how do you expect that anyone who reads it is going to know that you *intend* for some characters to be non-white, unless you tack an AN on? It's not like readers are psychic.
Given that a lot of readers didn't get that *all* the main characters in Anansi Boys were black, until it was specifically mentioned that So-and-So was *white* (tho' it was pretty damn obvious to me at least that Charlie's family and friends were black West Indian living in the US and UK, given all the cultural clues and tip-offs early on, e.g. young Charlie's dilemma at not being able to speak in stereotypically "black" (American) ways when rap and hip-hop became popular in Britain) you can *guarantee* that 1) white readers will assume that the characters are just like themselves, the way that Hollywood and mainstream fiction always presents main characters as Default White, and 2) readers of color will assume that they've been excluded again, since there's no evidence to the contrary.
Saying "my viewpoint character doesn't notice color" is a cop-out: is your viewpoint character in a coma? No? Then she will sort of kind of have to notice how *other* people in the world react to her color, won't she? And to other people's around her? Because not *everybody* is as happily non-biased as in an afterschool special, you know. "I couldn't help but notice how Sarah flinched when Pete jokingly asked Vince if he was a Jew after he picked up the dime from off the pavement," would be a plausible sort of "noticing" - and yes, that is based on something I really saw someone who thinks of themselves as non-racist, not an anti-Semite, nice middle American do, a few years ago.
Besides which, there are other ways of coding ethnic background than something as cringe-inducingly-blatant as "I looked into the mirror at my mahogany-hued countenance". Offhand references to the kinds of household names/colloquial expressions/injokes/pop music/other *differences* that make visiting an Asian friend's house even in Utter Suburbia a different experience from visiting a European-descended family. What snacks are on the table, frex.
"Hey, what is this stuff? This isn't Chex Mix! It's really good! Ow, it's HOT!" (Been there, done that, inhaled the dal...)
If you don't indicate it somehow, in your text,
Given that a lot of readers didn't get that *all* the main characters in Anansi Boys were black, until it was specifically mentioned that So-and-So was *white* (tho' it was pretty damn obvious to me at least that Charlie's family and friends were black West Indian living in the US and UK, given all the cultural clues and tip-offs early on, e.g. young Charlie's dilemma at not being able to speak in stereotypically "black" (American) ways when rap and hip-hop became popular in Britain) you can *guarantee* that 1) white readers will assume that the characters are just like themselves, the way that Hollywood and mainstream fiction always presents main characters as Default White, and 2) readers of color will assume that they've been excluded again, since there's no evidence to the contrary.
Saying "my viewpoint character doesn't notice color" is a cop-out: is your viewpoint character in a coma? No? Then she will sort of kind of have to notice how *other* people in the world react to her color, won't she? And to other people's around her? Because not *everybody* is as happily non-biased as in an afterschool special, you know. "I couldn't help but notice how Sarah flinched when Pete jokingly asked Vince if he was a Jew after he picked up the dime from off the pavement," would be a plausible sort of "noticing" - and yes, that is based on something I really saw someone who thinks of themselves as non-racist, not an anti-Semite, nice middle American do, a few years ago.
Besides which, there are other ways of coding ethnic background than something as cringe-inducingly-blatant as "I looked into the mirror at my mahogany-hued countenance". Offhand references to the kinds of household names/colloquial expressions/injokes/pop music/other *differences* that make visiting an Asian friend's house even in Utter Suburbia a different experience from visiting a European-descended family. What snacks are on the table, frex.
"Hey, what is this stuff? This isn't Chex Mix! It's really good! Ow, it's HOT!" (Been there, done that, inhaled the dal...)