But what I mean is there is no need to pull racism into the metaphor.
It’s not a metaphor, it’s an allegory! I’m sure it wasn’t intended as such, but there it is. You want to include a black guy, but not too black, and he isn’t. And let’s be real, you’re selling to a white audience, so the protagonist is the white guy.
So the logic of the thing is inexorable, however oblique.