Originally Posted by
Kharadin
Fair, I actually can't find a source in the book that remarks on his skin colour, except the wiki that states he's a "pale-skinned half-Aielman", but that isn't necessarily relative to the other Two Rivers folk.
Nonetheless, I still think it's slightly blowing things out of proportion. However, if it's only the slippery slope that you're worried about then I guess all I can suggest is waiting 'til it's out. Given Rafe and others' enthusiasm so far I've seen via social media I can't imagine they'd avoid the harder themes such as slavery/collaring that appear throughout the book in the name of diversity/progressiveness or whatever other justification.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm avidly for the cultural diversity that is apparent in the books, I want the Cairhienin to typically be short, the Borderlanders to be mostly East-Asian and the Aiel to be big white gingers, I guess my point really is that within my reading of the book I can imagine the castings so far to be these characters and the disparity between Rand and the others isn't all that big a deal. I'll take the best actor for the job over perfect representation of the cultural diversity in the series within reasonable bounds.
That being said, another point is that skin colour in the books doesn't seem all that important. Apart from the occasional remark that Tuon is very dark, the Aiel are pale and a lot of Saldeans are tan it's not often mentioned. This suggests to me that many cultures weren't all that homogeneous when it comes to skin colour (the Seanchan for certain, but this is specifically remarked just between Egeanin being white and Tuon being black, a stark difference between people of the same nation).