Honey, I mean no offense at all.

PERSONALLY, when I pick faceclaims for requests? I don’t look at the backgrounds. A lot of people are so diverse with culture that trying to find someone EXACTLY their ethnicity that actually does look like them would be completely tedious I wouldn’t have much time to do anything else on this.

When I pick them, I go for facial features and just how much they generally look like them. It’s no offense to anyone or anything, that’s just how I operate. If you want to do that, go ahead. It’s 100% fine. But I stick by my choices I put for Naya. I think the ones I put could really pass as her siblings. Not everyone is going to do that this way and personally when I get told no for a faceclaim for a sibling just because the ethnicity isn’t exact? I feel pretty offended because everyone has different ideas of what they see as a possible relative for a character, and if they look alike, why not use them?

This is just my personal opinion. Like I said, do as you wish and operate your RPH as you wish but I have to respectfully say that this is how mine goes. By facial structure over all else. 

catladyrph

That’s the thing, though - it’s not a matter of personal choice as much as it is a matter of being respectful to people’s ethnicities and the very real impact it has on their lives. When you lump people of different ethnicities all together saying that “they look related so they can pass as a different ethnicity” is an act of erasure and racism, because it come across as if white is the norm and everything else goes into the same bag.

Which, by the way, both Taylor Lautner and Luke Pasqualino are white, which would either imply that Naya is also white or that they are not, which are both instances of whitewashing (one where a person of color is regarded as white and the other where a white person is cast in a role meant for people of color, making for even less diverse casting, which is a huge problem both in roleplaying and media in general). I recommend that you read on whitewashing to learn why it’s harmful and how to stop doing it.

I’m also not telling you those things because I think “my way” is the best way - you’re obviously free to operate however you choose to, but while some things are a matter of preference, this is one of the instances where the things you are doing are hurting real people. Several people have spoken about how harmful it is to have their identities erased, to see themselves misrepresented and to see absolute no respect for their ethnicities because they are not white It’s not a matter of preference: it’s a matter of educating yourself so you can stop contributing to a system that actively oppreses people.

Also, I don’t want to start drama, but if you pardon my language, I call bullshit on the “facial structure” argument. They all have somewhat similar skin tones, which is what I suspect the reason why you chose them in the first place, and that in itself is a huge problem, so please, recognize what you’re doing here.

pretendersrpa

I call bullshit on stydia-rps as well because while reading her answer, all I read was “I’m too lazy to do the proper research.” It does NOT take very long to look up people’s ethnicities, fchelpers does it all the time. After awhile, you memorize people’s ethnicities so it becomes faster to say “Yes, they could be full siblings” “no, sorry, they could be half siblings” “their ethnicity doesn’t match up so they can be step siblings” etc. 

That’s the problem with racism in roleplays, it all leads back to laziness because people are so unwilling to take 10 extra minutes to actually educate themselves and their followers.