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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24986
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I don't know a single person who uses "of African descent" in everyday speech and the people I spend time with are pretty accepting, liberal-Democrat New Jersey sorts of people. The black people I know call themselves "black" when talking to me. While it may be language a narrator would use (depending on the tone) and my experience is limited to my specific circumstances, books that read like politicians speak tend not to be page-turners.

So when you're deciding on the language you're going to use, I suggest keeping in mind that the words you use and _when_ you use them are equally important tools.

Viewers visualize characters as being like them, unless they're told otherwise. And whatever you tell them first often makes the biggest impression. If the very first thing you write about your character is the color of her skin, you're not creating a character, you're creating, at best, an archetype; at worst, a token character of African descent. It's also worth remembering that "of African descent" doesn't necessarily mean dark-skinned.

And readers will always remember the character, not as the woman who plays the piano and loves skiing and is dark-skinned, but as the African woman of color who plays piano and skis.

Race and appearance are factors in almost every part of our lives. A question worth your time to ask: Why do you want this character to be this particular race? Why is her skin being black (with vitiligo) important to the story you're telling? How is it important to her character? These questions should give you guidance about when to bring these up.

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