I've been writing this story for a while, and I really want to get this right. So here's the thing:
The country the story is set in is a very very loose spanish analogue: in that the names are spanish-based and there are a few vaguely spanishy things about the land and culture. One of my main characters is the child of refugees from the empire nearby, where there has been a war of sorts against magic users (His mother was a mage). I've written him as a black guy, where most of the people in the story are more olive-skinned. I really love this character and I don't think there's anything wrong with him personally. But I don't want it to seem offensive that he's kind of an outsider because of it (his nationality rather than his skin color, but they are related). There are definitely racist undertones to the way he's treated (ad to be fair, they feel the same way about the pale people who live in the mountains), although he's considered a citizen for various reasons and technically equal. All of the people from his country of origin aren't dark skinned, but I don't know if that's clear in the book. Is it problematic to have a black character as a minority this way? What should I do to make this work?
The country the story is set in is a very very loose spanish analogue: in that the names are spanish-based and there are a few vaguely spanishy things about the land and culture. One of my main characters is the child of refugees from the empire nearby, where there has been a war of sorts against magic users (His mother was a mage). I've written him as a black guy, where most of the people in the story are more olive-skinned. I really love this character and I don't think there's anything wrong with him personally. But I don't want it to seem offensive that he's kind of an outsider because of it (his nationality rather than his skin color, but they are related). There are definitely racist undertones to the way he's treated (ad to be fair, they feel the same way about the pale people who live in the mountains), although he's considered a citizen for various reasons and technically equal. All of the people from his country of origin aren't dark skinned, but I don't know if that's clear in the book. Is it problematic to have a black character as a minority this way? What should I do to make this work?