I have a player who is black and prefers to play characters who share her skin color and look. I think Paizo has done an admirable job of providing human characters of various skin tones as part of Golarion, but I wonder about other races. If someone wanted to play an elf (nondrow), a halfling, or a dwarf with a darker skin color, has there been precedent? We are, of course, going to do whatever we want, but I wonder if there is anything in the published works about nonhuman ancesteries with darker skin.
If this subject has come up before, feel free to point me toward the appropriate thread. Thanks for your time!
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So I know that Canonically Osiron has a Dwarven people who call themselves the Pahmet, who have a sort of middle eastern complexion, which is probably handy when you live in a desert no matter how tall you are. Also there are groups of Dwarves living in the Mwangi Expanse who are probably dark skinned (but I don't think there are pictures): the Taralu who live in the jungles and the Mbe'Ke in the uplands.
I think the Jinin elves in Tian Xia have the same coloration as the Drow, they just tend to be lawful good as a society. We also have several Elf groups in the Mwangi Expanse that took shelter in the jungles during Earthfall instead of retreating underground or of planet, and they tend to be darker skinned (the pictured elf is an Ekujae).
Gnomes come in any combination of colors you want, no exceptions.
I couldn't say about halflings, but I think we have it well established by now that all sorts of people come in all sorts of colors, it's just that certain skin colors are more common in certain geographic regions. However, people on earth throughout history traveled extensively in all periods of history so it's not unusual to see like black people popping up in 13th century art, and folks on Golarion have access to magic including teleportation.
So I wouldn't say it's particularly unusual to find any kind of humanoid person in any suitably cosmopolitan place (like a port city). One's great, great grandparents might have just decided to move there generations ago.
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AFAIK There is absolutely nothing standing in your players way from doing so, and while as PC noted, there are only so many examples of printed setting material with various Races with established heritages with different skin color, I don't see any reason why it would be strange or out of the setting tone to see a dark/black skinned Halfling/Aasimar/Android/Kitsune.
I'll take exception to android. Only because I think androids don't necessarily come in "skin tone".
At least the "iconic" Android from Starfinder is blue.
And to expand on this, so it doesn't come off the wrong way, I don't really want to see flesh colored Androids of any variety because it makes them seem too human instead of being obviously different. It's more a personal head cannon issue.
Now, you could have a black android, but I mean black like the void of space not flesh tone black.
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There absolutely has been a precedent for a wide range of skin tones for our non-humans! We've established lots of different groups for our ancestries, such as the above mentioned Pahmet dwarves and Ekujae elves, that include darker skin tones. We've tried to make sure that Golarion, and specifically the Inner Sea region, includes a diverse group of people across all ancestries
It's important to us as a company, and to me personally as a person of color, that everyone not only feels included and accepted when playing Pathfinder, but also that they feel just as heroic and inspired by the characters they see. For some people, that means seeing a super cool warrior in awesome armor and for others it means seeing that same warrior but also having the warrior resemble the viewer. I can understand that entirely as someone who gets so excited to see positive Latinx representation in media. We're always trying our best to include more diverse representations in our artwork and our actively trying to make sure this continues as we go forward with Pathfinder Second Edition, so please let us know where you or your players find that we are lacking because we want to make sure everyone is a part of this game.
As a rule of thumb, assume that any and all ethnicity, skin tone, body shape, physical or mental impairment, gender identity, and sexual orientation you can find in the real world exists within Golarion across all of our ancestries and groups of people. Even in cases where our canon has established restrictions, such as with most half-orcs having green or gray skin, know that it is not "wrong" to play a character that looks or acts different from what we typically present. We want you to play the character that you want to play and not beholden to existing lore or artwork.
As for examples of these diverse ancestries, I would recommend that you check out some of the recent releases in the Player Companion line. In particular check out Blood of the Ancients, Heroes from the Fringe, Heroes of Golarion, and Martial Arts Handbook. Each of these books were made intentionally to include depictions of characters beyond the Inner Sea region which means you'll find a wider variety in the art, especially of non-human ancestries.