Describing characters of color

I'm still sorting through IBARW links and posts, and doing a lot of reading, because a whole week of mostly awesome posts is a lot to go through (though a few people did fail so hard it hurt).

I came across this really great link from N.K. Jemisin (aka nojojojo) about the problem of describing characters of color. She cites a lot of good things, including the problems with the Harry Potter books wherein the editor decided for the U.S. version to specifically point out the race of the CoC, but not the race of the white characters in the book.

Her explanation of *why* this is so problematic is very excellent, and you really ought to go read over there. Her words > my words (by a factor of about 100), so I would definitely encourage you to go listen to what she has to say and pay very close attention.

If you're a writer who wishes to pen characters of color, I definitely think this is something you need to print out, keep with you, and periodically re-read.

Oh, and on a non-related note? Why the heck isn't 2010 so I can buy The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms already. Seriously. Great cover + great sounding storyline = DO WANT.

( Discussion of the article and problems in writing describing CoC's beneath the cut )