Aren't there SAG rules making it near mandatory now that except in exceptional circumstances characters be played by the same racial type? I believe the stunt person union has something (I seem to recall a settlement over some movie that used a white stunt man in makeup to double a black actor).
I don't think it is necessarily a big deal, though it can be distracting. I was always annoyed that most of the Koreans on MASH were actually Japanese (and in many 1940s war movies Japanese characters were frequently Chinese). Considering how Koreans view the Japanese (on average, not well) I had a Korean friend in college who found it very insulting.
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