Not sure if any of you have ever heard of the Youtuber Just Some Guy, but I recently discovered him and was going through his videos and I came across one that made a point that I have been thinking about for a while.
He was talking about with all the obsession today with diversity/inclusion that the opposite effect will happen and I would have to say it is. I'm black and I'll be 40 next month and whenever I see a black character, author, director being hyped the first thing I think of is "oh great more white man bad material" and the same with female representation. I do feel kind of bad but I know I'm not the only one who is wary of this.
The best solution is to acknowledge that being diverse in and of itself doesn't make something great, and people are still required to do a good job. Sadly today you aren't allowed to criticize anyone unless they are a straight white male which is a shame because good honest criticism can work wonders. For instance in Star Wars Lando is a beloved character because he was a good character.
I remember when the movie Get Out came out and I saw it I was scratching my head as to why the critics thought it was so amazing. To me it was just another white people are bad message. I also got excited when I heard they were doing a New Gods movie but then I saw they were going to have Ava Duvernay direct. It think I'll just buy the source material and read Jack Kirby's vision.
The biggest failure of modern media is the refusal to make the character an individual over a trope. Look at the spawn movie in the 90s. Middle class government agent living in the burbs with a wife and kids, but happens to be black. His blackness is not his identity and it allows everyone to see him as an individual despite his appearance. Denzel Washington has always been great in roles like this too, Man on Fire, Fallen, etc all great examples of how skin color does not need to dictate character.