X Equestris
Maester
@ascanius
See, the problem is you're looking at this from a white-centric view, with all other ethnicities being variations from the 'norm'. Truth is, white is not the default. There is no default. Same with gender. There is no such thing as 'shoe-horning' black characters into a story just for the sake of diversity, any more than there is such a thing as 'shoe-horning' white characters into a story. In case you hadn't noticed, the world is full of diverse people. Black people can be black and don't need a justification. Trans people can be trans and not need a justification for it. When you abandon the belief that it's possible for certain types of characters to be 'shoe-horned', you open up a whole new world of possibilities.
On a different note, I've seen this idea come up from a lot of people arguing against diversity that it stifles creativity by forcing writers into fulfilling arbitrary quotas. This is bullshit for one main reason. NO ONE IS BEING FORCED TO DO ANYTHING. Believe it or not, there is still a thing called creative freedom. You, as a writer, can do whatever the f*ck you want. You can write an all white, all straight cast if you want. It's your decision.
Buuuuuuuuuuut, thing is, I'm probably not gonna read your book if you do. I'm gonna criticise you for your decision, because freedom of expression is not freedom from criticism. These diversity threads aren't for telling people they must do this, or they must do that, it's for telling people why it would be a good idea to do this, why it would be beneficial for a writer to do that. Whether you take that criticism into account or completely ignore it is, again, completely up to you.
But now for my final point, which gets right to the root of the matter. Why is diversity good in the first place? Now, I've spent arduous hours toiling away on this matter, and after great effort, I believe I have come to the ultimate conclusion...
Because it's nice, ain't it?
I mostly agree with you, but I differ on one point: characters of a certain group can be shoehorned into a story. This would mostly be an issue in something based in the historical real-world, but it certainly can happen.