It’s not racist, but it’s not original. That’s okay though, as long as she isn’t writing with the intent to be published with a traditional company.
That being said, there are other issues that may arise, but it depends on the target audience and platform.
This reminds me how my mother got her name. When she was born, she had a head full of hair, so her excited father was going, “Oh, look at this! She’s a girl, and we need a ribbon to tie all this hair, and it’s dark like a magpie.” And when he said ‘magpie’ there is a name that sounds like a magpie, but doesn’t mean magpie. And it stuck.
Something like that makes a great backstory, with a family dynamic imo, and enriches the story.
It's normal for asian authors to name our characters ridiculous things for symbolism / poetic reasons. It's not normal for westerners to thoughtlessly throw random japanese words around to look quirky and cool.
?????
It depends on the target market/genre the story is for but both do it. The cartoons I grew up watching had abnormal protagonist names lol
That could be the same style op's friend is framing their story in. A purposely cartoonish anime style
Also Japanese creators have used quirky random foreign language names for again stylistic purposes
Eg Hamatora where the characters are Birthday, Art, Three, Ratio, Moral etc abnormal english names or 91 Days with weird Italian names off the top of my head
It may be a stylistic intentional choice
Also its not thoughtless if there is a reasoning behind the name
You have to understand that when working with another language, things are different.
The naming / writing conventions and tropes used by japanese authors are inherently different to how westerners make their choices. The cartoons you watched growing up had "abnormal" names by english-speaking standards not by the standards of asian authors. They're not the same.
Naming a non-japanese character a blatantly japanese name stands out, obviously. It's not good to paint things with broad brush-strokes, nor to speak over asians when we're trying to educate you about why something makes us uncomfortable. It's thoughtless, not because there's """no meaning""" but because it's literally just the name of the character's hair colour. That's thoughtless unless you're looking to write something comedic / purposefully strange. You're operating on the defensive for something you don't even know... When western authors name their non-asian characters random japanese words it makes asian people feel uncomfortable.
But why do you make the assumption of the type of genre/story OP's friend is trying to tell idgi?
The naming / writing conventions and tropes used by japanese authors are inherently different to how westerners make their choices. The cartoons you watched growing up had "abnormal" names by english-speaking standards not by the standards of asian authors. They're not the same.
What is the difference?
*For the example I gave Hamatora the characters are all Japanese btw with quirky english names
I mean you're making an assumption.
I'm literally not, whatsoever, because I'm epxlaining how it can be offensive within certain contexts but not others. If the character is A. asian and B. intended to not be taken dead serious, yes it's fine. However OP said the character was black, and never said anything about them being even remotely asian.
If you're not picking up the nuances of what I'm saying that's on you, sorry. I'm trying to make them clear.
I'm just trying to raise a point of why asian people don't like certain patterns in projects made by weebs, (literal weebs - weeaboos) and why it's important to be aware of it.
Aye, if you absolutely must include the color somewhere in the name, you don't have to just use the color lol
There's already existing names with colors or similar ideas to color used within their kanji like Shirogane and Kageyama and Aomori and if I'm right those names can be roughly translated to "white iron/blade", "shadowy mountain", and blue forest".
You can also take a look at how actual Japanese names are put together with their kanji and try coming up with one on your own with its own reasonable pronunciation, but please, I promise it won't hurt to put a little more effort than Google Translate
Edit: The comment's aimed at your friend btw please excuse my usage of "you"
I feel like having a black character with white/light colored hair isn't racist on its own (though as previously mentioned, it's a tired trope) but the name.... uhhhh. Yea, it's lazy at most, and I think it would be considered insensitive by others.
If I were your friend, I'd have the name be something representative of the character and/or their personality and/or also search for actual Japanese names. I have a character in one of my comic ideas named Lilith Crawford, Lilith meaning "ghost, night monster" and Crawford meaning "ford of the crows" - and that's just for English names. Japanese names have way more creative name meanings, trust me.
If other black people (as I'm not black, nor Japanese) would have a problem with the "black person with white hair" trope, I'd just have that character have black hair and black features, but have their clothes with a heavily white color palette. Seriously, black characters look great with a white color palette without having to do anything to hair or eye color.
@Prince_Wumbl These posts explain cultural appropriation in a way that I personally could never hope to achieve. Like, I might quote these to my writer friends later. Its hard to explain in a way that people find valuable but you did that for me today. I am 100% convinced after reading that even if it's not a racist trope, its insensitive to exoticize a character's physical appearance. As though looks, including race, are the extent of that character's personality.
