How can I change a typical cross stitch design with people from Caucasian to African American or Asian?

After reviewing a number of booklets that feature African American people, it would appear that the best colors for this task are DMC numbers 407, 632, 838, 839, 840, 841, 842, 950, 3772 and 3773. Another range that I also like to use are honey browns from DMC 437, 436, 435, 434, and 433 as skin tones and from 801, 898, 938 and 3371 as hair colors.

Just make sure that you have the same number of shades of color as the designer has in the original design. Often we forget that dark colors have very light highlights in bright sunlight – witness a drawing or photograph of an apple which is almost always shown with a white dot of highlight. I think it is very difficult for a person who does not have an artistically trained eye to see shades of highlights of color – a car looks blue to us, but about six different shades of blue to an artist. The same applies to everything, including skin tones!

African American
Skin: DMC 435
Skin Shading: DMC 434
Cheeks: DMC 356 
Hair: DMC 898
Hair Shading: DMC 3371

Asian
Skin: DMC 738
Skin Shading: DMC 437
Cheeks: DMC 3326
Hair: DMC 310 

Information from Cross Country Stitching Magazine columns "Ask Judie" - Judie Solomon, Thistle Needleworks & "Carol’s Crafty Corner" - Carol Rice, The Craft Menagerie

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