I've been getting frustrated with the discourse and so I highlighted all the descriptions of what Heathcliff looks like in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte out of spite (you're welcome.)
TLDR: He is definitely Romani or a POC that the characters interpret as Romani. He is not white.
cw for racial slurs, the g-slur
Heathcliff's description:
"black eyes" (Lockwood, Chapter 1.)
"He is a dark-skinned gipsy" (Lockwood, Chapter 1.)
"... you must e'en take it as a gift of God; though it's as dark almost as if it came from the devil." (Mr.Earnshaw about Heathcliff when he first brought him home, Chapter 4.)
"I had a peep at a dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk and talk: indeed, its face looked older than Catherine’s; yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand. I was frightened, and Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it out of doors: she did fly up, asking how he could fashion to bring that gipsy brat into the house, when they had their own bairns to feed and fend for?" (Nelly, Chapter 4. also note how she and Mr. Earnshaw both call him "it.")
“Take my colt, Gipsy, then!” (Hindley Earnshaw to Heathcliff, Chapter 4.)
"‘and there’s a lad here,’ he added, making a clutch at me, ‘who looks an out-and-outer! Very like the robbers were for putting them through the window to open the doors to the gang after all were asleep, that they might murder us at their ease. Hold your tongue, you foul-mouthed thief, you! you shall go to the gallows for this.'" (Heathcliff describing how he was treated at the Lintons in contrast to Cathy when they are caught, Chapter 6.)
"Frightful thing! Put him in the cellar, papa. He’s exactly like the son of the fortune-teller that stole my tame pheasant. Isn’t he, Edgar?" (Isabella, Chapter 6.)
“‘Miss Earnshaw? Nonsense!’ cried the dame; ‘Miss Earnshaw scouring the country with a gipsy!’” (Mrs. Linton, Chapter 6.)
“‘But who is this? Where did she pick up this companion? Oho! I declare he is that strange acquisition my late neighbour made, in his journey to Liverpool—a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway.’” (Mr. Linton, Chapter 6. As others have said, a "Lascar" refers to South Asian, Southeast Asian, or Arab sailors and "American or Spanish castaway" could have been a reference to Native Americans or the slave trade.)
“Why, how very black and cross you look! and how—how funny and grim! But that’s because I’m used to Edgar and Isabella Linton. Well, Heathcliff, have you forgotten me?” (Catherine, Chapter 7.)
“I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!” (Heathcliff about Edgar Linton, Chapter 7.)
“You’re fit for a prince in disguise. Who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen, each of them able to buy up, with one week’s income, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange together? And you were kidnapped by wicked sailors and brought to England.” (Nelly trying to cheer Heathcliff up, Chapter 7.)
“It’s bonny behaviour, lurking amang t’ fields, after twelve o’ t’ night, wi’ that fahl, flaysome divil of a gipsy, Heathcliff!” (Joseph, Chapter 9.)
“I distinguished a tall man dressed in dark clothes, with dark face and hair.” (Nelly describing Heathcliff when he comes back as a grown man with wealth before she recognized him, Chapter 10.)
“What! the gipsy—the ploughboy?” he cried. (Edgar Linton when Nelly tells him Heathcliff has returned to see Cathy, Chapter 10.)
“God forbid that he should try!” answered the black villain. (Nelly describing Heathcliff fighting with Cathy, Chapter 11.)
"And she noticed the man—Heathcliff it was, she felt certain: nob’dy could mistake him, besides—put a sovereign in her father’s hand for payment." ( The blacksmith’s daughter saying she saw Heathcliff leaving with Isabella, Chapter 12.)
"...the casement behind me was banged on to the floor by a blow from the latter individual, and his black countenance looked blightingly through." (Nelly, describing Heathcliff at the window, Chapter 17.)
“Time had little altered his person either. There was the same man: his dark face rather sallower and more composed, his frame a stone or two heavier, perhaps, and no other difference.” (Nelly describing Heathcliff, Chapter 29.)
“Heathcliff’s black eyes flashed” (Nelly, Chapter 33.)
"With my hard constitution and temperate mode of living, and unperilous occupations, I ought to, and probably shall, remain above ground till there is scarcely a black hair on my head." (Heathcliff about himself, Chapter 33.)