@neichasart well said. Naming a character is an opportunity for worldbuilding. If you use shallow naming conventions, its a reflection of your shallow worldbuilding.
This probably extends to all stories, not just the fantasy genre. I'm super guilty of it. I have four characters all named magnus (its a comedy, but there were better jokes I could have made.)
As a black person, I personally prefer seeing black characters portrayed with fashion that black people rep instead of exotic dark-skinned characters (unless there's an actual cultural reason). It sounds like maybe they're visualizing just a really dark skinned asian character.
It's not racist just a bit exploitive and un-relatable. Maybe start with basing characters off with everyday black people. To be fair I live in the US.
We both have assumptions. I've made the assumption its not a super serious grounded in real life story because, black, charac, w white hair, & japanese name screams cartoony.
And for me there is no morality with stylistic choice. It's neither bad or good. Just is.
Do not use TV shows that are purposefully cartoonish / edgy as support for what normal naming conventions are
You've made the assumption they want something grounded in reality, I don't understand why. We all know Shiro isn't a normal Japanese name. Hence why I'm using cartoon/anime examples
Agree to disagree I don't understand why only an asian character can have a name derivative from an asian language. Why? Cultural differences I guess, i'm not from the West or East and have the same standards of judgment for both. Again with the Hamatora example they were all Japanese w quirky/edgy/weird english names
If you're not picking up the nuances of what I'm saying that's on you, sorry. I'm trying to make them clear
I genuinely don't understand and I feel you haven't answered clearly 
and you haven't explained The naming / writing conventions and tropes used by japanese authors are inherently different to how westerners make their choices ?? In what way?
I'm just trying to raise a point of why asian people don't like certain patterns in projects made by weebs, (literal weebs - weeaboos) and why it's important to be aware of it.
If you think its corny, generic and kind of laughable. then fair enough, but I don't understand the condemnation for the anime examples or how it concludes that its only ok for a fictional asian character to use corny asian name
Please don't consider this as speaking over asians, but speaking with you guys.
At least do you get where I am coming from?
Also another actual black person chiming in 
I’ll lead with this: I’m going to assume your friend isn’t black, otherwise this question wouldn’t be brought up. And if this is a concern this early on, any other character and world building will go exponentially downhill from here 
.
I agree with the above. White hair with no purpose, or if this character isn’t Japanese, is a tired trope and diminishes the opportunity to display a black character beyond token featurism with “exotic” aesthetic. Also, @LCT_m_a_d brought up a good point because a lot of people tend to claim dark skinned Asian anime characters as black which not only may be completely erroneous, but it contributes to the erasure of dark skinned Asians in media.
Personally, names are one of the last things I come up with. I’d implore your friend to flesh out their character, do research, then figure out how important this proposed name is.
Just a question, is this racist?
We all know Storm from ages, and I am not aware of any kind of racist call for her hair, or name (Ororo meaning 'beauty'). Her's hair and eyes are explained as genetic legacy, not part of her mutation, and play for her backgrounds.
I say that if Marvel could do this, you could too. Just flesh out everything to have a meaning, and not a description of something that we can already see, and everything will go fine.
I'm not really going to argue with you anymore because it's evident you're not arguing in good faith - you're not speaking with asians you're speaking for us - your original post was you using actual asian authors' characters as examples for why it was totally fine, when those characters weren't like the one OP mentioned.
I'm specifically talking about a black character being portrayed this way. If you can't see that, I'm not willing to fight over something as simple as POC's right to self-determine what we're offended by.
If you don't see what's bad about a black character being exoticised and refuse to understand that there are nuances to this situaiton that's fine, don't make it my problem though because I am tired of being talked down to.
This isn't about you so where you're coming from is not really important? If that makes sense. This conversation is specifically about non-asians using japanese names, and black/brown skinned characters being portrayed incorrectly.
... I don't know. I'm not black, so I would think the name "Shiro" (white) is referring to his hair and that maybe he got his name because of his hair, so it doesn't look problematic to me. It's not like he is trying to be a white person or wishes to be a white person. He is just a black person with white hair.
On another webcomic I read, Stringy and Mopy, one of the characters is called Snow White and she is black with black hair and doesn't even dress or look like Snow White. So maybe it is a case of overthinking it.
Agreed. When I look for names, I like names that have a story or names that have a nice ring to it, rather than a meaning behind it. Unless it is explicitly explained and relates to the story, most people will just overlook it. I would recommend your friend research into some names in Japanese culture. I have seen a few stories with main characters named Norang (yellow) or Hayan (white) but those kind of names are easily forgettable.
