Just some advice I would like to give to fellow writers about things that personally bug me and others when reading poorly-written books. There will be rants, discussions about grammar/spelling/sentence structure, plot lines that are cliché/annoying...
Skin is actually pretty straightforward when it comes to the human race, so hopefully this chapter is useful.
In general, darker skin beats lighter skin tones. Very rarely will light skin win.
But it isn't like the genetics our eyes and hair go by, it's actually based more on the amount of melanin you have at birth.
I'll give an example from a story of mine, Awakening, on how this skin thing works.
Nic's father is a Caucasian, but her mother is African. She doesn't have the exact same skin that her mom does though. Nic is more of a mix between her mom and dad. Since there's really no true color names for skin, I'll be using these makeup shades to show the skin tones of Nic's family.
Dad
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Mom
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Nic
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Noah
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You'll notice Nic and Noah (her brother) have dark skin, but it isn't as dark as the color their mom has. This is because they have a bit of Caucasian skin genetics mixed in, causing their bodies to not make as much melanin.
Another easy example is myself, but this time, we're talking about how light beats dark. For a quick note, my dad's family tree were farmers before the Great Depression, so their skin is generally darker from the sun and is now worked into their genetics (this is also something you can note for skin since the sun affects our melanin count too), but their origin still comes from Europe. My mom's family branches from Northern Europe, so they're pretty pale. The outcome of my parents having me... Well, I ended up like my mom, so much I am considered allergic to the sun from how white I am.
This is possible as well, so don't think you have to go darker just because you made one parent darker, but if they're African, Native American, Latino, or any other group close to the equator, those darker skins will be more dominant than the lighter ones.
Only couples with the dark/light tones of their skin group really get that 50/50 chance. If you make a couple from different racial groups, then their children will have more of the darker skin tone than light. But do note that not all the kids will have the same shade! Genetics mix differently every time parents try for a child!
EDIT 10/30/2020:
Note on skin tones as I've become more educated. It is possible for those of darker skin tone to have children lighter or darker than themselves when they have a partner of the same skin tone as them. I have met people who are white-passing, yet their birth parents are super dark. There's also the reverse where there can be POC parents of light tones and their kid has a lot of darker skin. I'm not sure on the whole science with melanin, but this is 100% possible and is pretty common. //
I really hope this helps, and if anything is confusing in this chapter, please let me know and I can help out with explaining more.