“...the same unnatural—it was unnatural—appearance of joy under his black brows; the same bloodless hue,” (Nelly about Heathcliff being ill, Chapter 34.)
“The light flashed on his features as I spoke. Oh, Mr. Lockwood, I cannot express what a terrible start I got by the momentary view! Those deep black eyes! That smile, and ghastly paleness! It appeared to me, not Mr. Heathcliff, but a goblin; and, in my terror, I let the candle bend towards the wall, and it left me in darkness.” (Nelly, Chapter 34. Heathcliff is described "pale" and sallow" in the quote above since he is near death.)
“'Is he a ghoul or a vampire?' I mused. I had read of such hideous incarnate demons. And then I set myself to reflect how I had tended him in infancy, and watched him grow to youth, and followed him almost through his whole course; and what absurd nonsense it was to yield to that sense of horror. “But where did he come from, the little dark thing, harboured by a good man to his bane?” muttered Superstition, as I dozed into unconsciousness.” (Nelly, Chapter 34.)
“I combed his black long hair from his forehead," (Nelly, Chapter 34.)
“He pressed its hand, and kissed the sarcastic, savage face that every one else shrank from.” (Nelly describing Hareton kissing Heathcliff’s face after he dies, Chapter 34.)
For those that say that Heathcliff could not have been Romani or POC because his son, Linton has blonde hair and fair skin, it is described many times that the boy does not look like Heathcliff at all:
“Black hair and eyes!” mused Linton. “I can’t fancy him. Then I am not like him, am I?” “Not much,” I answered: not a morsel, I thought, surveying with regret the white complexion and slim frame of my companion,” (Nelly thinking about how Linton Heathcliff does not resemble his father, specifically noting the white complexion, Chapter 20.)
“None of that nonsense! We’re not going to hurt thee, Linton—isn’t that thy name? Thou art thy mother’s child, entirely! Where is my share in thee, puling chicken?” (Heathcliff about Linton, Chapter 20.)
“I’m bitterly disappointed with the whey-faced, whining wretch!” (Heathcliff about Linton, Chapter 20.)
“...he does not resemble his father” (Nelly about Linton, Chapter 25.)
Some people are saying that Heathcliff could have been Irish since there was such prejudice against Irish people at the time and they were racialized in England. But there is not one mention of Irish or Ireland in the text of Wuthering Heights. There are also no Irish slurs leveled at Heathcliff, though the Romani slur is used 6 times when referring to him.
There are also some arguments that Bronte was merely using "dark" to describe a white person with a darker complexion as other writers of the 1800s did. This definitely is a thing. And there was definitely a white colorism that you can see in books like Little Women for example where Jo is described as being "brown" particularly in contrast to her sisters who have fair skin:
"Fifteen-year-old Jo was very tall, thin, and brown," Chapter 1
But it's disingenuous to say that Bronte is doing the same thing as Alcott when Heathcliff suffers abuse and racism due to the way he looks.
For those that say that Heathcliff could have been Italian. Here is the way that Laurie, who is Italian is described in Little Women:
“Curly black hair, brown skin, big black eyes, handsome nose, fine teeth, small hands and feet, taller than I am, very polite, for a boy, and altogether jolly. Wonder how old he is?” (Jo, Chapter 3.)
“I am not sure, but I think it was because his son, Laurie’s father, married an Italian lady, a musician, which displeased the old man, who is very proud. The lady was good and lovely and accomplished, but he did not like her, and never saw his son after he married... “That’s why he has such handsome black eyes and pretty manners, I suppose. Italians are always nice,” said Meg, who was a little sentimental. (Jo and Meg, Chapter 5.)
It is unlikely that Heathcliff would have been Italian because of the language he is speaking that Nelly says none of them could understand and describes it as "jibberish." If it were Italian it would have been recognized as Italian. Nelly even mentions knowing French at a later point in the book.
And once again, they keep using Romani slurs against him. Why do people bend over backwards to be like, "well they could have meant Irish or Italian.
There are definitely white authors that use the "tall dark and handsome" trope when they probably mean white with a tan and dark hair/eyes. Emily Bronte was not doing that with Heathcliff. Heathcliff doesn't fall into that category because of the way he is consistently othered and racially abused throughout the book.
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