I found the line in the Mass Effect books that pale skin is rare!
It’s in Ascension.
“Intermarriage between the various ethnicities of Earth over the past two centuries had made alabaster skin a rarity, and Grayson suspected Keo’s stark complexion was the result of a minor pigment deficiency she had never bothered to reverse… although it was entirely possible she had undergone elective skin lightening for cosmetic purposes.” (Page 8)
Good to see Mass Effect is as terrible at science as ever.
I think white skin becoming rare in two centuries is only a little less likely than every krogan contracting Blood Rage in a millennia.
This will be contradicted/retconned/ignored (partly, at least) later on in Mass Effect : Andromeda : Initiation where it is noted that pale skin has become associated with spacers (who do not ever go into direct sunlight) and is therefore looked down upon as a signifier for class status.
Relevant excerpt : Mass Effect : Andromeda : Initiation, N.K. Jemisin (2017), First (only ?) edition, p.18 :
The man was in his early twenties, tall but skinny, his skin an orangey tan that spoke of the supplements many planet-born took to avoid becoming unfashionably spacer-pale.
