[fidelis]

“It was certainly uncommon for me when I was reading those science fiction books when I was a kid to encounter heroes who looked like me,” Burton said. “Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future was one that embraced me. That vision where people have resolved all of our issues of race and class and sex and economy."

You know, this kind of talk always rubs me the wrong way. My heritage is Mexican and I look it. But being born and raised in this country (as was my father and his parents), I never felt like my heroes had to look like me (or vice versa). I read the same books, watched the same Westerns and Sci-Fi and super-hero TV shows, and idolized the same Rock stars as everyone else and never once thought, "Gee, it should would be something if some of these heroes looked like me!" The thought never entered my mind.

[Rebel_Ace]

"You know, this kind of talk always rubs me the wrong way..."

Me too, although I am about as "Wonder White Bread" as you can get. But my experience was something like this:

I read Issac Asimov's I, ROBOT short stories as a kid. The "central" character throughout the stories was Dr. Susan Calvin. She was described in terms that we today would call "Plain and Nerdy". I didn't stop reading the Robot books because, "Oh, Darn! The protagonist is not a White Male."

Other favorite SF stories features beings that weren't even HUMAN for the sake of Pete!