Why is the distribution of ethnicities through media any sign of racism, aside from the natural "racism" that exists in the sense that "like tends to sympathize more with like".
The fact that you're expecting millions of black, latino, or any group like that to show up significantly in a medium that's made mostly in JAPAN is hilarious. The most populous minorities that exist in Japan are Chinese and Koreans, and after that I believe that it's Brazilians, almost all of whom come from a long line of Japanese ancestry. There's very little ethnic diversity in Japan, and so the odds of you even seeing a single black person in a day are probably about 1%.
And it's obviously the same with television shows and the like in the US - see the tan and pink slices
here? That's the number of people in the US census who declared that they had african or mexican ancestry. Now consider - the number of good actors, for example, is very small - among any ethnicity or any population group. The number of people in any area who actively pursue this talent are even smaller. And thus, the odds of you finding a Professional Actor among a random portion of the population is... let's say... one in 10,000? About 57% of the 300million+ people in the US are white, I think?
I dunno, honestly. But let's say. About 12% is black, and about 13% is latino, and another 13% is asian. The rest is, well, random stuff (native american, polynesian, arab, etc). :3
Now, let's calculate out how many of these people are likely to be good at acting and to seriously try and pursue a career in the field...
US whites - 17100
US blacks - 3600
US asians - 3900
US latinos - 3900
US other - 1500
Now that pool right there is entirely theoretical. Statistically speaking, more white people tend to go for acting careers than minorities, since they tend to have a lot more money to hurl around and parents who can and are willing to bail them out if their dreams don't come true. Admit it, it's true. It's a matter of culture, not the color of their skin.
Of course, in this case, there will be more white actors than minority... and obviously, more people will thus be used to seeing white people on screens or on stages. When this happens, it tends to draw less attention when you put a straight white guy in front of people (a majority in all cases) instead of a black lesbian (of which i've met three in my life).
If your show is not about black people specifically or about lesbianism or arranged for a particular population group, you tend to go with the sort of character that most people will be used to. If you do that, your character's weird personality shines through a lot more since people aren't distracted by something they're not used to seeing all the time (especially if your script-writing if crappy and their personality shines through it rarely). Honestly, right now, I know plenty of people who call Foreman from House a "white man in black skin" and stuff like that. :/ And
they're black!
What people tend to slather with the term "racism" is not always for one population or against another, but it's always just what people are used to seeing. I am not surprised when a white kid in black clothing acts like a goth since I predict it might happen, but I am surprised when I see a black guy in black clothing act like a goth. Honestly, when's the last time you saw a black goth? :X That's right, almost never - a minority of people are black, and a vast minority of people are goths. That's not racism - that's the law of statistics. :3
Give things some time and, who knows what will happen with this sort of thing. For all I know, next month every single black person in the world will develop a thing for Alien Sex Fiend and totally destroy my awesome analogy. ^_^