For brown and black folks here..

I wonder if everything to do with this differs substantially between countries. Race and family history seems to be a much bigger question in the US than in some other countries.

I think I connect with characters who are most like me in upbringing, education, political, and moral views rather than colour, ethnic origin, etc. Well, perhaps not my actual background and views but those I think I have or would like to others to believe I have :-)

What puts me off a character in a series or film are things like the character speaking a dialect or language that I can't understand or simply mumbling their lines.

As for the cast, I generally don't care one way or another. I'm much more interested in the characters that they are playing unless I can see that the casting is saying something; for instance the casting of Ruby Commey as Germania in Rammstein's Deutschland video.

I'm a black woman.I instinctively ruit for black and brown charcters. I don’t skip white storylines because the majority of the American media I consumed growing up consisted of an all white cast. I enjoy stories,not race or gender.

I think there's a lot of elements to something like this, including intersectionality and the roles that various identities play in a character's experience. A lesbian might be more likely to relate to Batwoman than Batman because dealing with homophobia is part of Batwoman's background. But then you have characters like Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy who are also queer, but homophobia isn't really part of their stories. So a lesbian might like them, but not relate to them based on their sexual orientation.

It's an interesting topic, and usually a lot deeper than just, I like this character because they're X and I'm X.

Depends on the storyline, too. If the people of color are depicted as villains, I don’t root for them. There are a few tv shows I stopped watching, because brown and black characters were always being depicted as villains, and as a black person myself I found it depressing to watch.

Generally, if a show has compelling storylines I can enjoy it for that alone, without a need to relate to any specific character. But I admit that with some other shows ("Friends" comes to mind) I feel like an outsider and am not really engaged.

Honestly i never really thought about it until u mentioned it here. And its made me realize that it doesn't matter to me, ive just always associated with the person and not the race. People's lives aren't all that different really on tv theres nothing that stands out to me that i can think of that would make me see black or white such as lifestyles and stereotypes

I can appreciate believable portrayals of characters of diverse backgrounds, and only have trouble 'suspending disbelief' when 'colourblind casting' results in ridiculous anachronisms or other implausibilities. Race and colour should be handled naturally and believably in casting, the same way as age and gender. I also hate 'mom and dad have to be taller' casting.

I can obviously resonate with pocs more but I wouldn't skip plots solely based on that otherwise there would be very little to watch lol

Here's my persective, speaking primarily as an amateur creative writer.

When it comes to characters, appearence only constitutes half of what a character is.

The other half a character is the the words they say, the thoughts they think and the deeds they perform.

I don't judge by the color of ones skin. If they are a good actor/actress then it is worth watching.

Suggested film viewings:
Intruder In The Dust.
The Intruder.
They Won't Forget.
Twilight Zone episodes:
He's Alive.
I Am The Night... Color Me Black.