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Is Dahlia Black?

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Waaaaaaiiilllooorrrd

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This is a non racial discussion but me and my friend are big fans of the card game and show. When we saw Dahlia the arcade girl my friend suggested she was black and I said she wasnt. We thought about it and realized we had never really seen a black person on the show. They are mostly all white. We came to the agreement that she wasnt black because she has blue eyes which is rare for black people to have and the fact that there are few if none black people on the show. Your thoughts? (btw I dont think Brock is considered black).
 
She seems Brazillian to me. Maybe it's her whole "Carnival!" attitude in her art too.

But remember, there's hardly any black people in Japan, and those who are are associated with the American military (maybe Surge will get a black subtrainer sometime), so it doesn't make it into the pop culture very much unless they're foreigners.
 
Her hair would be blond then, to accustom the style.


Dahlia's black like Phoebe's black: not really (Phoebe's definitely of the Pacific Island/Hawaiian persuasion). However, while her hairstyle isn't quite like dreadlocks, I could be convinced she's mixed/mulatto, only because her skin is on the pale black side, and not the bright brown of islanders/southern Asians.
 
Yoshi-san said:
...Hawthorne?

*shot*
Click to expand...

Hah, I thought the same thing. xD

I don't think Dahlia's black, I think she might be either Hispanic/Latino, a mix, or just tanned.

Does it really matter though? Aren't the people of the Sinnoh Battle Frontier supposed to be foreign to PokeJapan? I thought the Battle Zone was based off that little island of Russia.

Speaking of which, seeing how her own Battle Faculty is called "The Battle Roulette" in the Japanese version, she could be russian with a tan. *shot* That wouldn't mean a single thing though, that's just a reference to Russian Roulettes, and the Battle Zone is based off of Russia, so it really doesn't have anything to do with her. Fantina/Melissa is French/Amercian, but she's living in PokeJapan.
 
Yeah I dont know my friend is now claiming all his black friends say she is black?? I keep giving him the opinons of people on the internet and he says theyre worthless. I like the last post though it makes since. He claimed he first drew the impression she was black because of her hair and the way she dressed? I am still going to say she is white mabye latin rather than black.
 
Ambigiously brown? -shot-

Hm,she just has a more tanned skin color then the other characters,that's all.

I would say "She's from the Pokemon world..",but I presume that the Pokemon regions are just on an isolated part of the world,and everyplace in our world exists too.
 
Dahlias are plants/flowers that are predominantly found in Central America which leads me to believe she is Latina.
 
@ Blackjack- Lol, I always wondered if Surge was hated in the Japanese version. I guess they at least had to put in one American character. -_-' War totally sucks.

Anyway, I think she's more Brazillian/Latino than Black.
 
I do think that Dahlia could have some African ancestory. Also keep in mind that Latino is not a race or is not determine by color. I think that Dahlia could be an Afro-Latina, but I am not sure though I would not say that she is neccessary black because there is no one-drop rule in Latin America. Also keep in mind that people with French, Portguese, and Italian ancestry are Latinos as well. Though Dahlia has a Spanish name.
The groups are set up in Latin America like this:
mestizo/a: Native American and European ancestry
mulatto/a: Black African and European ancestry
zambo/a: Native American and African ancestry.
Though it is possible for a person to be mixed with all three.

EDIT:
There is also the people who have majority of African ancestry, European ancestry, and Native American ancestry in Latin America as well though along with the people who go by the names I mentioned above.
 
Last edited:
Mika555 said:
I do think that Dahlia could have some African ancestory. Also keep in mind that Latino is not a race or is not determine by color. I think that Dahlia could be an Afro-Latina, but I am not sure though I would not say that she is neccessary black because there is no one-drop rule in Latin America.
The group are set up in Latin America like this:
mestizo: Native American and European ancestry
mulatto/a: Black African and European ancestry
zambo/a: Native American and African ancestry.
Though it is possible for a person to be mixed with all three.
Click to expand...


????

Did I ever mention anything about race/color? I said she was named after a flower in central America so she's most likely of latin american descent.

You say "Do some of you even know Latin American history?" as if i s common knowledge. No, most people do not know nor care to learn about latin american history.
 
She's not black, she just is. She's got her own interesting character design, and I don't care what her skin tone is because they didn't give her that skin tone to make her the "token black person" of the Battle Frontier, they gave it to her as part of her character design.

Having said that, it seems the Pokémon world won't focus on the topic for obvious reasons (it always pisses everyone off), but do remember, Brock's skin's just as dark as both Dahlia and Phoebe's, and they're said to have taken him out of the anime for OI because they were afraid we in "OMGZ RACIST" land wouldn't like him. And because of his acceptance, pretty much we can say that they've had no qualms about having darker-skinned characters two generations in a row.
 
Please note: The thread is from 16 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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