I come from a mixed ethnic family. My twin brother and I favor the opposite parent to the point that we don't even look like we're related. For me, seeing them dark wash the iconic mixed family (originally mixed race, later mixed color) felt like a slap in the face, as though families like mine are somehow unrealistic or undeserving of representation.
"But, didn't you object to the whitewashed Sims 4 Goths?" you ask. Yes and no. On the one hand, I usually went in and fixed Cassandra to make her look like her Sims 2 self. On the other hand, I didn't think the white washing was deliberate. I thought they had used random genetics to create a teenage daughter from Mortimer and Bella and she just ended up favoring her father's coloring. I didn't think that someone behind the scenes had said, "Oh, no! She's too dark! Lighten her up! We can't have this!" With the new versions, someone clearly decided that the original Goth family from Sims 1 and 2 was "too mixed" and they all needed to be darkened. That's offensive.
I'm going to go into a Goth family history now, just to get at what they're supposed to look like.
Mortimer: Mortimer is half German, half English. Always has been. I know that his mother Cornelia wasn't assigned a maiden name until Sims 2, but if you read her bio from the original Sims game, she's clearly an old-time British aristocrat (think Maggie Smith from Downton Abbey). Mortimer was never a POC. I know this doesn't automatically mean he can't have a tan, but it also means that there's no reason that he's "supposed" to have a tan. Starting in the first Sims game, Mortimer had a light complexion that contrasted with his black hair in a way that gave him low-key goth/vampire vibes. This was a part of his signature and the earlier Sims 4 Mortimer captured this pretty well. They should have left him as he was.
Bella: Bella's had a conflicting history. In the first Sims game, she was East Asian (it's in her code). I would not have minded if the revamp had brought her back to her Asian roots. At the same time, I understand that many people are more attached to the Sims 2 version of Bella. In Sims 2 they decided to make Bella ethno-racially ambiguous and gave her an English maiden name. The fact is we have no idea what ethnicity Sims 2 Bella is, but her skin tone was in the same ball park as her skin tone from Sims 1, so she was still dark tan/brown. She basically had a similar skin tone in the original Sims 4 family, although the sheen from her makeup made her face look lighter than it was. I don't think the new Bella is better or worse than the original Sims 4 Bella, just different.
Cassandra: Cassandra has historically had the same skin tone as Bella. This was true in both Sims 1 and Sims 2. I actually like the new Cassandra more than the original Sims 4 version.
Alexander: Alexander was introduced in Sims 2. He had the exact same skin tone as his father, as did Alexander in the original Sims 4 family. I can attest to the fact that this isn't "unrealistic." Now, I wouldn't have minded if they made him just a few shades darker than Mortimer this time around, to reflect the fact that we have a much greater variety of skin tones than we did in Sims 2. Making him the same color as Bella, on the other hand, is dark washing.
