I think this article is a lot more nuanced than you give it credit for. In talking about blackface alone, the author talks about Al Jolson but also John Howard

I think this article is a lot more nuanced than you give it credit for. In talking about blackface alone, the author talks about Al Jolson but also John Howard Griffin and his book "Black Like Me". Very, very different! It feels like you're talking about the views of cultural appropriation you bring to the table, but you aren't addressing "American Dirt" and the money that went into that book and the inaccuracies that reside in it* -- I think Russo treated this point quite lightly and quite deeply at the same time -- nor are you addressing the very real questions writers themselves have about representation, mis-steps, and the place of "own voices". If you hang out with writers, for instance, you will find that many are concerned with how to 1) make their characters reflect the world they live in, which does have people from many ethnic/racial/religious/socioeconomic/gender backgrounds, and yet 2) write that diversity in a way that isn't fake, isn't offensive, isn't distracting for stupid reasons, etc. That's why this article was a good read. If you wanted to write a scene in which your black female main character was taking care of her hair before she goes to bed... would you know how? How would you learn? Would you understand the nuances? There's a reason that the scene where Annalise Keating removes her wig in How to Get Away With Murder happened in a show conceived of and run by a black woman. I don't think most white guys know the first thing about Black women's hair! And the question there is not about appropriation, it's about getting the details of a character and scene right. If you were driven to write the story of your black woman fighter pilot or whatever and a Black woman training at Vance Air Force Base read it, 'Would [your character] feel real to them? Or would they laugh her out of the [plane], and [you] along with her? Because, come on. Who is this middle-aged American writer who clearly never spent a minute in a[n air force base], or in a [fighter pilot's seat], or probably even [being a Black woman]? What gives him the right to intrude so arrogantly into our lives? Why doesn’t he understand that [her] story simply isn’t his to tell?' And are those the right questions? * there are some poignant and pointed articles about American Dirt as well as some hilarious twitter takedowns making fun of the inaccurate Spanglish and the 'machete' in the book that's very small and folds like a penknife...