Yeah, the whole Lena Horne legacy, where all "black" actors are carefully selected for pale de-Africanized facial features has persisted in various forms. I didn't personally mind that the cast in "Heights" was not Afro-Dominican, because I really had no idea what the ethnic mix in Washington Heights was and I was enjoying it for being so multi-generational and about the whole community and not just a couple romantic leads. But I'm aware that my perspective rests on a mountain of ignorance, the type of ignorance which manifested in my youth as think of all "Asians" as a single ethnic category and all "Latinx," the same way. We know there are cultural differences between a Scotsman and an Italian, and that you don't generally don't cast Neapolitan heartthrob Luigi Petrocelli as Highland crofter Angus McTavish. No reason we can't distinguish Dominicans and Chileans and Cubans, etc. The question of casting, for me, is of who is available among those groups, and is some talent being overlooked.
It is permissible however to cast Jude Law as Michael Fassbender. And I'm sure it happens all the time. (Lime's review of "The Light Between Oceans" remains one of the funniest I've ever read, on this matter...)
