I am a very tanned asian girl.... very tan... I grew up with many telling me that I was an ugly girl because I was so dark.
Now I use Oriki whitening lotion to lighten my face and even my dark scars. Because Oriki is a facial product it would be quite expensive to use it for the whole body, so I resorted to using some whitening soaps...but they do not work as well as I would like.
Overall, my face it quite nice and much more fair (i just have to keep my arms out of the sun when driving).
But about it working on other races, if it helps my friend Shiv an India girl also uses it for evening out her skin tone (it was very uneven), but with the Oriki skin care kit she loves her skin and uses it to maintain a fairer and more smooth look
Hope that helps!