: Re: 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

@Nimeshi163

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From the viewpoint of a native speaker of UK English.......

We would never say "Caucasian" in this context, other than possibly when trying to be humorous.

We would say "European" to mean one of the following:

from the continent of Europe, but not from Britain
from either the continent or from Britain, but not from the Americas, Australia etc.

If we didn't know where the person was from, we would most likely say "White". I don't know anybody who would consider this derogatory or racist.

The use of the word "girl" may be seen by some people as disrespectful when talking about an adult. "White woman" would be safe. "White lady" would be safe, but old-fashioned, and would be more likely to be used if either the speaker or the person being spoken of were elderly.

The word "Asian" tends to be used in Britain to mean what might be more precisely called "South Asian", that is to say, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan. The sentence "I've invited an Asian friend and a Japanese friend" does not sound odd in British English.

Just returning to the word "White", and the use of colour words to denote ethnicity. "White" is not derogatory. "Black people" is not derogatory, but "Blacks" often is. "Yellow" is definitely highly derogatory. "Brown" just sounds very odd - it is more likely to mean "white person with a suntan".

I hope some of that helps.

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