While perusing the various works of my fellow bronies, I've noticed a particular issue of debate that I believe should not exist; is Twilight Sparkle black?

The answer: No, she is not black.  She is a unicorn.

The problem stems from people drawing the ponies as human characters and arguing that black female protagonists in children's cartoons are few and far between, which I do agree with; non-white protagonists are grossly underrepresented in children's media and everybody deserves equal representation.  The problem with this approach, however, stems from people attempting to apply the racial and ethnic diversity of humans to a race of equines; a race of equines that already have their own established ethnic diversity.

Thus far, four races in the show are referred to as ponies; Earth ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, and Alicorns.  Based on the behavior of individual characters, none of these races was ever meant to be analogous to any human ethnicity.  Other races that have been introduced include Donkeys (and by extension, mules), zebras, buffalo, Dragons, etc.  Once again, none of these are meant to be a pony equivalent of any specific human ethnicity, but rather are meant to make the creatures of the show's universe more diverse.  Therein lies the key difference; diversity does not always have to be ethnic.  Furthermore, the diversity inherent in the show's characters is much more meaningful, as different races in Equestria have different abilities that largely determine their role in society, such as flight or the ability to use magic, unlike different ethnicities of human whose only real physical differences from each other have little to no relevance in determining their physical capabilities.  So to say that Twilight Sparkle is black is essentially the same as calling her a "magical negro".

However, I realize that many of you will not be satisfied by this argument alone.  So, for the sake of argument, let's say that there must be a designated human ethnicity for Twilight Sparkle.  Is she black?  The truth is that certain individuals have indeed been portrayed in a manner resembling certain human ethnicities for the purpose of storytelling and character development.  For example, Zecora is the only zebra to have appeared so far on the show.  Her accent, her home decor, her jewelry, and the giberish she was chanting in her debut episode (word of god says the VA didn't have time to learn true Swahili, and so they had her chanting some Swahili-sounding giberish) all point to her being from the MLP equivalent of the African continent.  The purpose of this was to teach a moral about racism, and to portray her as a teacher figure, both purposes that she serves well.  However, she is the only zebra that we have yet seen on the show, and thus we cannot assume that all zebras follow that formula.  Then we have the buffalo tribe, who are portrayed in much the same manner that native American humans would be in popular culture.  Once again, this was only done to serve a purpose; teaching a moral about negotiating your disagreements, rather than resorting to violence.  However, the earliest instance of a situation where ponies can be construed as belonging to a human ethnicity would have to be the royal guard.  So far, the royal guard have only appeared in two colors; white and brown.  This was probably meant to give the aesthetic impression of equal numbers of black and white soldiers.  The problem with this assumption is that for most of the series, all the white guards were pegasi, while all the brown guards were unicorns.  This stays consistent until the two-part finale of season 2, in which we see both races of guard in both colors.  So what does all this have to do with answering the question?  The captain of the guard is Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle's brother; a WHITE unicorn.  And considering they are blood relatives, it stands to reason that they would be the same ethnicity, considering that the only distinctly multiracial individuals we've seen in the show so far have been the Cakes (whose explanation provides further evidence for my initial argument) and a pair of mules.

However, I stand by my original argument.  Twilight is neither black, nor white.  She is a unicorn.  get over it.



On a more candid note, I just assumed she was Asian based on the similarity in her hair and eyes to those of Juniper Lee.
I can also name at least three characters that I believe are black, for mostly superficial reasons; Octavia, because when I look at her I am strangely reminded of Martha Jones; Bonbon, because of the way her face looks in Garry's mod; and Sapphire Shores, whose design reminds me of Whitney Houston.