How do I have to refer to a person of a specific racial group?
My novel is developed in an East Asian environment (specifically Japan) and my main character is not Asian, she is from Central América and is Mixed Race. Now, my main character is going to refer to a new Caucasian character who is a girl from Germany and I don't know what to use to refer to her. Should I use something like "Caucasian Girl" or "White Girl" or "European girl"?
Extra notes:
My main character doesn't know where the other character is from, the only most noticeable thing about the other character is that she is Caucasian.
My Main Character is fluent in English like the new Character
The new Character is introduced in the Main Character thoughts
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It depends largely on context. White girl can definitely be seen as a derogatory term, and is quite often used as such.
No one, outside of bad American police drama, refers to people in conversation as "Caucasian".
It's also a problem that is solved the first time the characters have a conversation, or indeed the other character opens their mouth and talks. When travelling, or meeting someone who is also foreign, or indeed talking to someone for the first time who has a different accent (or even just talking to someone for the first time in a social settings), on of the first questions people ask is "Where are you from?" - or at the very least, words to that effect.
That said, it is also dependent on what the other character looks like and where she is from. People from different countries also look (to a degree) different and sound very different. It's stereotyping to a point, but they are sterotypes for a reason.
It's damned near impossible to confuse an English accent, for example, with an American twang, or an Irish lilt. And for Europeans for whom English is not their first language, their accent determines the inflection and pronunciation of different words.
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You can use "long nose" too for a funny one, as after the skin colour, this is the first thing than usually come to mind.
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You can have her describe herself in an indirect manner, like
My colleagues label me as a "caucasian" or "white"... Sometimes they use even more derogatory terms when they think I'm out of earshot.
Use terms used for white people matching the locale. It has the added bonus that it doubles as a description of the protagonist's relationship to her surroundings, especially to other characters. Then, you can add a 'neutral' description for the reader's benefit, maybe as a continuation of her narration.
Sure, at a gathering I'd definitely stand out with my paler skin and my large, round eyes missing the fold. That is if you look that close and don't stop at noticing that I usually tower over the crowd.
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If your main character is Caucasian, then she would call the new girl whatever the Asians have been calling them, concerning race.
If your MC is NOT Caucasian, and doesn't know the word, then typically what people have done historically is pick some prominent different physical feature about a new race and use that. "Negro" is just "black" in other languages. Your character, compared to Asians, may have brown or yellow hair, or curly hair, a thin face, light pink skin, a large bust. Blue or green eyes. A wrinkle in her eye lids.
Your MC should use the language those around them use. If in an interaction with the new character, the new character reveals she is "Caucasian", the MC can use that thereafter, but would more likely use the girl's name!
As to whether the narrator uses "Caucasian", I personally would not. The way I write (3rd person limited) my narrator may understand my MC's emotions better than the MC herself does, and my narrator is more eloquent in description than the MC, but my narrator doesn't know anything the MC does not know.
So if I were writing, my narrator may describe the girl as seen by my MC, three or four outstanding differences my MC would quickly notice about the new girl (with fresh language to avoid scientific or racist terms), and then my MC would pick one of these prominent features, or if she was Caucasian the feature she herself was known by, and use that.
"Oh my gosh," Alice said. "You're another blue!"
The new girl looked confused. "What's a blue?"
Alice pointed to her right eye, with a grin. "Our eyes are blue! I'm Alice, but everybody calls me Blue, after my eyes, and now there are two of us!"
"Oh. I'm from Norway. Very far north. You're probably from the far north, too, blue eyes are very common."
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