This goes not only for white fans but for Asian fans of any media
I’m Filipino, and as an Asian who’s been submerged in enough Hollywood to know, we have been conditioned to be attracted to and like white characters in a way that we have not been with black characters.
The reason I can identify it is that I grew up watching the amazing works of Dwayne McDuffie, the creator of Static Shock (my childhood crush) who made sure that an entire generation grew up with a black Green Lantern with Justice League and JLU. I grew up with black protagonists and black faves and it baffled me when other people couldn’t seem to appreciate black characters the way I did.
It’s about the same as fangirls teaching themselves to like female characters and identify and snuff out their heteronormative internalized misogyny. And yes, even shipping gay characters can be heteronormative if you as a straight woman are disgusted by female characters or female relationships but will happily fetishize two men. It’s not even about being attracted to women or female relationships–simply to actively identify what you like about female characters and female relationships and enjoy them as you would male faves. To make the conscious decision to cut away your own misogyny against female characters.
We have not been conditioned to see black men as leading men, as heartthrobs, as celebrity crushes, as faves. Only recently have we seen a rise in black Hollywood heartthrobs like T’challa from Civil War and the upcoming Black Panther, or in main characters like Finn from Star Wars TFA.
And you as a fan who has been raised in racism and colorism need to make the active effort to look at these characters, who are identical to your usual faves in every way except they’re not white, and make the active decision to say “this character is beautiful and I want to see more content for them” and then follow through with it
And when you’ve done that enough, it’ll become second nature. It’s not something you can force, or need to. All you have to do is understand and remove your own hypocrisy and racism, and appreciate black leads and black faves as a fandom.
The truth is, even Black people often have to deprogram from years of white superiority indoctrination. So for white people to say race has nothing to do with nothing and they don’t have to make an effort because of their voting record or whatever is absurd.
Making a conscious choice to not be antiblack is considered “eating your vegetables,” ie a dreaded chore you have to do before being rewarded with a delicious all white dessert. So like even when fans commit to it, there’s a chance they would rather be doing something else.