels,Huntress Skyfire did kill a wildcat to feed starving Wolfriders. Hell,they even talk about wolves eating their dead and dead Wolfriders, so I don't know how much of a food taboo they had outside of eating humanoid elves,trolls and humans.

Thanks, I'd forgotten about that, Prism.

I don't think the Elves have taboos regarding food, except for Kahvi's comment about not eating Troll meat after the war.

I was thinking more about taste, at least in human terms. Beyond survival foods, the bushmeat trade, holidays and regional delicacies, people tend to hunt and raise herbivores for meat. Pigs are a major exception. I've heard some countries sell horsemeat for human consumption, but it's unpopular in the USA.

Trollbabe, the dolling program I used is limited in the type of clothing you can use for your elf. The tunic was the closest I could come to something a possible, sub-Saharan race of elves would wear. They also had a cape addition, and I used it with this Elfrican, who is sans tattoos.

I like your Elfrican, and wish there were more nonwhite characters in Elfquest.

Like Rayek? He counts for 8 and 1 elf characters! He is awesome. And there is Leetah. Lets create new brownskin elves... grin

Here's my version of Elfricans

I went for more fantastic colorings,since they're not human

And some people Nilotic and Andamese have skin so dark that it doesn't shine brown but a sorta purple or blue,so there's that